So my team—and I really have been an everyday fan for 35 years—has made it to the World Series. Probably I would do well to keep from divulging which team it is, lest your own preferences cause you to lose perspective—for that is what these words are about.

In the days following the close of the regular season, I was curious to read the news that the St. Louis Cardinals were considering another contract extension for manager Tony LaRussa. If you’ve ever read George Will’s classic, Men at Work, you find it hard not to possess a higher-than-normal degree of appreciation for LaRussa.

No so with Cardinals fans.

The comments following a particular online article were numerous, nearly all from Cardinals faithful, and nearly all in favor of sending old Tony on his way. I say “old Tony” because that was the most common sentiment—that LaRussa’s best days are behind him.

During game two of the World Series, as the Phillies’ Ace, Cliff Lee, was tying up the Yankees, I started working on a spreadsheet. It’s something I do when frustrated, since I can control the numbers better than I can A-Rod’s swing. Anyway, I pulled baseball numbers from all over the place, finding team values, payrolls, and revenue per team. As I played with the numbers and thought about the ever present “Yankees buy a World Series” allegations that are all the rage at this time of the year, I was a little surprised.

It’s true, their $201 million total salary expense is higher than any other team in baseball, with second place to the woeful Mets, who spent $149 million for  . . . well, only God knows why the Mets spent that much money on a team that finished 33 games behind the first place Yankees, and He’s not commenting. Third place in the salary ranking would fall to the Chicago Cubs, who spent $134 million for a losing season and the extension of their major league record 101 years of “wait until next year,” having won their last World Series in 1908. Yes, 1908, the year oil was discovered in the Middle East and Henry Ford produced his first Model T.