Little Stein Just Wants People To Acknowledge The Unfairness Of It All

It just really isn't fair, and Hank Steinbrenner wants everyone to know it. Just take a look at the standings, everyone. The Yankees will finish with more wins than the Dodgers this season, yet the Dodgers are going to the playoffs, and the Yankees aren't! Oh, the horrid inequity of it all. In an article he penned for the Sporting News which will be unleashed on the public next week, Steinbrenner explains how the Yankees playing in the AL East is not fair, because, you know, there are good teams there.

The biggest problem is the divisional setup in Major League Baseball," Steinbrenner wrote. "I didn't like it in the 1970s, and I hate it now. Baseball went to a multi-division setup to create more races, rivalries and excitement. But it isn't fair. "You see it this season, with plenty of people in the media pointing out that Joe Torre and the Dodgers are going to the playoffs while we're not. This is by no means a knock on Torre — let me make that clear — but look at the division they're in. If L.A. were in the AL East, it wouldn't be in the playoff discussion. The AL East is never weak."

Steinbrenner then had a go at the 2006 Cardinals, who beat the Tigers in the World Series after finishing the regular season with an 83-78 record.

"St. Louis winning the World Series — that was ridiculous," Steinbrenner said. "The Cardinals won their division with 83 wins — two fewer than the Phillies, who missed the postseason. People will say the Cardinals were the best team because they won the World Series. Well, no, they weren't. They just got hot at the right time. They didn't even belong in the playoffs. And neither does a team from the NL West this season."

Also totally, patently unacceptable: • When you put a dollar in the Coke machine and don't get a Coke. • He's been adding up the value of all of their Christmas presents since childhood, and Hal is $28.55 ahead. • There are more Red Sox jerseys buried beneath our new stadium, I can feel it! Tear up all the floors! Tear them up! I've always considered George Steinbrenner an eccentric oddity; what one might call, in a moment of generosity, colorful. Hank, on the other hand, is just a pain in the ass. I suspect that his ultimate demise will come in Willy Wonka's Nut Sorting Room, engulfed in squirrels. Steinbrenner Questions Divisional Setup [MLB.com]