Loverro: Business as usual for baseball's bully

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By Thom Loverro

Years ago, the saying about Yankees fans was that rooting for the New York Yankees was like rooting for U.S. Steel.

Let's modernize it a bit: Rooting for the 2009 World Series champion New York Yankees is like rooting for AIG.

The Yankees are the perfect symbol for the times - bloated excess.

While the federal government was bailing out AIG, the Yankees were charging thousands of dollars for the best tickets in a new $1.6 billion ballpark paid for in part with public funding and tax breaks.

There is some symmetry to that - the Yankees have spent about $1.6 billion since they last won a World Series in 2000.

So by all means, throw a ticker-tape parade for them Friday to celebrate their World Series victory over the Philadelphia Phillies. The parade will take place in the so-called Canyon of Heroes in lower Manhattan, not far from Wall Street. Maybe they could shower the triumphant Yankees with bailout money.

Will admitted performance-enhancing drug users A-Rod and Andy Pettitte ride in performance-enhanced vehicles? A little STP in the tank in honor of the heroes?

Heroes, indeed.

The lineup of the banks receiving AIG payouts - Societe Generale, $ 11 billion; Deutsche Bank, $5.4 billion; Goldman Sachs, $8.1 billion - reads sort of like a Yankees lineup card.

Alex Rodriguez, $33 million. Derek Jeter, $21.6 million. Mark Teixeira, $20.6 million.