- The New York Yankees are the most valuable franchise in Major League Baseball.
- According to a report from Sports Illustrated, the team does not cover in-flight wifi for players.
The New York Yankees are the most valuable franchise in Major League Baseball, with an estimated value of $6 billion according to Forbes.
But even a franchise as rich as the Yankees has to find some pennies in the cushions from time to time. One place the pinstripes apparently leave their players to fend for themselves is in-flight wifi.
According to a report from Stephanie Apstein at Sports Illustrated, the Yankees do not provide complimentary wifi to players on their team plane.
This is hilarious.
The Yankees charter with Delta, which charges $9 a pop for in-flight wifi. Per Apstein, covering the entire team's in-flight wifi for the year would cost the Yankees around $40,000.
For Aaron Judge, who the Yankees just signed to a $360 million contract this off-season, the lack of complimentary wifi is apparently not an issue.
Per Apstein:
"I've got T-Mobile," said right fielder Aaron Judge, who is coincidentally a spokesman for that company. T-Mobile offers customers free Wi-Fi on Delta flights. Judge added that the Wi-Fi question did not factor into his decision to consider switching teams in free agency, because "I've got T-Mobile, so I don't have to worry about it."
But for Judge's teammates who are not paid spokesmen for the mobile carrier, in-flight wifi is a $9 decision every time they're in the air.
For players that don't pay for it, it's a matter of principle.
Reliever Lou Trivino compared it to Zack Greinke's frustrations with guacamole.
"It's not about the guacamole itself," Greinke said in 2009 after the price of guac shot up 30 cents at his local burrito joint. "I just don't want to let them win."
"You know Zack Greinke, when he talks about guacamole?" Trivino told Apstein. "It went up 25 cents, and he won't pay for it. [I'm the same.] On principle, I'm not paying the 25 cents for guacamole."
General manager Brian Cashman had little sympathy.
"I think most of our players can afford it," Cashman told Apstein.
According to the SI report, just one other franchise in baseball, the Cincinnati Reds, didn't regularly provide players with free in-flight wifi.
It's like the scene in "Moneyball" where Brad Pitt convinces another team to stock his locker room's vending machines with soda for three years as part of a trade at the deadline, but the Yankees are the cheap team in the scenario.
Further, maybe Judge could get his team a gift and peel off $40,000 from his new contract to cover the team's potential wifi expenses. Judge recorded 570 at-bats last year. If that number holds in 2023, he'll make more than $70,000 every time he steps up to the plate.
If Judge doesn't feel like paying himself, maybe he can at least connect some of his teammates with T-Mobile. I'm sure he can get them a deal.