The Yankees love old people.

On the heals of their 4 year, $52.4 million agreement with 36 year old Catcher Jorge Posada, the Yankees have offered Closer Mariano Rivera a 3 year, $45 million contract. The deal would make Rivera the highest paid reliever in baseball by $4 million. An amount that could net 2-3 serviceable middle relievers.

"To say that's a strong offer would be an understatement," said Hank Steinbrenner. Referring to Rivera and his agent Fernando Cuza, Steinbrenner also said, "The ball's in their court. If they still want to look for more somewhere else, that's up to them." The Yankees also have a 1 year, $16 million deal on the table for Andy Petite, which is pending on his desire to play vs. his desire to retire. Mariano is 38 and Pettitte is 35.

I know, Yankee fan and observers will say that a lot of the Mariano and Posada money is due to their last 10+ years of service for the team, and it's owed to them. Soooooo, is a gold watch part of the deal as well? I understand how important those two....more so Mariano....were to the championship teams of the late 90's and the contending teams over the past 7 years. But here's a thought, how about not overpaying broken down and overrated players for the last 10 years. The genius that is Brian Cashman overlooked his team's cornerstones and decided to give piles of money to the likes of Kevin Brown, Sterling Hitchcock, Carl Pavano, etc, etc.

You know that team in your adult basketball league, the one that is filled with former HS and college basketball players, that had too much fun dominating the average fat white guy. Then overnight they became fat, old guys who get winded midway through the 1st quarter and end up giving up on defense, and cherry pick by staying on the offensive end of the floor, depending on that one young kid that finds there way onto their team. At the end of each game they compliment the younger opponent followed by a story that begins with, "back in my day." Well, this is your 2008 NY Yankees.