When I claimed the Yankees spent less than $100 million on payroll in 2000, I used USA Today's salary database as my source. I'm not quite sure how they figure this out. I'm not sure if it's an Opening Day point-in-time snapshot or if it's an attempt to list every single player the Yankees paid at any time during the season. (David Justice is listed as $7 million on the Indians payroll, but not included on the the Yankees payroll.)
I interpreted it as the Yankees spent $93 million for the entire year. It's quite possible that the Yankees added salary in the second half and the playoff roster actually represented a team payroll of more than $100 million per year. (Who paid David Justice?)
It's also unclear to me how they handle players who shuttle back and forth to Columbus or players who change rosters halway through the season.
So, maybe it was me who was misleading the doting public.
In case you hadn't noticed, I don't personally believe Lupica deserves the benefit of the doubt. I truly believe when he drops a line like that, he is careful with his wording and he is intentionally suggesting that the Yankees vastly oustpent the competition during the '96-'00 run and they often spent over $100 million.
It's really Lupica's use of language that I object to the most. It's a Liar's Language. It's like saying, "The Cubs haven't won the World Series since 1978," which is certainly accurate, but also purposefully misleading.
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