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The fact that Alex Rodriguez will be the New York Yankees' starting third baseman on Opening Day says volumes about the disparity between Major League Baseball haves and have nots.

But the two guys who won't be -- Aaron Boone and Drew Henson -- say volumes more.

The Yankees' situation at third base this offseason is like the experience of a guy whose Lincoln Town Car blows a transmission, then his Cadillac turns out to be a lemon. So he runs out and buys a Ferrari.

Trouble is, that's a little extravagant when most of the neighbors have to scrape to make the payments on their Yugos.

Nothing short of an NFL-style arrangement, with everything except the gate receipts being split equally between all the teams and a hard salary cap, will fix what's wrong with baseball. But any attempt to pull that off would be short-circuited by players and large-market owners who blame those running the small-market teams for causing most of their own problems.

And that's true to a point, but it's not as if George Steinbrenner, Brian Cashman, and Joe Torre don't drop the occasional clinker. And it's not as if even the Yankees don't experience some bad luck.

The latter came in January, when Boone blew out a knee in a pickup basketball game. The former followed that right up, when Henson, who only a year ago was supposed to be the Yanks' third-bagger of the future, wasn't even considered as a replacement.

Henson has since decided to get on with his life's work, which apparently involves football in one form or another.

But only the Yankees can lose their starter to an injury, give up on a player in whom they have invested millions of dollars, and still go out and get the highest-paid player in baseball.

Witness exhibit B: the Pittsburgh Pirates.

To be sure, the Pirates have pulled some signing boners during the last few years.

Ignoring Hall-of-Famer Ralph Kiner's admonition that, "Cadillacs are down on the end of the bat," meaning the big money is in hitting homeruns, the Pirates gave Cadillac money to an admittedly very good Chevy hitter in Jason Kendall.

Then they threw money at Kevin Young, Derek Bell, and Pat Mears. In a league where the top homerun hitters average more than 45 a season, Young was a 28-a-year man at his best -- which doesn't rate Cadillac paychecks, just to torture the automobile metaphor.

Meares was damaged goods and Bell was past his sell-by date when the Pirates signed them. Toward the end of his tenure with the Pirates, Bell became disgruntled and threatened to go into "Operation Shutdown."

As if anyone would have noticed.

The difference is, when Cashman, the Yankees' general manager, makes a mistake, Steinbrenner writes a check and it goes away. Or in Henson's case, it just goes and plays football.

Since the Pirates can't afford to do that, they have to carry the dead weight on their roster, in constant view of the beat writers.

And because the Yankees can afford to keep all the talent -- like Derek Jeter -- that comes up through their minor league system, and upgrade with an Alex Rodriguez when they run into some bad luck, field manager Torre looks brilliant. Wonder how he would do if his lineup card had to include names like Jose Hernandez and Abraham Nunez every day?

In a 1999 interview, I asked Steve Greenberg, then the Pirates director of new stadium development, if the then-unnamed PNC Park would enable the team to contend for a playoff berth, given Major League Baseball's inability to equitably divvy up a multi-billion-dollar annual windfall.

He estimated that, by the middle of the next decade, the new stadium would be able to help Pittsburgh carry a $45 to $50 million payroll, which he expected to be good enough.

I didn't believe him, and wrote as much in editorials at the time.

Not to gloat, but guess which one of us turned out to be right.

Actually, there wasn't a single correct assumption in Greenberg's statement. This year, which is roughly the middle of the decade, Pittsburgh's payroll will be around $35 million -- slightly more than the left side of the Yankees' infield -- thanks to last year's bloodletting, which sent Brian Giles, Kenny Lofton, and Aramis Ramirez packing.

At the same time, a $50 million payroll would still leave the Pirates well short of playoff atmosphere. And the Yankees' $184 million payroll is just out of sight from there.

Let's be certain about one thing -- the Yankees' brain trust aren't geniuses. They just have the bankroll and the wherewithal to outspend their mistakes and their bad luck.

The A-Rod trade -- and, more pointedly, the events that made the deal necessary for the Yanks -- indicate that more clearly than ever.

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