Daily Dose: April 1 - no excuses Sox, Cubs

It's April Fool's Day, but there's no joke here - even though many Chicago baseball fans won't believe it.

here are the top 8 teams payroll in 2008:

1. New York Yankees - $209.1 million
2. Detroit Tigers - $138.7
3. New York Mets - $138.3
4. Boston Red Sox - $133.4
5. Chicago White Sox - $121.2
6. Los Angeles Angels - $119.2
7. Chicago Cubs - $118.6
8. Los Angeles Dodgers - $118.5

* Payroll figures don't include cash transactions between clubs.
Figures included salaries and prorated shares of signing bonuses and
other guaranteed income, and for some players, deferred money was
discounted to present-day value.

That's right folks - so put away all the bellyaching about Reinsdorf or the Tribune Co./Sam Zell not spending money, and "We're in Chicago, why can't we spend like teams in New York or LA?" because, guess what, they are.

Only difference is, those teams spend their millions on guys like Johan Santana, David Ortiz, Manny Ramirez, Torii Hunter, Miguel Cabrera, Alex Rodriguez, Josh Beckett, Gary Sheffield, Mariano Rivera, Jeremy Bonderman, Jorge Posada, Vlad Guerrero, Pedro Martinez, Magglio Ordonez, David Wright and Carlos Beltran.

I'd say, oh, 10 of those guys will be Hall of Famers.

The Sox and Cubs? Only the Dodgers have bungled their dollars as bad as the hometown heroes...hello Juan Uribe, Jason Marquis, Jermaine Dye, Ted Lilly, Jose Contreras, Octavio Dotel and Kerry Wood.

Well, at least fans can say both of those teams were in the top third in baseball in something.