46 years ago, baseball saw the beginning of free agency for MLB players who were without a contract and had six years of experience in the league. Given some of the big names the Yankees acquired over the next three years and given their success over that stretch – after not having been to a World Series since 1964 - the big market, big-spending teams buying their way to success tropes that we still hear today trace their origins to that Yankees dynasty.
Yet anyone who would go beyond just a cursory glance at those great Yankees teams would see that characterization is painted with strokes that are a little too broad, to put it mildly.