Baseball is not always a perfect metaphor for life, but it is a good one for investing.

Good teams know how to find value where others may not see it. Spending gobs of money on expensive players does not always pan out and successful companies do the little things well. There is no better illustration of this than the current sad state of the New York Mets and New York Yankees.

Despite investing more money than the GDP of some small, developing countries on high-priced talent, the New York Mets and New York Yankees are being outperformed by teams from the vast baseball wasteland known as Florida. The pain being felt by New York sports fans pales in comparison to the anguish in the executive offices of Walt Disney Co. (NYSE: DIS)'s ESPN and News Corp. (NYSE: NWS)'s Fox Sports, which spent big bucks tor the rights to broadcast baseball games. I bet ESPN and Fox ad sales representatives would break out in a cold sweat at the thought of an all-Florida World Series.

What's ironic is that the people in Florida don't seem to like baseball. More than 80,000 people showed up to watch the football games of powerhouses University of Florida and Florida State in 2006. Last year, the American League Rays attracted an average of 17,148 fans to their games and the NL Marlins drew 16,919, according to the Baseball Almanac. That's roughly a third of the 52,739 who went to see the Yankees or the 47,579 who went to watch the Mets.

Is the most-storied franchise in baseball history for sale? The New York Times Dealbook speculates that with YES, the Yankee's television network currently up for sale, that the team itself might not be too far behind. Much of the speculation is based on a recent article in Fortune magazine. There are rumors that owner/lunatic George Steinbrenner's health is deteriorating, and he has been less openly crazy than in the past. (Full disclosure: I am a die-hard Red Sox fan, and one of the highlights of my life was watching Jason Varitek stuff his mitt in A-Rod's face.)

According to Fortune:

The topic of a sale "comes up all the time" in conversations with the other partners, says Yanks minority owner Edward Rosenthal, a retired steel executive. Adds another Yankees limited partner: "If I were handicapping it, I think we're looking at a sale of the team within three or four years."

The Yankees are estimated to be worth around $1.5 billion, but with hedge fund/private equity managers lining up to cash out their stakes with IPOs, it seems like it could go for even more -- perhaps a lot more.

Assuming The Boss's health is OK, that still raises the question: How much longer before he gets sick of losing?