Time for a Change in Baseball
By Cromwell Sox Fan
OK, the Red Sox are World Champions (has a nice ring to it) but 2005 is upon us and baseball, except for its newly crowned champion, is still the same old same old. The Yankees are on the verge of acquiring another superstar player for peanuts and nobody says boo. Haven't we seen this act before? How is it exactly that New York will give up less in any revised deal with Arizona than they would have in the 3-way deal with Arizona and the Dodgers? The answer? Bud Selig, the most powerless figurehead in all of sports, is going to allow it to happen.
Now, I realize that as the rules are set up, there really isn't much 'ol Bud can do, but let's be honest - do you really think if David Stern were Commissioner of baseball that 'ol Georgie Steinbrenner would always get his way? And that's the problem in baseball. There is no central base of power to regulate the sport. The result of that is no sense of equality among the 30 teams. No equal playing field (ala the NFL) for teams to have an equal chance at getting the best players. I believe the accountability for this starts in the Commissioner's office. The problem is that Don Fehr and Gene Orza and their precious union are bullies and THEY, not the owners and Commissioner, run the sport. Now, we all know players will always sell their services to the highest bidder so, to their line of thinking, its great to have the 600 lb. gorilla in the Bronx to drive up salaries. If the sport had a Commissioner who truly cared about the future health and viability of the game (a Stern type) I am almost certain he would demand that both players and owners come together in some form to make baseball a competitive sport once again.
I don't accept the argument that since the Yankees haven't won since 2000 there is viable proof that the system as it is now is working. Baloney!! I have a serious problem with a system in which the team with the most money is allowed to rip off the small market teams in trades over and over again. I say that about the Red Sox also, despite being a fan. Allowing the behemoths to dominate is not good for interest in the sport. Baseball wonders why many people stopped caring about the sport in recent years. In my view, the answer is that about 23 of the 30 teams have no realisitc chance at winning a World Series and their fans know it. Why should fans in Cincinnati or Kansas City or Pittsburgh or wherever invest 6 months of their energy in a sport in which their team hasn't even the slightest chance of playing in a World Series? Forget the excuse of late-starting games driving away bigger audiences. The audience has shrunk because no one outside of Boston, New York or Chicago cares because their team was probably out of the pennant race in May. Look at the NFL. That sport seems to be the only one in North America that gets it. That's because the owners and players are in a true partnership where revenue is shared among the owners and the players reap plenty in salary.
The NFL could put their playoff games on at 2:00 in the morning and I guarantee people would still watch. Why? Because the fan sitting in Cincinnati whose Bengals team is out of the playoffs and was eliminated only in the last couple of weeks genuinely cares about how the playoffs turn out. He cares because he knows anything can happen and that his team was so close to being part of it that he watches because he wonders "what if?" and looks forward right then until next season when his Bengals have another realisitc chance at the playoffs. In contrast, do you think a Reds fan chomps at the bit to see the playoffs and World Series after watching his team take a beating all season on the road to 75 wins? Forget it. It doesn't happen and the proof is in the ratings. Some say comparing baseball and NFL ratings is apples and oranges. Darn right they are! Because more people care about the NFL than baseball because the sport has many more competitive teams. Now whether the salary cap in football is solely responsible for this balance can be argued for eternity. But what if it is? So what? Why is this a bad thing?
I take issue with Yankee fans or anyone else who says "well, if these teams could figure out how to produce more money they could spend more." That's an outdated way of thinking. Not all baseball owners are cheapskates who are in the game to simply line their pockets with money. Some, like the guy in Detroit, want to build a great team (how'd the Tigers do this off-season?) but can't pay top dollar because they can't go out and create a YES or NESN TV network. That's the difference between baseball in the 1970-80's and now. Local revenue streams. If they aren't available, what are owners supposed to do? Start them up even if they aren't viable? So these franchises are left with middle-of-the-road talent with nowhere else to turn. It's disgraceful what's happened to a proud franchise such as the Tigers and it's all happened under Selig's watch. But there's nothing that can be done because if you even whisper the idea of a salary cap, half of Washington is at your doorstep. Well, guess what? The concept works in the NFL and NBA and the NHL is willing to destroy its league in order to implement one and move forward in the future. Even with a salary cap there will still be plenty of money for the players. Nobody will be left begging in the streets, which is what Fehr and Orza want you to believe. It’s time for baseball to emerge from the dark ages and get with the program.
I don't propose to have the solution to all of baseball's problems, but I do know that if a neutral party is brought to the sport and given real power that things would change for the better. I would imagine this person would look at the NFL model and say "hey, these guys are making money, there's no threat of strikes or lockouts, maybe they've got something there!" Who that person is I do not know, but it most certainly will not happen as long as Bud Selig is in "power." Why try to evoke change when you do the owner's bidding and are afraid of the union? Instead, we'll continue to be left with situations like the steroid fiasco and Randy Johnson trade scenario in which the Yankees in the end get whatever they want, baseball fans elsewhere be damned.
