Twitter
Facebook
Reddit
Digg
Tell us what you think!Send a letter to the editor about this or any other article in The Maine Campus.
I’m sick of the Yankees spending $150 million on player after player. I’m sick of hearing how the $250 million dollar man Alex Rodriguez deserved the cash, I’m sick of hearing if the Texas Rangers didn’t pay for him somebody else would have. I’m even sick, all biases aside, of hearing how Manny Ramirez didn’t sign with the Red Sox because of the money, but as a Sox fan I’m definitely glad he did. Things have to change in baseball.
The only teams in baseball, besides the Cinderella teams that arise each year, that can compete are the large market teams. These teams can put up $90 million payrolls year in and year out. This wouldn’t be a problem if most of these teams could put up the cash, but the fact of the matter is there are a small handful of owners who can afford this elaborate spending. The Yankees, Red Sox, Braves and Mets are among the teams heading the pack year in and year out as far as total payroll is concerned, and it makes sense that these are the teams that are headed to the playoffs year after year.
The small market teams such as the Minnesota Twins, Milwaukee Brewers and Montreal Expos, have no chance of winning a World Series, they don’t have the expenditures to go out and get big name free agents, let alone hold onto their own star players. These teams strive to be a .500 team every year.
This is the reason we see the same teams in the playoffs year in and year out and something needs to be done.
The labor agreement between the players and the owners that was reached to end the strike of 1994 is coming upon us again at the end of the season. Unlike in the NFL and the NBA there is no salary cap or revenue sharing in Major League Baseball that would create a more equal playing field. Major league owners are allowed to spend however much they would like or as little as possible.
Each team gets a portion of its money from local television and radio stations that broadcast the games. This money varies based on how much the stations are willing to pay. In the NBA and NFL each team gets a share of the money that comes from the three major networks that cover all of the games. Ticket sales and concessions are other aspects that make up each teams revenue, the NFL and NBA have systems where the revenue is shared throughout the league so it makes for a financially-balanced league.
For baseball to become more competitive in small market cities, it’s going to have to either have a big network come in and buy the television rights for the games or develop a way to have the rich teams give to the poor teams. This was one of the major issues that caused the 1994 strike to be such a long seemingly endless work stoppage.
Baseball has worked hard since then to regain the trust of the fans that they lost during the strike. Cal Ripken would sign autographs three hours after a game and Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa hit home run after home run to get people watching again.
If something is not solved by the end of the season to make a more level playing field and more competition for smaller market teams, there could be another work stoppage after the season. Interleague play, no long delays while pitching and higher strike zones have attempted to make baseball more watchable.
With all of the minor adjustments that have been made to the game to make baseball more exciting, what happens after this season could make all of those rules inconsequential if fans of a small market team don’t get to see their team compete. And if nothing changes, it’s going to take a lot more than another friendly Cal Ripken Jr. or Pedro Martinez pitching amazing games, its going to take a little equality.
Bangor Daily News