Talent's spread thin among baseball's elite
Dave Lomonico
Issue date: 4/24/07 Section: Sports
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Woe to the short-sighted fool. You say baseball is on the ascent, but fans outside of the New York-Boston bubble are clamoring for balance in baseball. And they're pointing their fingers at you, Mr. Selig.
The answer to baseball's problems isn't eliminating steroids, relocating poor franchises, building new stadiums or putting "Extra Innings" on Comcast.
No, the answer to baseball's problems hasn't been uttered since you proposed your best idea more than six years ago. It's time to bring contraction back from the dead (pause for Donald Fehr to regain his pulse).
We all know the result of the first proposal. The Montreal Expos and Minnesota Twins were destined for the same fate as Enron, but the Players Union balked, the courts got involved and the idea was thrown out.
The Expos are in Washington, the Twins are still in Minnesota and we have half the league peddling in mediocrity.
It has been proven -- and the superpower that is the NFL is enough proof -- that parity among franchises is the key to keeping fan interest.
To the spectators, even problems like steroids, crime and post-career concussions can't mar an NFL image that's currently on par with Mr. Clean.
The formula is simple: Keep the game competitive, and all other problems slowly fade away.
Now we all know the popular ideas for competitive balance that have been hashed and rehashed on Internet message boards. But all of those ideas, like the salary cap, entail spreading the talent and the money around to all of the clubs.
That's fine, but the dilemma here isn't just financial equality. It's the fact that retreads like Rodrigo Lopez are still major leaguers.
There are too many "major leaguers" in the game, and not enough with the talent to call themselves such.
Contraction will not only spread around the talent, but it will eliminate the excess. First, cut out the four franchises with the lowest attendance numbers (Florida, Tampa Bay, Kansas City, Pittsburgh), plus the Washington Nationals because they should have never existed in the first place. Then, take the players from these five squads and put them in a draft for the remaining 25 clubs. The team with the lowest payroll picks first, and those who don't get picked are sh*t-outta-luck.
The answer to baseball's problems isn't eliminating steroids, relocating poor franchises, building new stadiums or putting "Extra Innings" on Comcast.
No, the answer to baseball's problems hasn't been uttered since you proposed your best idea more than six years ago. It's time to bring contraction back from the dead (pause for Donald Fehr to regain his pulse).
We all know the result of the first proposal. The Montreal Expos and Minnesota Twins were destined for the same fate as Enron, but the Players Union balked, the courts got involved and the idea was thrown out.
The Expos are in Washington, the Twins are still in Minnesota and we have half the league peddling in mediocrity.
It has been proven -- and the superpower that is the NFL is enough proof -- that parity among franchises is the key to keeping fan interest.
To the spectators, even problems like steroids, crime and post-career concussions can't mar an NFL image that's currently on par with Mr. Clean.
The formula is simple: Keep the game competitive, and all other problems slowly fade away.
Now we all know the popular ideas for competitive balance that have been hashed and rehashed on Internet message boards. But all of those ideas, like the salary cap, entail spreading the talent and the money around to all of the clubs.
That's fine, but the dilemma here isn't just financial equality. It's the fact that retreads like Rodrigo Lopez are still major leaguers.
There are too many "major leaguers" in the game, and not enough with the talent to call themselves such.
Contraction will not only spread around the talent, but it will eliminate the excess. First, cut out the four franchises with the lowest attendance numbers (Florida, Tampa Bay, Kansas City, Pittsburgh), plus the Washington Nationals because they should have never existed in the first place. Then, take the players from these five squads and put them in a draft for the remaining 25 clubs. The team with the lowest payroll picks first, and those who don't get picked are sh*t-outta-luck.
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