Spring is in the air. The smell of fresh cut grass, pollen, and everything else that makes me sneeze is all around. Seeing the leaves turn green also lets us know it's time for baseball season to kick off. There's only one problem: I dont like baseball.
Let me clarify. I actually do like the game of baseball itself. It's MLB that I don't like. No salary cap and a 162 game season make MLB baseball practically unwatchable for me. I keep my eye on the Reds and even go to a game every now and then, but thats more out of fun than it is a love for the game. So help me out...
- Help me like a sport where one player can make $33 million per year (A Rod), while one team only pays their entire roster a combined $35 million (Pittsburgh Pirates).
- Help me like a sport where a team could lose 15 games in a row and still be in playoff contention.
In the NBA and NFL, a team can draft a great player and then build a team around him. In the MLB, a team can develop a young player into a superstar only to find themselves unable to write a paycheck big enough to keep him. It's as if there's a farm system within the league itself. A player will develop and fine tune his skills with a team like the Reds or Brewers, then the big money teams from Boston and New York roll through and sweep them away with their bottomless pit they call a bank account.
The thing I love most about football (especially college football) is that every game matters. In college football, the entire season is basically a tournament because one loss can essentially knock you out of a chance to play for the title. With a 162 game season, a team could lose 5 games in a row and not blink an eye. If your favorite football team loses 5 in a row, you'll likely find the head coach sitting at the local unemployment office come seasons end. (Note: The NBA season is WAY too long too, but that's another story itself.)
With such a long and drawn out season, the only enabler of a good baseball story is the lack of the salary cap - Why? Because it creates the perfect David vs. Goliath story. Can the little man achieve success through hard work and dedication - and not money. Recently, the Tampa Bay Rays reached the World Series for the first time with the third lowest payroll in the league. The year before, a very low-budget Colorado Rockies won the NL pennant. The problem is not cap, its management. Superior management can still trump big piles of cash. Teams fail because of their own stupidity and bad transactions...e.g. the Red's recent several years.
ReplyDeleteI actually think the length of the season is a bigger problem than no salary cap.
ReplyDeleteYou're right, almost every year there's a small budget team in the playoff picture. But it just doesn't happen enough to catch my interest, personally.
Baseball has always been a game of numbers. The numbers (stats) are just as important/entertaining to most diehard fans as the playoff picture. This is b/c baseball is the perfect combination of team and individual performance. It's the only sport where you work as a team on
ReplyDeletedefense, but are mostly left up on offense to contribute a solely individual performance. I agree that the season is long, but it would be hard to change the # of games b/c that is the benchmark that has created the significant numbers of our nation's past-time...The real problem is the degradation of the steroid era because it has corrupted the numbers. The game is not significant anymore b/c the numbers have become a joke (e.g. B Bonds). How entertaining was Sosa v. McGwire before we knew the truth. It was such a great season, b/c it was all about the numbers. Now the numbers are meaningless... And that is the true problem of the game. How do you fix that? No clue.
By steriod era numbers I guess you're talking about offense. Let's not forget that 'roids were/are not just a hitting thing. As many pitchers used performance enhancers as did hitters. Nolan Ryan (who has been linked to steroids...by me) was the only late '70s, early '80s guy to hit 100 mph. From the late '80s on, every team had a least one guy hitting triple digits. And performance enhancers have been in baseball (and all sports) for a long, long time. They still are. Football players running a 4.5 40 at 275 pounds? Yeah, that's all natural. Personally, I see no problem with professional athletes using HGH and steroids. If they are willing to kill themsleves for my entertainment then more power to them. I don't want to go back to the skinny shortstop and boney second basemen days. I want my middle infielders to be able to hit the ball out of the infield. Oh, and don't forget that owners re-made the baseball so Babe Ruth could hit it further. The mound was lowered so others that followed could hit it like the Babe. Stadiums were made smaller. The numbers are what they are. Don't let the ESPN weenies (John Kruk aside) ruin your view of the game. And if anybody can score some, I'd love to juice Aaron Harang up some. Dude needs enhancers.
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