Baseball Talk

It wasn't long ago when baseball and just about ever other professional sport, was about dreams coming through, watching and playing a sport you loved. But the 1990s saw a new phenomenon take over...whether it was in the stock market or sports, prices were going up. Baseball today has ended up in a situation where two or three teams dictate the future with respect to the players they sign, and the prices they charge. The New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox are showing how to go about buying a championship team, even though ironically the Florida Marlins had the last laugh last year.

So are the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox ruining baseball? Many would say yes and there are good reasons to lay the blame on these two teams. But over the last few years you see some pretty boneheaded signings whether the Alex Rodriguez signing by the Texas Rangers or the Kevin Brown deal from a few years before by the Los Angeles Dodgers (Brown of course is now with the New York Yankees). The Yankees though have always set the standard for all MLB teams. They turned baseball into a business way back by building an organization that focused on only one thing - success. They have always bought players (a la Babe Ruth) and the Yankees have set the standard for other baseball teams that wish to compete.

The flip side of the coin reasons that the teams are private entities and if the owners want to blow big bucks on one team, let them go ahead and do that. In many cases the high prices signings never live up to all the hype so if a rich owner wants to blow his/her/their money, let them. Sure, that seems like a reasonable argument. But do the actions of a few owners have a detrimental effect on the rest of the league? The high price signings do increase the average salaries and end up costing the smaller market teams. The last baseball collective bargaining agreement wanted to even out the playing field by adding a 'soft' salary cap but it seems that the likes of George Steinbrenner don't mind paying the 'luxury taxes' and continue to raise the stakes.

The key question now is whether it is possible to have success in Major League Baseball, without having to resort to the high priced free agent signing model made famous by the Yankees? The answer so far seems to be yes. The Florida Marlins proved that you can make astute moves that include young and veteran players to have success. In most likelyhood the Marlins won't be able to hang on to a lot of their players, but they acheived the ultimate goal of a baseball team by winning the World Series. The Oakland A's have shown another model that is more quantitative and focuses on unearthing gems in the minor leagues. The Minnesota Twins have also had success for a small market team and the Toronto Blue Jays are looking to bring the Oakland A's model north of the border to another small market that also faces currency fluctuations.

The problems in baseball aren't necessarily limited to it, though they are probably most prominant in leagues that do not have a real salary cap and revenue sharing. The National Hockey League is probably the other league in big trouble when it comes to disparity amongst teams and the number of hockey teams in financial trouble. Hockey though seems to have its own unique problems including no salary cap, a very regional market, increasing player salaries, dual currencies, and hockey teams that should never have gotten franchises in the first place.

But back to baseball. So what is the best way to fix this great game? How can we fix this growing stigma of out of control steroid use in baseball? The likes of Sammy Sosa, Mark McGwire and Rafael Palmeiro appeared in from of the US Congress to testify on steroid use. Palmeiro even got caught using the stuff last year. So can there be a solution that for once takes into account what the fans want? Are we doomed to face juiced players, continuing higher ticket prices, increasing cable/tv costs and move advertising in our beloved game?