Congrats Yankees fans! I’m really happy you won your 27th championship. You’ve got a great franchise there that has dominated like no other franchise in the world of sport. But then if you hadn’t, you could be called the greatest bust in the history of sport. Because nobody else can field the players you can, right? So it just makes sense for you to win every championship. Oh, you don’t win every championship? Ah. Well, too bad for you. I don’t see why not.
Until MLB does some restructuring (learns a lesson from the NFL) they’ve lost me as a fan. I tried, really I did. I grew up a Braves fan, enjoyed many years of Braves success, and then watched as a corporation (Liberty Media) bought my beloved team (as a tax write-off) and commenced its disarmament. That’s one way the NFL is superior to baseball: only individuals can own NFL teams. But of course, the main way the NFL is better is simply in the way they’re structured. Small-market teams can compete. Green Bay and (God willing) New Orleans can win championships, same as New York and Boston.
Is the NFL perfect? Of course not. In this age sport is as much a business as manufacturing. It’s hard to hold on to good players once the team has proven itself to be championship caliber. Great players are snapped up by free agency, leaving the teams that gave them their shot and made them great. It’s disappointing to us, as fans, to see that happen year after year. But it’s still better than baseball. In the NFL a great player has the potential to go anywhere, to any team. God forbid an MLB team have a good pitcher or hitter, because they’ll jump ship to the big market as soon as they get the chance. And I know it’s not entirely the fault of the owners. The MLBPA has as much blame as anyone for the shape baseball is in. The last thing the players want is a salary cap, even though that’s probably what the sport needs most.
But the NFLPA isn’t faultless, and I can prove that with just one word: Holdouts. Especially when the holdout is an unproven rookie who’s whining because they only got a two-year $18 million contract instead of the $25 million they feel they deserve. In that regard, the NFLPA should enforce a salary cap on draftees as well as teams. Let the proven players get the big bucks, let the rooks prove their worth. And if the commish was really has hard-nosed as everyone believes he is, he’d lay down the law on holdouts–if you signed the contract and then decide you’re not going to play for reasons of a contract dispute, then you are out of football. Go play in the Canadian league or something. That would cure that problem in an instant. There wouldn’t be any more holdouts.
This is the first year since 1984 that I haven’t watched a single MLB game. And to tell the truth, I’m proud of that fact. My viewership may not be a high priority for the MLB, but I’m a member of a growing audience of non-Yankee/Boston fans who are sick of baseball. Attendance is down across the board this year, which the MLB commish blames on the economy, but I’m hoping it’s more serious than that. Honestly, I can’t really understand why attendance would rise at all, given the state of the game, and unless you’re a big-market team.
But it really doesn’t matter to me. It was refreshing this year not to have to suffer through another lackluster (numbing) MLB season. I guess if fans really want a mediocre sport, where only large market teams have a chance to compete, then they can have it. For me, I’ll shun the MLB and give my money to the NFL.
Note: now that I’ve written this I’ve considered the fact that a small-market team went to the WS last year (Rays). They did lose to a large-market team in Philly, and were dismantled in the offseason with their best players snapped up by Boston, New York and other large-market teams. They did sign a few Methuselahs like Pat Burrell. So I do recognize that it happens. Occasionally. And arguments can be made that the attendance of the Rays in the year after losing the WS was bad, like the Marlins was both times they won the WS, but that argument doesn’t hold water because those teams were dismantled in the off season. The big market teams do not dismantle after a World Series.
Do us all a favor, baseball, and go back on strike [MLB]
Congrats Yankees fans! I’m really happy you won your 27th championship. You’ve got a great franchise there that has dominated like no other franchise in the world of sport. But then if you hadn’t, you could be called the greatest bust in the history of sport. Because nobody else can field the players you can, right? So it just makes sense for you to win every championship. Oh, you don’t win every championship? Ah. Well, too bad for you. I don’t see why not.
Until MLB does some restructuring (learns a lesson from the NFL) they’ve lost me as a fan. I tried, really I did. I grew up a Braves fan, enjoyed many years of Braves success, and then watched as a corporation (Liberty Media) bought my beloved team (as a tax write-off) and commenced its disarmament. That’s one way the NFL is superior to baseball: only individuals can own NFL teams. But of course, the main way the NFL is better is simply in the way they’re structured. Small-market teams can compete. Green Bay and (God willing) New Orleans can win championships, same as New York and Boston.
Is the NFL perfect? Of course not. In this age sport is as much a business as manufacturing. It’s hard to hold on to good players once the team has proven itself to be championship caliber. Great players are snapped up by free agency, leaving the teams that gave them their shot and made them great. It’s disappointing to us, as fans, to see that happen year after year. But it’s still better than baseball. In the NFL a great player has the potential to go anywhere, to any team. God forbid an MLB team have a good pitcher or hitter, because they’ll jump ship to the big market as soon as they get the chance. And I know it’s not entirely the fault of the owners. The MLBPA has as much blame as anyone for the shape baseball is in. The last thing the players want is a salary cap, even though that’s probably what the sport needs most.
But the NFLPA isn’t faultless, and I can prove that with just one word: Holdouts. Especially when the holdout is an unproven rookie who’s whining because they only got a two-year $18 million contract instead of the $25 million they feel they deserve. In that regard, the NFLPA should enforce a salary cap on draftees as well as teams. Let the proven players get the big bucks, let the rooks prove their worth. And if the commish was really has hard-nosed as everyone believes he is, he’d lay down the law on holdouts–if you signed the contract and then decide you’re not going to play for reasons of a contract dispute, then you are out of football. Go play in the Canadian league or something. That would cure that problem in an instant. There wouldn’t be any more holdouts.
This is the first year since 1984 that I haven’t watched a single MLB game. And to tell the truth, I’m proud of that fact. My viewership may not be a high priority for the MLB, but I’m a member of a growing audience of non-Yankee/Boston fans who are sick of baseball. Attendance is down across the board this year, which the MLB commish blames on the economy, but I’m hoping it’s more serious than that. Honestly, I can’t really understand why attendance would rise at all, given the state of the game, and unless you’re a big-market team.
But it really doesn’t matter to me. It was refreshing this year not to have to suffer through another lackluster (numbing) MLB season. I guess if fans really want a mediocre sport, where only large market teams have a chance to compete, then they can have it. For me, I’ll shun the MLB and give my money to the NFL.
Note: now that I’ve written this I’ve considered the fact that a small-market team went to the WS last year (Rays). They did lose to a large-market team in Philly, and were dismantled in the offseason with their best players snapped up by Boston, New York and other large-market teams. They did sign a few Methuselahs like Pat Burrell. So I do recognize that it happens. Occasionally. And arguments can be made that the attendance of the Rays in the year after losing the WS was bad, like the Marlins was both times they won the WS, but that argument doesn’t hold water because those teams were dismantled in the off season. The big market teams do not dismantle after a World Series.