Thursday, July 21, 2005

Baseball: Only major sport without salary cap

The NHL just made a deal that includes a salary cap. The NBA has had a salary cap for years. Ditto for the NFL.

That leaves Major League Baseball as the only sport without one.

The other sports realized that you need it in order for things to be fair. Different sized cities bring in different revenues, so in order to not have one team dominating for many years, you level the playing field. In basketball, there's no way San Antonio sniffs the Finals without a salary cap. Otherwise, Tim Duncan is a Knick, and it's the Knicks against the Lakers every year.

But there's no need to beat a dead horse. We all know how the Junkees buy themselves a playoff spot every year. The owners wanted a salary cap in 2002, but did not want a strike after 9/11, so now with the CBA expiring in 2006, let's hope the owners of the Devil Rays, Pirates, Blue Jays, and all the other small-market teams all converge and do what they have to do.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Baseball contracts get more out of control every year. Even as an ardent fan of a "rich" team (Boston), I've seen the need for a salary cap for years. It gets very boring watching the same teams contend every year...watching the Devil Rays continue to not matter and Toronto settle for being the spoiler in the AL East. (That Baltimore is hanging in so well is a refreshing change.) The Yankees have owned the AL East for years and even with Boston's recent success, I'm sure baseball fans everywhere else are bored seeing either the Yankees or the Sox (or both) make it into the postseason every year.

There needs to be a change. Baseball as a whole will benefit from a more equal playing field...the competition will be much stiffer which will make for tighter division races and more interesting games. Really, I think it's a no-brainer.

Anonymous said...

But if there were a salary cap, you couldn't see the Yankees suck on a $200M payroll.

Anonymous said...

Like tonight: a 5-2 lead is nothing a no-out grandslam can't cure.

Anonymous said...

I would love to see a cap I wonder how it would begin when you figure some of the higher teams now how long would they be given to get under the cap?EG. Yanks are at say 250mill. when owners apprpove a cap of 150mill. How would it work?