Wednesday, September 26, 2007
David vs Goliath
In the story of David vs Goliath, the ultimate underdog story, David wins. It makes everyone feel better about themselves. David winning doesn't seem to be the case in Major League Baseball though. Over the last 7 years, guess how many small market teams there have been in the World Series. Two, the Marlins and the Diamondbacks who both won their respective World Series. Out of 14 teams, though, 12 of them are considered "big market" teams. Now what I would consider to be a big market team (since there is no true definition) is a team that has a salary over $80 million. That leaves about 15 "small market" teams and 2 of those are only by hundreds of dollars. The highest salary team, the New York Yankees, has one player, Alex Rodriguez (making over $27 million), who is paid more than the entire Tampa Bay Devil Rays team put together (salary of a little over $24 million). The Yankees also have two more players who make only 3 million less than the Devil Rays are making (Jason Giambi at $23.4 million and Derek Jeter at $21.6 million). Now a lot of people say that spending doesn't translate into wins, but out of the big market teams, 12 of them were in playoff contention into the last month of the season. The only ones not were the White Sox, the Giants, and the Astros. Right now, 6 of them look to be making it into the playoffs out of 8 spots. On the flip side, only 5 small market teams were in playoff contention into the last month of the season. Only two of those will for sure make it, the Indians and one (maybe two) of the Diamondbacks, the Padres, and the Rockies. Looking at the standings, it seems as though spending money makes the playoffs. Case in point, the New York Yankees have had the highest salary for years and they haven't missed a playoff in at least 12 years now going on 13. I'm not saying I like the whole buying players to win a championship idea. Not by a long shot. The only thing is though is that it seems to be working. Is it ethically right for teams who have more media coverage and more chances to make money to completely use that to their advantage? No, but Goliath seems to win a whole lot more fights in the Major Leagues.
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This is an argument that has been going on for while. In my opinion I dont think it is fair that teams can spend millions upon millions to get players, when other teams just dont have the money. Sometimes its not there fought they dont have the money. There are plenty of cities out there that just dont care and it hurts the team. So in that case it hurts the team becasue they arent getting the fan base from their cities. It gets annoying when "The Boss"(owner of the yankees) just gets who he wants. It takes away the fun and the parity of the game. So in my opinion I beleive that there should be a salary cap. Now i know the owners and players will never go for it but thats the only way to get this the right way. The NFL does it to perfection and shows why it's the best pro sport in the country.
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