No Direction Home

It is perhaps appropriate as the days creep off the schedule to look at where this game is headed.
What direction is the game of baseball taking, as we near the end of this decade, one that for the most part will be remembered for PED, lying to Congress, and the vast disparity in spending by major league teams.
Back in the 1990's, the game had some of the same stars it had in this past decade, but we were mindless to the drug abuse, and if yours was a team spending the money, then you were blind to the growing split of haves and have nots.
Also, the ball was as juiced as the players were. I don't think of it quite that way, because to me, most teams have the ability to spend more, they just refuse to. Or they blame the Yankees, Red Sox, Angels, Cubs, and Dodgers for inflating player salaries to the point they cannot compete.

To that I say...balderdash, and poppycock. I realize that I needed to tone down the language but if you step in something, and it smells like poop, you get my drift. Horsebleep......

If the Pittsburgh Pirates or the Oakland Athletics, or the San Diego Padres, or Florida Marlins wanted to spend $ 10 million per season on any player, they could. I mean they do not seem to have a problem cashing in any equity cheques and they all have stadiums that are not filled to capacity, so they could be drawing more fans, and hence making more money, they either choose not to, or have very stupid, short sighted management. I concede that the latter may be true here and there, but it's a case of they don't need to.

Whenever the topic of as salary cap in baseball comes up, and I mean a real one, not this $ 150 million or whatever ridiculously high amount set by MLB is, but a realistic one, say $ 90 million, or 75 million, but with no kickbacks to the neardowells , the bottom feeders, the millionaires and pseudo billionaires that own teams. A cap with a floor, or base amount, not $ 20 million, or something too low, say $ 40/$ 45 million, something to cause teams and owners to say hey, maybe we should worry more about the product on the field, and to avoid the massive yard sale the Florida Marlins seem to pull off, especially the season after they win a World Series.
To get back to the topic at hand, where the heck is baseball heading, more of the same, or a directional shift. Well, l since we still have Bud Selig what I would suggest is a few more years of the same approach, Bud does not want to rearrange divisions, abandon interleague play, tinker with the cap or luxury tax, or much of anything. He believes he's nearing the end of his tenure, and other than postulating about whether he wants to pardon Pete Rose, he is quite literally done, and leave it to the next guy.

What direction ? well the same one we are on, at least until the next Commissioner comes in, and maybe a different approach.

If it was me, here are the top 5 things I would do.

# 1 - Drop interleague play , it only seems to be for the Mets/Yanks, the Chi Sox/Cubs anyway.
# 2 - Hard cap of $ 100 million, but a hard floor of $ 50 million, you're in or out, no imploding your own team.
# 3 - The winner of the All Star Game does not give that league any advantage, if the AS game can't stand on it's own, then abolish it.
# 4 - The DH is in both leagues, or in neither league, c'mon it's almost 40 years isn't it ?
# 5 - Suspensions must be served immediately after receiving them, no postponements, and pitchers ( starters ) must miss a full game start, none of this appealing it until the schedule fits your rotation with off days, you damn well miss a start. Schedule the hearing the next day, or that evening. People have cell phones, don't they, stop letting these guys off too easy.

Okay, do I sound like Judge Mountain Landis a bit, maybe, but at least I have a direction, good teams that draft well, and scout well will still thrive. Teams that want to live on spending as little as possible and waiting for handouts should be reminded that North American businesses are going through pretty rough times, and not every millionaire gets a bailout.

Nuff Ced !