The Destruction of Major League Baseball

    Baseball is one of the greatest games, and the major leagues are wonderful to follow and enjoy. What has happened to the major leagues, however, is that powerful forces, intent upon exceeding the benefits for a select number of those brokers, have exploited the game so much that the price has been its very competitive integrity, and as such it is now no longer viable as a truly entertaining sports commodity.

    The April 1 2005 Los Angeles Times feature sports article was "Bare Markets," about the vast inequities among teams in major league baseball. I would refer you to it, but it said nothing new about the state of the game. It contained the typical description of how the big market teams have the advantage because they have the larger payrolls, but then concluded with the common but fallacious idea that small market teams can be successful because a team like the Twins has been.

    A somewhat notable thing in the piece is worth a mention:

    At an event in Pittsburgh in late January, [small-market Pirates owner Kevin] McClatchy railed against payroll inequities and their impact on competitive stability, a system he believes allows the large markets to swamp the small markets.  "I don't know what happened," he said of his fellow owners. "Maybe they drank some funny water, but they all decided they were back on the binge."

    I have written extensively about this, and I find it very interesting that he refers to "competitive stability" being compromised. I have called it "competitive integrity," and indicted what I call the "aristocracy" of major league baseball and their "competitive duplicity" in how it is managed. You may see my comprehensive address of these problems at my baseball site.

    Otherwise, here is my case in a nutshell:

  1. For most of its existence, major league baseball has operated under the unspoken creed that the most popular, successful, large-market teams must continue to be winning teams if the majors are going to survive.
  2. This results in exploitation of the game behind the scenes where power brokers can manipulate the construction and arrangement of teams so that the large-market teams have an edge by acquiring the best players.
  3. Long ago this was accomplished with a wink by those power brokers in smoke-filled rooms so that teams like the Yankees and Dodgers would frequently appear in the World Series. The fact that there were some years these teams didn't appear made it seem like it was all on the up-and-up, adding to the appearance of credibility the power brokers have needed to sustain.
  4. Today this is facilitated with the openly embraced use of free agency. This allows those large-market high-revenue-generating ball clubs to buy the better players, thus compromising competitive integrity. It is no different than allowing one team on the field an extra out per inning.
  5. All of the owners, players, and other power brokers are involved in the scheme, even the Kevin McClatchy's of the world. He drinks of the same "funny water" as all the other brokers, quietly recognizing that in the long run, without the frequent success of the "super" major league teams like the Yankees and Red Sox, his own team would not be viable as a participant.
  6. The solution is to radically change the payroll system so that the majors operates as a "natural monopsony" abandoning free agency, implementing a common player salary pool encompassing all sources of revenue, and establishing a sound accountability program administered by an independent board.
  7. This system would allow teams to draft and develop players as deftly and wisely as they can without the horrific constraints of an artificial salary cap. This would require acceptance all around for a system of truly competitive integrity the afore mentioned recommendation would bring, in which it is indeed possible for small-market teams to dominate for any given extended period of time.
  8. The only way this can happen is if a large number of people, mostly fans, see the duplicity and demand action that would bring about genuine competitive integrity. As it is, fans are happy to pretend, sycophantically led along by the entrenched power brokers whose mouthpieces are the extraordinarily influential media. Nothing will change unless they begin to firmly refuse to buy into the ruse.

    As much of a passion as I have for professional team sports, regrettably I do not believe this can feasibly happen. I would love to see it, but I am by nature a very cynical individual. It is clearly evident that too many will only support the major leagues if the large-market / media-darling favoring conditions stay in effect. Once a small market team or teams begin to dominate pro baseball, an unacceptably high number of fans will abandon it, dramatically dropping revenues and making the entire enterprise unprofitable.

    What does this have to do with the Catholicist Nation? Nothing and everything. Nothing, in that I just have a passion for baseball. Everything, in that the standard machinations of the World System to exploit people and disregard authenticity, integrity, and charity are revealed quite profoundly in the substrata of power interests throughout the major leagues.

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Important note - June 23, 2017: The content of each of the following pages has been removed from my site. I am leaving the links below because on each page is a note about why they have been disabled. I'm leaving my baseball page above because I think it contains information about a modest example of how the World exploits. I do still write on my Chiefs blog and invite you to join me in talking about the Chiefs Kingdom as it leads to dwelling richly in God's. Thank you.

I've also compiled a comprehensive list of championships at the page Current Professional Sports Team Success and Non-Success

For a statistical demonstration of the results of institutionalized competitive duplicity in professional sports, visit the page Frequency of Championships in Metropolitan Areas

Playoff team-year numbers for cities with a football and baseball team

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For a bit of insight into my current approach to pro team sports, visit this blog series from my blog on my favorite NFL team, the Kansas City Chiefs.

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This page was originally posted by David Beck at yourownjesus.net on April 1, 2005