EffEmDoubleyou
Robot
- Joined
- Jun 6, 2007
- Messages
- 7,312
- MBTI Type
- INTJ
But your article makes my argument for me. The Yanks are playing within the rules of the game. Change the rules means changing the system we live under, i.e. down with capitalism.
I don't dispute anything you're saying except to say, you might as well complain about the U.S. influence over the world, or Microsoft's putting Vista in every new computer like it or not, or McDonalds or etc... Capitalism baby....
Capitalism is the red herring in this discussion. It really has nothing to do with the issue at all. It simply confuses the issue. In typical businesses, there is no incentive for the common success of all competitors. McDonald's is free to crush Burger King, Coke to crush Pepsi, etc. That is because each of those companies is self-contained and need not consider the financial health of its competitors.
But professional sports teams are not individual businesses. This is the chief argument of the Yankees and those who favor the current rules, but it's simply not true. Sports teams are in fact members of cartels...each team is dependent on the health of the others. It's all in how you view it. The proper view is to see Major League Baseball as the company...the owners in baseball are to a large extent 30 investors in the same business. If the individual franchises were truly independent, then why is there a collective bargaining agreement with the league instead of with each team? Why is there an authority figure (the commissioner) who is elected by all the teams to oversee all the teams? Why is there a special antitrust exemption for sports leagues?
Sports are competitive endeavors that require a competitive balance among the franchises in the interest of propriety. The legitimacy of the competition is the single most important factor in the health of a sports league. If one team wins more often because of superior resources, that lessens the value of the entire enterprise. Nobody is showing up to see the Yankees take BP or have an intrasquad game. They need opponents, and they need opponents who have a reasonable chance to beat them, or the entire thing is purposeless.
No, they don't win every year. But they DO make the playoffs nearly every year, and they have a shot to win every year. On balance, they have a much better chance than the Royals and Pirates of the world for reasons other than organizational acumen and baseball skills. That is unacceptable. For every Yankee fan drawn by the team's success, there are two fans of sad sack franchises that turn their backs on the game. Every team is in the same boat, and they sink or swim together.