Baseball, parity and New York

[klaatu]

The Yankees lost in the first round, the Red Sox didnt even make the playoffs and the Mets loose the 7th game of the National League Championship Series to the Cards. So goes the top 3 payrolls in baseball.
Baseball continues to get criticised for not having a salary cap while the NFL and NBA recieve glorius praise and high marks from journalists and fans alike for their policies intent on initiating parity through revenue sharing and salay caps. I find it amusing that MLB is guarenteed a 7th year in a row where they will celebrate a different champion, while on the other hand.... The NBA seems to have one dynasty after another.... , in recent years its where ever Shaq plays. .. ; Football may be over the Patriot hump... but that remains to be seen after this year. The NFL seems to go through its elite periods... right now we are in the Patriot, Colt, Steelers, Bronco and Ram period..while the Lions, Browns, Cardinals and Texans continue to be the doormats. Although we are seeing some new blood this year with the Saints, Bears, Chargers and Bengles joining the elite.

But baseball, with its horrible capless system.... witnessed a final four that consisted of the Tigers, A's, Cardinals and Mets ..... as opposed to the White Sox, Angles, Astros and Cardinals from the year before. Parity anyone? Maybe the Free Market System aint so bad afterall .... by the way..... MLB also experienced record atttendnace and revenue for 2006.

[uscitizen]

Odd , even , or no parity ?

[Thorn]

No parity.

I watched most of the game last night, and was rooting for the Mets, mostly because I hate them a whole lot less than I hate the Cardinals. Bottom of the ninth, raining like crazy, bases loaded, 3-2 count, batter had a good solid record and could have been either a real hero or a real bum -- that's what it can come down to in baseball. One good pitch and it was all over -- struck out, game over, Mets lose, lots of disappointed fans.

Now I can't wait to see the Tigers maul the Cards! Interestingly, Jim Leyland said that it was the year he spent with the Cardinals organization that brought him back to managing baseball. After the Marlins he'd been thoroughly burned out.

Go Tigers!!!

[uscitizen]

I saw about 30 seconds of the game and then said oops and switched channels.

[Timshel]

The Yankees lost in the first round, the Red Sox didnt even make the playoffs and the Mets loose the 7th game of the National League Championship Series to the Cards. So goes the top 3 payrolls in baseball.
Baseball continues to get criticised for not having a salary cap while the NFL and NBA recieve glorius praise and high marks from journalists and fans alike for their policies intent on initiating parity through revenue sharing and salay caps. I find it amusing that MLB is guarenteed a 7th year in a row where they will celebrate a different champion, while on the other hand.... The NBA seems to have one dynasty after another.... , in recent years its where ever Shaq plays. .. ; Football may be over the Patriot hump... but that remains to be seen after this year. The NFL seems to go through its elite periods... right now we are in the Patriot, Colt, Steelers, Bronco and Ram period..while the Lions, Browns, Cardinals and Texans continue to be the doormats. Although we are seeing some new blood this year with the Saints, Bears, Chargers and Bengles joining the elite.

But baseball, with its horrible capless system.... witnessed a final four that consisted of the Tigers, A's, Cardinals and Mets ..... as opposed to the White Sox, Angles, Astros and Cardinals from the year before. Parity anyone? Maybe the Free Market System aint so bad afterall .... by the way..... MLB also experienced record atttendnace and revenue for 2006.


Nonsense. In a single game or series anyone can win. It's the regular season that counts and there, there is little parity. You structure your argument around who the final four is, as if that matters. Who made the playoffs again?

Also, they are now sharing revenue. It is not as complete as the NFL's but it is why the Tigers were able to add some players that have proven critical.

Finally, this aint a free market issue. Major League Baseball is one product.

[klaatu]

Nonsense. In a single game or series anyone can win. It's the regular season that counts and there, there is little parity. You structure your argument around who the final four is, as if that matters. Who made the playoffs again?

Also, they are now sharing revenue. It is not as complete as the NFL's but it is why the Tigers were able to add some players that have proven critical.

Finally, this aint a free market issue. Major League Baseball is one product.

Yes I will structure my argument about who makes the playoffs and wins the World Series... Baseball will celebrate 7 years in a row with a different champion ... yes that matters. Over the past 7 years ... football has celebrated 5 different champions with the Patriots winning 3 times. The NBA has celebrated 4 different champions with the Lakers winning 3 and the Spurs 2.
So baseball is doing pretty good as far as the Championship is concerned.. afterall...this is why they play the game... Baseball goes into the playoffs with a final 8 ... this year only 3 teams from the year before made the cut. Thats a pretty darn good example of parity.

Football, Baseball and the NBA all have their perennial cellar dwellers... and all have their share of elite franchises that seem to be there every year. The NBA's Lakers can be favorably compared to the Yankees in baseball and the Steelers in football.. in that all three orginizations seem to make their annual trek to the playoffs.

As far as baseball and/or other team Sports and the Free Market System... teams are franchises with individual ownership .. not unlike buying into a Subway Franchise... the difference is of course they must compete with each other... so they do put some rules in place for revenue sharing.. and I might add...it is up to the Individual owners as to how they use that money. Personally ... I think a floor cap should be put into place instead of ceiling... A luxury tax is in place..so the Yankees are already paying out of the ass for their free spending ways.

[Timshel]

They need to follow the NFL. There is still not the parity in baseball you see in football. Much of what you mention about championships has something to do with chance. There are not many perpetual cellar dwellers in the nfl. The Bucs won a Super Bowl, the Bengals have been a competitive team for a few years now, the Cardinals still have not turned the corner but it looks like they will soon, the Saints are doing well, so far, this year. Of course, some organizations are just poorly operated and nothing can change that, e.g., the Raiders, but even they were in a Super Bowl recently.

In baseball you have several teams that will never compete without a lot of luck.

[DigitalDave]

Um, the Steelers? Did you notice that they suck this year and are third in the division? They are only one game above the 'doormat' team called the 'Cleveland Browns'. I can not wait until they play each other!

I'm also looking forward to a new offensive scheme for the Browns. No more Fullback sweeps or Fullback options on 3rd and 1. Run the damn ball up the gut with T. Smith and Vickers and get a damned 1st down!

[Damocles]

Um, the Steelers? Did you notice that they suck this year and are third in the division? They are only one game above the 'doormat' team called the 'Cleveland Browns'. I can not wait until they play each other!

I'm also looking forward to a new offensive scheme for the Browns. No more Fullback sweeps or Fullback options on 3rd and 1. Run the damn ball up the gut with T. Smith and Vickers and get a damned 1st down!
They suck because their QB is retarded and rides motorcycles without helmets... If he protected that expensive melon they might be doing a bit better!

[DigitalDave]

Dude, I was surrounded by Steeler fans this Sunday. My g/f is one so she wanted to go to BW3's with a couple other Steeler fans, we end up in this back room full of Steeler fans. There were two Browns fans, an Eagles fan, and a Miami fan. The Eagles fan was starting shit with all of them left and right, and I just made fun of all the Steeler fans when they would get all happy about a damned first down. There was one point where they were all cheering, jumping up and down, then I saw a flag, which they were too busy acting like cheerleaders to realize what just happened. Yeah, the Steelers WR took a step forward and got called for a False Start, 10 secs have to run off so it went to OT. These retards then proceeded to complain that the refs were fucking the Steelers chance of winning. I thought 'Are you that freaking stupid that you think they can just commit a penalty and get away with it?'... Oh wait, these are Steeler fans, they root for a team that won a Super Bowl on missed calls. These numbnuts actually think Ben Worthlessberger is good and talking about how good he throws, right after he threr it DIRECTLY to the Falcons player, not once, not twice, but three times! The Falcons had so many missed opportunities to shut that game down when Ben was in there. Batch is a better QB in my oppinion.

[Damocles]

Dude, I was surrounded by Steeler fans this Sunday. My g/f is one so she wanted to go to BW3's with a couple other Steeler fans, we end up in this back room full of Steeler fans. There were two Browns fans, an Eagles fan, and a Miami fan. The Eagles fan was starting shit with all of them left and right, and I just made fun of all the Steeler fans when they would get all happy about a damned first down. There was one point where they were all cheering, jumping up and down, then I saw a flag, which they were too busy acting like cheerleaders to realize what just happened. Yeah, the Steelers WR took a step forward and got called for a False Start, 10 secs have to run off so it went to OT. These retards then proceeded to complain that the refs were fucking the Steelers chance of winning. I thought 'Are you that freaking stupid that you think they can just commit a penalty and get away with it?'... Oh wait, these are Steeler fans, they root for a team that won a Super Bowl on missed calls. These numbnuts actually think Ben Worthlessberger is good and talking about how good he throws, right after he threr it DIRECTLY to the Falcons player, not once, not twice, but three times! The Falcons had so many missed opportunities to shut that game down when Ben was in there. Batch is a better QB in my oppinion.
Sounds like hanging out with Browns fans....

;)

[Timshel]

The worst where I watch games are the fans of the Lambs. The Bears group is cool, mostly black guys and don't gloat nearly as much as they could.

There is another regular Bucs fan, not from Tampa, who annoys me. He thinks Gradkowski is good and Simms was our problem. Gradkowski may develop, but he really sucks right now. Against the Bengals, the only reason we won is cause the guys he was throwing to (the Bengals) kept dropping the ball. He will complain about Caddy when he has no blocking on a play.

If you don't know that football is mostly about o-line and defense I have no patience for you.