Anybody know off the top of their heads who are the hottest teams in baseball right now as the regular season winds down?
The answer might surprise you. It's the Cincinnati Reds, Oakland Athletics, Atlanta Braves and Minnesota Twins.
Didn't know, did ya? Probably because if you're like most people, you don't care anymore because the thundering roar of football season has drowned out the meow of the baseball regular season.
Or, even if you're like me, and you DO care, you were forced to lose interest long ago because your team has been, for all intents and purposes, eliminated for months.
It didn't used to be this way. As I was growing up, even with football season rolling in, fans had a vested interest in baseball. The strikes happened and there have been slow comebacks, but it's not like it used to be.
And unless baseball changes and adapts, it never will, or it might get worse.
For one thing, there are too many teams, and far too little parity. A lot of that can be attributed to the financial organization of the sport. The owners allow large markets like New York, Boston, Chicago and Los Angeles to dominate the free agent market with lavish contracts that get greedier by the year. While small-market owners cut costs in every way possible without regard for fans or the success of the team.
I look at about a third of the league and see a raft of teams that have not been any kind of factor for at least a decade, some for longer.
Why is this indigenous to baseball? Every year in the NFL, hope springs eternal, and nearly every market every year feels like their team could make a run. Different teams cycle through the playoffs each year.
Even in basketball, the draft can turn the worst teams into contenders quickly, and the number of inept franchises in these sports is fewer than in baseball.
Many fans in baseball can write off their team even before the season begins, and fans in many have already abandoned their local teams to cheer for the Red Sox or Yankees.
And how about this time of year? Fans are forced to go through this month to two-month lull leading up to the playoffs while football has captured their attention? Even the fans of contenders have to be bored by the time the playoffs come around.
So what to do? Fewer teams might be a good start. I could see the league being a lot stronger financially with about 20 teams. You might complain, but if the system won't allow some teams to be competitive, why have them at all?
Fewer games? Definitely. If they do keep this number of teams, why not do what football did? Create four divisions and allow two wildcard teams. It's almost guaranteed to help parity and fan interest. And the game can do without the final two months of the regular season. Expand the playoffs so the season can wrap up in a reasonable time.
I love baseball. My life and my family have been surrounded by baseball for a long time. It's something very dear to me, but I see it paling in comparison to how other sports are run today, and it hurts. A lot of people have their take on this, but I think unless it adapts and changes, the future is bleak. And it might get worse sooner than you think.
What DO you think?
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4 Comments
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You made one broad-brush statement that "the number of inept franchises in these sports is fewer than in baseball." You didn't say how you're measuring competence in the front office. But my gut-level reaction is that basketball allowing so many teams to participate in postseason play can cover a lot of ineptitude. When mediocrity is seen as success, as it certainly is in the NBA and NHL, front office personnel can begin to believe their team is better than it really is.
I am on board with you in urging the MLB powers that be to take a radical look at balancing things out. A salary cap/salary floor system needs to be implemented to give even the small-market franchises a reasonable chance.
Postseason qualifiers, in the present system, merit the opportunity. A team must finish in first place or have the best record among second-place teams to get into postseason play.
The regular season schedule has gotten out of whack. Either eliminate interleague play (my first choice) or use the NFL's scheduling formula where there is a strictly applied rotation of interconference matchups.
September 28, 2009 at 4:05 p.m.OOPS, Lesser rather than lessor.
September 27, 2009 at 2:21 a.m.GOOD POINTS. Do you work for the Advocate? For my information, should it be "less teams" or "fewer teams"? Your post laments the number of those "lesser (Quality)teams". I agree with you that there should be fewer teams in order to eliminate those lessor teams.
September 27, 2009 at 2:18 a.m.All good points. The only thing I could add would be the disappearance of non school or non league places for kids to play pick up games of baseball.
You just don't see sandlot baseball being played anymore.
Of course the Florida Marlins disappointed many fans, they win the World Series and then the next year they blow up the team to cut costs. Sigh..
I do not know if less teams are the answer or not, lots of cities will hate to see the revenue leave that their teams generate.
Expanded playoffs? A lot of baseball purists already hate the two wild card team format.
In other words, I don't know, lol. Baseball is, has and will always be a great game.
September 25, 2009 at 7:13 p.m.