MLB Suggestions

Opening Day is almost upon us, which means my yearly opining about baseball. However, instead of rambling on nostalgically about how much I love the game, I'm going to complain about it for once. I love baseball for many reasons, but I do have several gripes with the MLB that I'd like to enumerate. I know many of these things are not going to happen anytime soon, if at all, but if I was given free reign over baseball for a year, these are the things I would see done.


Salary Cap
The biggest problem I have with the major leagues is the income disparity between the small-market clubs and the big. You can preach free-market capitalism at me all you want, but the truth is that the MLB is a monopoly, and one protected as such through congressional legislation. I don't want to change that, but I do think that it is vital to bring about a bit of equity in the system. Baseball needs a salary cap, it's as simple as that. It would level the playing field, create some parity in the league and allow teams to keep their stars instead of being forced to trade them off for prospects once they are approaching free agency. It gets tiring seeing the best young players traded off to New York, Boston, Chicago, L.A., and yes... even to a lesser extent my Tigers year after year.
I know this would be a hard sell for the players association and for the high payroll teams, but it is in baseball's best interest to see this happen. Just taking look at the 2009 team payrolls, shows a stark contrast between the teams who can spend and those who can't. First of all, the Yankees have a payroll of almost 70 million more than the next highest team (the Mets) and over five times that of the Florida Marlins. Yet, the payroll figures only give a snapshot view of the situation. Some of these clubs are keeping unsustainable payrolls in order to compete now, while others have very low ones because their teams are so young.

MLB Blackout Areas

What we really need to be looking at is regional populations or market sizes. Baseball Almanac has a nice article that lists the market sizes. There are some caveats to the data, however. The first is that it is a bit outdated, but population figures haven't changed enough to negate it's usefulness. Additionally, a city like New York, which has nine major sports teams (not counting MLS) to divide its fans among, probably won't have as high a percentage of its market viewing as a city like New Orleans (with only two teams) would. Yet, I don't believe it is realistic to divide the market by nine, since it is not as if residents of a city watch or attend only a finite number of games, and thus, the more teams available watch, the higher the total viewership will be, in general. I don't think anyone can argue with that. Besides, the baseball season is for the most part during the summer and without a major sports rival for much of the season. However, it is vital to split the markets of those cities with two teams in half. Still, the Yankees and Mets have a market size of over 10 million compared to the 1.6 million in Milwaukee. That is a massive gap to bridge and one that I only see two solutions to. The first is a salary cap, the second... add five or six professional teams to the New York market, and a few to L.A. and Chicago, too. Hell, we might as well give Philly, Detroit and Boston another team while we're at it. Okay, so that proposal is totally unreasonable for a variety of reasons that I won't get into. So, salary cap it is.

Furthermore, the salary cap should be coupled with some sort of revenue sharing deal (which the MLB already has) and a payroll floor, to prevent teams from just constantly tanking like the Florida Marlins have been apt to do over the years. Not only should this system allow small market teams to better compete and keep their players, it should create a more competitive league as a whole. Drafting, the farm system and roster management suddenly become a lot more important, especially for big market teams which can no longer just throw money at their problems.

Expansion
With some money freed up, baseball may even be able to expand. This desire is obviously biased, because I simply like seeing new teams spring up, but I think it would work well. While probably not realistic in the current economic climate, I think that a more fiscally responsible MLB could definitely expand to a few more cities. Going back to the list of biggest markets in the US and Canada for a moment... I think that bringing baseball back to Montreal would be a great idea. Charlotte, San Antonio or Portland might also make nice homes for new teams, or just place another team in New York. It would cut into the TV areas and the revenue of the other teams, but I think ultimately revenue would increase for the MLB as a whole. But, my primary motive is getting the leagues back to an equal number of teams. Having 14 teams in the AL and 16 in the NL always felt so unbalanced to me. Move Milwaukee back to the AL or add two AL teams, either way it would work. The divisions could be reworked into four of four teams or have two of five and one of six.


Steroids
The steroid issue may have diminished, but baseball is definitely not in the clear yet. It is painfully obvious that the MLB turned a blind eye to the use of steroids throughout the 90s. In doing so, they not only harmed the integrity of the game, but allowed the specter of the Faustian bargain of steroids to descend upon countless young baseball players. Even with the knowledge of the harm they can cause, steroids are a huge lure to players who dream of making the big leagues. While I like to think I would not give in if I were in that position, I cannot blame those who have. The MLB needs to simply come out and admit their mistake, acknowledge that the game was compromised and that there are fraudulent records on the books. While, I don't believe that the records achieved during the era should be erased, simply because it gives players an incentive not to come clean, the major leagues need to admit to their mistake. It was the Steroids Era, the stats are out of whack, they cannot be fixed now. We will never know who used steroids or who didn't, because there is no way that everyone will com clean, but there will always be a cloud hanging over the period. All that baseball can do now is admit their mistake, implement as stringent as steroid policy as possible and move on.


Hall of Fame
On a related note, I don't believe that known or suspected steroid users should be banned from the Hall of Fame. Again, I think this policy only serves as an incentive not to admit to using steroids. Bonds, McGwire, Sosa... put them all in the Hall. Put it on the plaque that they cheated, or that they achieved fame under suspicious circumstances, I don't care, and I don't like any of them, but they deserve to be there. Just like Joe Jackson and Pete Rose do. Especially in the case of Jackson, who was given a lifetime ban, and is now dead. Shouldn't the ban be over? And keep Rose away from baseball, that's fine, but both of them deserve to be there for being some of the greatest baseball players ever. You don't have to lie or exalt any of these guys, hell... put up an exhibit about cheating and gambling on baseball if you want, just let them in. If a horrible person like Ty Cobb gets to be there, anyone who was good enough at playing should be, too.


All-Star Game
I have several problems with the All-Star Game in its current format. The first and more egregious is that the winning league gets home field advantage in the World Series. It is beyond dumb that what amounts to an exhibition game has any effect upon the MLB championship and this has to be changed. Secondly, fan voting needs to be done away with. The average fan doesn't know enough about baseball to know who actually deserves to be in the game and most fans are too partisan to vote for anyone but their own team's players. The rosters should be decided upon by the players or managers. It is unfair to use all-star game appearance as a criteria to argue a player's merit if it is simply a popularity contest. Lastly, the rule that each team must have a representative in the game should be abolished. Once again, the only criteria that should decide who is on the all-star team is how well their season has been thus far.


Designated Hitter
Finally, I would at the very least consider implementing a DH in the National League. My only reluctance in doing so is historical and because I think it is rather quaint to have such a huge rule difference between the two leagues. Also, I know how biased I am about this rule having grown up a fan of an American League team. Nonetheless, I don't buy into any of the arguments in opposition to the DH other than those I have already listed. The additional strategy that it provides is negligible and the necessity of pinch hitting for a pitcher at the end of the game, in my mind, is an argument in favor of the DH and not against it. Furthermore, pitcher is an extremely specialized position and the most grueling in the sport, why force them to do something that they are almost universally poor at? Kickers don't catch passes, goalies rarely shoot on net, pitchers don't need to hit. In the end, what does inserting an extremely weak batter at the bottom of every lineup do to make the game better? Nothing, that I can see.


I have little hope of most of these things coming to pass anytime soon, but that's alright. For the most part I have just been musing and the lack of reform, while frustrating at times, pales in comparison to the joy I get from watching the game. Baseball has never been my favorite sport, but it is the one that I have always felt my identity as a Detroiter has been most tied to. Perhaps it is its position as the national pastime, perhaps the fact that it is so old, or maybe its the fact that I equate it with summer and freedom and joy, but being a Tigers fan was always about more than just the game. I always felt that you were born with a team and you would die with that team. Winning or losing, I was content with the sport, because it was my heritage as a Michigander. I may enjoy watching other teams, may even someday adopt another team as a secondary rooting interesting, but the Old English D will forever be baseball to me.