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With baseball season now in full swing again, this year there are only about 10 teams that could possibly win the World Series. From the American League, there are the usual contenders in the New York Yankees and the Boston Red Sox, and then the other three teams that could make a World Series run this year in the Chicago White Sox, Cleveland Indians and Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. From the National League, the contenders are the New York Mets, Houston Astros, St. Louis Cardinals, Atlanta Braves and possibly the San Francisco Giants if Barry Bonds can find his swing and stay healthy.
Out of 30 teams in Major League Baseball, there are really only 10 teams, maybe one or two more, which have a chance at winning this year as there is every year. So, what is there to do to make baseball more competitive for 30 teams instead of 10? Quite simply, have a salary cap. While there is the luxury tax for teams that have a payroll over a certain amount, it's hard for small market teams to be able to compete with the large market teams for the better players in the game.
When a team such as the Kansas City Royals go into free agency to look at possible players to sign to be a part of next year's team, and they have to compete against a team such as the New York Yankees, there is no chance they will get that player they go after because they can not compete against the money the Yankees will offer that individual.
With a salary cap, baseball would become a more competitive sport along the same lines as football, where, every year, there are about 20 teams that could win the Super Bowl, instead of just the sport where not even half the teams can win the championship. By adding a salary cap, Yankees owner George Steinbrenner would not be able to throw millions and millions of dollars at every player that he wanted to throw it at. This would allow for a more balanced league, with each team only having a few superstars compared to a team of superstars like the Yankees. Now your small market teams with no television contracts such as the Royals, Devil Rays, Tigers, Brewers, Rockies and Pirates could now compete with every other team in the league because of the salary cap.
As baseball tries to move forward from the steroid era, one thing that could help is a league where every team had a superstar player or two and a league where most teams would be competitive and fighting for playoff berths year in and year out. While the possibly of a salary cap is still several years away, it could be the answer to moving past the steroid era; while steroid testing is now mandatory practice and lets fans know the things the players are doing are legitimate, there still needs to be something more for baseball to gain its credibility back.
For now, Major League Baseball is basically a 10-team league when it comes to teams that could win the World Series. While baseball now has to deal with they system, it has the opportunity to make the game more competitive and gain back a large amount of the fan base that was lost during strike talks and in the past few years because of the steroid issue.
Jason Pace is Whim's newest Sports Writer
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