Running World Series thread

By the rules, nothing. Personally, I wouldn't be able to enjoy watching my favorite team win a championshp quite as much if they used an unfair advantage to get it.

That is why Steelers fans bristle at the talk about Super Bowl XL. That is why Patriots fans get upset over talk about Coach Hoodie cheating. And that is why Yankee fans get defensive right now about the system in baseball. The difference is, in those first two instances, the questions are mostly based on speculation. In the case of the Yankees, we all know the whole thing was rigged in their favor.

 

I don't think New York -- especially the Yankees -- "deserves" any advantage. Where was the Yankees advantage between 1981 and 1995 when they won nothing?
And the advantage big market teams have is NOT unfair. It is the system everybody lives by. Any owner who doesn't like it can quit bitching and sell his team (probably for a tidy profit over what he paid for it).

All I've ever said is I have no problem with the MLB system and I do not agree that the NFL system creates an even playing field.
You will not accept either of those premises.

 

And guess what? You put a cap in baseball and the same thing is going to happen. Oh sure, the Royals would have a better chance at signing Zack Greinke, but if another team dangles him more money he might take it. And eventually the smaller teams will catch hell when they try to hold onto their players, only to find out... wait for it... they can't afford to keep them. Sound familiar?

If you want a system where players are funneled back to their former teams every time, hell... let's bring back the reserve clause. Oh wait... they ruled that illegal in 1975.

 

I'm not quite sure if that was aimed at me.
I like a system where all players are free to go to the highest bidder and all teams are free to pay whatever thay want to pay to sign a player.

 

No no, spnited... I'm on YOUR side. I should have made that clear.

 

I accept that you have no problem with the MLB system, but you are flat-out wrong about hte second part. The fact that some teams in the NFL fail to take advantage of the level playing field is not evidence that it does not exist. It is a logical fallacy and you should know better. Maybe you do and just don't want to admit it. I don't know.

I freely admit that I can't be sure that a New York bias is a big part of your opinion on this subject. I simply believe that is the case. Just you believe that my small-market roots color my thoughts.

The bottom line is that teams win and lose on merit in the NFL. Merit is only part of the equation in MLB, where certain teams have the luxury of buying victories.

The comparisons of what the Yankees did in the '80s and early '90s don't really hold up any more, either. Sure, they failed to take advantage of their advantage then, but it isn't as dramatic as it is now. Salaries have exploded. The last year the Yankees failed to make the playoffs before 2008 was 1993. They were in first place at the time of the strike in 1994, so that year doesn't count. No team in baseball was even spending $50 million on payroll yet, much less outspending all of the competition by $50 million.

 

At least then every team would have to make choices. As it is now, the small markets rarely keep anybody. The mid-sized markets get to keep some of the great players they develop, but not all, and they can rarely bring in the parts they need from the outside. The large markets get to keep pretty much everybody they want to keep and spend for outside free agents. And the Yankees get to play 800-pound gorilla.

I have seen cap casualties hit small and large markets. Show me a small-market NFL team that has been hit harder by that particular problem over the years than the Steelers. It is worth it, because they would be losing those players and more and anybody with any sense knows it. The only difference is that they have the same opportunities to keep their players as the franchises in the big markets.

 

Ah, remember it well . . . that was when
the period when the Great Steinbrenner was consistently in serious Meddle Mode.

 

Congratulations to the Yomiuri Giants, winners of the 2009 Japan Series. They beat the Nippon Ham Fighters 2-0 tonight at the Sapporo Dome to clinch the series four games to two.

http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20091107&content_id=7636084&vkey=news_mlb&fext=.jsp&c_id=mlb

First championship for the Giants since some guy named Hideki Matsui left the team to come to America ... hey, anybody know what happened to that guy?

 

Years the Yankees and the "Japanese Yankees" have won championships in the same year: 1951, 1952, 1953, 1961, 2000, 2009.

 

OK, can we lock this thread now?

 

Hey, at least this thread has kept the salary shit off the Hot Stove thread.