Small-market whining officially reached a new level this past week. In perhaps his own personal wish to �level the playing field�, a Milwaukee Brewers radio announcer (Jim Powell) got into a tizzy reading about some verbal jabs being exchanged between the Mets and Yankees prior to their interleague series. Powell concluded his on-air rant proclaiming that �it wouldn�t bother him one bit� if the two teams were to get into a full scale all out brawl so awful, that it resulted in all 50 players going on the DL, along with both teams being forced to call up their AAA teams �en-masse� � just so two big market teams could be out of the mix and the poor Brewers and other �small-market� teams would have half a chance.
Say what??? An �all out brawl� resulting in virtually every player landing on the DL??? I don�t even want to think how that would look on SportsCenter. And I won�t even mention reading the Jim Rome column the next day. You would need one of those �tables, ladders, and chairs� type of deals straight out of Wrestlemania. Players wielding baseball bats, among other projectiles at each other. Maybe involve nuclear projectiles while we�re at it. Some scene right out of the Last Boy Scout perhaps. Never mind Frank Robinson doling out punishment � we would have players doing time in the state pen over this. Court TV would be showing the litigation for months. And as bad as the brawl on the field would be, hostilities would be multiplied by 1000-fold in the stands. CALL THE GUARD OUT, SHEA STADIUM�S GOING UP IN FLAMES. I imagine John Rocker would be laughing out loud somewhere.
What Powell said was about the sickest thing I ever heard. Why doesn�t he just root for both team buses to collide head-on on the way to the ballpark. That would be some multi-million dollar contracts going up in smoke. THEN THE SMALL MARKETS HAVE A CHANCE!!!!!
Seriously, I�m sick of the whining. I realize the small markets are behind the eight ball. And yes, it�s frustrating to see homegrown stars on teams like the Expos, Royals or whatever wind up in New York or L.A. But look at the real-life standings. The Reds almost made it to the playoffs in �99. Oakland and Seattle made it last year. Minnesota�s got a heck of a chance this year. Seattle is off to potentially one of the best seasons in MLB history. And even among teams not enjoying a lot of success, there�s always talent on the Montreal�s and San Diego�s of the world to stay within shouting distance of the big boys. It isn�t like the Twins have been going 40-122 every year.
A lot of drop-dead fantastic money management has attributed to the Seattle success. So did the bring in of a couple of Japanese imports. Jim Powell also pleaded a problem with that on a Brewers broadcast. Seems that he wants players such as Ichiro and Sasaki to go into some kind of draft, figuring that it�s only big-market east or west coast cities that have a chance for those players.
Sorry bout your luck Jim. Guess it�s a tragedy that Nintendo or Sega wouldn�t buy into the Brewers. Maybe we need to move Milwaukee onto the Pacific Coast while we�re at it. Let�s put those Cuban defectors into a draft too while we�re at it before the dreaded Yankees get them too. Has anyone ever heard of scouting??? The Chicago Cubs, that perennial powerhouse who last I checked were still located in the Midwest, have ventured into Korea in recent years to nab a couple of prospects, including a high-schooler this year who throws 98 MPH. The Boston Red Sox have also developed a couple of Korean pitchers in recent years.
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He turned down a paltry $2M from Philly and wound up getting $7M, not exactly a J.D. Drew Mystery... |
Another problem small-market whiners have is that some teams with one of the first picks in the Amateur Draft are unable to take a chance at affording the best player available. This occurred this year when Minnesota, with the no. 1 pick overall opted to take a local high-school catcher over USC pitcher Mark Prior, who may be good enough to pitch in the majors now. Leverage tends to be the issue there. Players who don�t like their offer, who pick them etc, can simply go back to school, or in the case of J.D. Drew, play in an independent league for a year. And it wasn�t like the Phillies got the shaft on Drew, with the first overall pick the next year took Pat Burrell, who is now producing quite nicely in the bigs. Meanwhile Drew, who turned down a $2 million dollar bonus from Philly, eventually got $7 million over four years. It winds up looking great for the St. Louis organization but what if he would have been a bust??? Then the Cards front office would have looked silly. Conversely, if J.D. suffered a major injury playing for the St. Paul Saints and wound up with nothing, then his holdout would have backfired.
Is the system totally fair??? Not exactly. But at least the draft in existence now is better than the old days � when there was no draft at all. Back then, the rich (Yankees, Dodgers, Giants) simply got richer by annually grabbing all the top talent. Besides, the Amateur Draft is a total crapshoot and as many first-round picks flop as make it. Al Pujols was a thirteenth round draft pick out of a community college just two years ago. That means every organization passed on Pujols at least twelve times before the Cards tabbed him.
It must also be mentioned that it sucked that the Montreal Expos got screwed in 1994. People forget to notice that the Expos drew 25,000 per game that year. Apparently, most of the fans have abandoned the team. Unfortunately you can�t do much about fan apathy, not to mention the team being unable to get a new stadium. By the way, new stadiums are not the ultimate cure-all, just ask Detroit, Houston, and Pittsburgh. Not to mention Milwaukee who found out this weekend that there are items more important than a roof over your head (electricity perhaps � not to mention paying off the workers who just demolished your old crib).
Yes, it�s great when the small markets succeed. It�s always nice to see David get Goliath. But throughout history baseball has never been about total parity. I don�t think many people back in the day had much of a problem with the Yankees always beating up on the St. Louis Browns. If you like parity, then the NFL or NASCAR may be more your cup of tea.
Hopefully, the upcoming CBA negotiations will result in more-revenue sharing to help the small markets. Lets just hope we never truly get to the point of rooting for a Mets-Yankees midair collision over LaGuardia.