This article makes some great points about baseball payroll.
www.joeposnanski.com/JoeBlog/2009/11/05/the-yankees-payroll/
But this post really sums up my feelings about baseball. I still watch the games and I still root for the Pirates.
24: Nate said at 1:36 pm on November 5th, 2009:
I am one of the ones who stopped watching.
I used to love baseball, and I suppose I still do abstractly. I think it’s a great game, and I still think there is nothing better than catching a game at the ballpark, hot dog in hand, on a late summer evening.
However, I am a Pittsburgh native and Pirates fan. The Pirates don’t have the money of even the middle of the pack teams, and haven’t had a team with a winning record for 17 years. A lot of the struggle was due to bad management, but at the heart of it all was the fact that they Pirates simply can’t spend their way to a better on-field product, and I expect they never will be able to.
I think Joe is right in talking about the conceit in baseball that the playoff system disguises the huge advantage big money teams have. I would include others as well, the Yankees obviously are on their own level, but the $73 million more dollars the Red Sox pay for players over the Pirates also makes a difference. Granted the Yankees spend $161 million more, either way you’re getting a big advantage.
I remember being exasperated last year as the Tampa Bay Rays climb to the World Series and were lauded by the league and announcers as “proof” that well-run small market teams can compete. I thought at the time that I hoped the Rays would get their World Series win that year, because I thought their window to get back (even to the playoffs) could close fast. Well guess what, the Yankees picked up Tex, C.C. and A.J. and their back on top, and the Rays didn’t even make the playoffs.
Teams like the Rays can maybe squeak by on off-years, and get hot in short series and maybe, just maybe, if everything goes perfectly, eek out a championship. That’s a far cry from the prospects of teams that have money, and as Joe pointed out, yet another huge leap to the prospects of the Yankees, who are on their own level.
That’s why I quit watching. I like what the new Pirates GM is doing, and I think that with the way their are drafting and building their team, they might someday build an organization that is as good and exciting as the Tampa Bay Rays were in 2008. But why would I stick around for another decade of losing and tinkering on the blind hope that things might fall into place so the team could make one run at a title – especially with an almost certain guarantee that even when the team does get good, their window for success will be short and unsatisfying.
Teams like the Rays, or the Brewers, or the Twins, or A’s, Indians, etc. They’ll all make runs at various times, but they’ll never be successful like the teams with money, and they’ll never be successful as the Yankees.
A lot of talk has been made about parity in sports. I think it’s safe to say that the only real parity fans care about is the hope that their teams will one day have the chance to be great.
That’s what’s great about sports like football, basketball and hockey. The Saints can go from being bad for years to a juggernaut, the Cavs can go from joke to contender with one draft pick, the Penguins can resurrect a franchise with an 18-year old phenom center… there is no equivalent in baseball.
The Pirates (or Royals, or Padres, or Orioles, or…) are bad. They will always be bad. And on the off-chance that one magic day, they get a good group of guys together… they’ll play well for a short-time, and then it will all vanish as magically as it came. That’s why I don’t watch baseball.
