Contraction.
I know, it’s a dirty word. Merely saying it to some people causes their eyes to bulge and their stomachs to contract with copious amounts of acid.
But this post starts my argument for it. Anyone who has been around me for any amount of time knows that I consider the National League to be mostly quad A ball. That is to say that it is barely a step above triple A ball. I recently heard Vince Scully say that we have “watered our summer wine.” He went on to say that he thought we were trotting out 3 or 4 teams each night that are nothing more than AAA teams.
Expansion has diluted our talent pool and the talent isn’t catching up. That fact coupled with the downturn in the economy means it is time for us to accept the fact that there are cities that just don’t care about baseball anymore. They may not ever care about them again. That’s OK.
A salary cap isn’t going to fix this problem. America has moved to football because it’s more suited to America’s instant gratification and snot bubble driven mentality.
We have at least four too many teams in baseball, maybe even five too many teams. If we contracted those teams there would be at least 100 players, maybe 125 if you did all five teams. Of those 100 players, no more than thirty would actually end up back in baseball on a Major league team.
The talent pool would instantly catch up.
Regardless of what you’re told, Expansion was supposed to bring in more revenue for the game. It may have actually succeeded in that regard, but I would argue it’s hurting baseball overall. Bigger isn’t always better, regardless of how much that goes against the American mindset.
It’s time for baseball to get serious about putting a better product on the field. In cities where people aren’t showing up for games, it may just be times to stop throwing noodles at the wall. I brought this up to a guy this weekend and he immediately was against it. I get that. I mean, I’m about to slay some sacred cows, but what else is the internet for?
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