Salary Cap for Baseball
Another winter of "big-money free agents" is shifting the balance of power in both leagues somewhat, but there continues to be one constant in the free agency game; the domination of the large market franchises upon the game of baseball. This winter Mike Mussina, top pitcher on the free-agent market and the New York Yankees, baseball's most successful team, agreed to a six-year contract worth and unbelievable 88.5 million dollars. Manny Ramirez requested a 10 year 200 million dollar deal this past month. This would make him the highest paid player in baseball history. Whatever happened to playing baseball merely for the love of the game? Large market ball clubs such as the Yankees and Braves are dominating baseball with small market teams having no chance of competing or making it to the postseason. If this continues small market teams such as the Expos, Pirates, and Twins may have to move to new cities or even fold their franchises. What Major League Baseball needs to do is establish a salary cap. A salary cap is a maximum dollar amount teams can spend on player contracts. A salary cap is necessary to maintain competitive balance in the league. Without a salary cap, large market teams, other wise know as the teams wit
Where there isn't a team in the league that doesn't look for ways to manipulate the system to its advantage. Considering a number of players salaries came within a few million dollars of the Minnesota Twins entire payroll last year, and that more than half of major league teams have been eliminated from postseason consideration more than two months before pitchers and catchers report to spring training. 7 million dollars a year playing a game that boys and girls have grown up playing for the past century in America. There should be a salary cap so that all major league baseball teams have the same size payroll. It is unfair that some major league teams can pay bigger salaries than other teams for the sake of competition. A dollar down, $50 million later" (Savran). In fact, they won '97 Worlds Series and then later were forced to dismantle the team the following year because they could not afford to keep the team together. Major League Baseball is in desperate need of a salary cap because baseball player's salaries are becoming extremely high. Baseball needs to establish a salary cap for the sake of competition; so all teams have at least some chance at competing for a world's championship. This is the case of rich people, worried that other rich people may be "getting over" on them, like to bend rules with their money. Savran states, "Why in the world would anyone think that it would be any different in baseball?" Baseball has long been known for its dysfunctional ownership family. Some baseball enthusiasts do not believe a salary cap is the way of ending the economic disparity in baseball. What it does to salaries is an important but secondary concern" (92).
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