THE INSIDE STORY Baseball It's Time to Don the Cap

Author: David Lindholm

Winter has finally melted into spring, which means one thing above all else: baseball. The Major League season has started again, with 30 teams all with a clean slate, ready to battle it out for the title of World Series Champions. These teams face a grueling 162-game season where anything can happen. At least, that's the idea. But the season is already as good as over for a number of teams, and while technically "any team can win it all," the idea is rendered totally false in practice.

In a league where a small-market team last won the World Series in 1991 (the Minnesota Twins) it's simply not fair that these teams have to compete with payrolls like the New York Yankees ($150 million). The Oakland Athletics are currently the most sucessful small-market team (definined as a team in the bottom half of the league in terms of salary and revenues) but they recently lost their star first-baseman and centerfielder to big-market teams, and their strong pitching is sure to follow in coming years.

What the MLB needs is a salary cap, just like the four other top leagues in the United States. The salary cap has probably worked best in Major League Soccer, which has had two straight champions move from the bottom of the league to the top: the Kansas City Wizards and the San Jose Earthquakes. This year the league has achieved parity in the teams that is unparalleled, both on paper and in early results; after two games for each team, no team will have two wins.

The NFL is another example of a league that has employed the salary cap and is reaping the same rewards. Both the NFL and MLS have created a league where any team can win and where teams can rise out of obscurity with shrewd deals, good drafts and player development. Take the Patriots, not given a chance at the beginning of the season, winning the Super Bowl. In baseball, at the beginning of the season, people can agree on about 10 teams with a chance to make it into the eight playoff spots.

If Major League Baseball had a salary cap, teams like the Montreal Expos would not find themselves in the danger they are in right now. The list of players that the Expos have developed (and lost) is long and distinguished. Pedro Martinez, Larry Walker, David Segui, Moises Alou, Andre Dawson and Tim Raines are all on it. Now they have an established powerhouse in Vladimir Guerrero and a rising star in Orlando Cabrera, but both are sure to move on soon. If player development were valued in MLB, the Expos would be at the top of the league.

So the call is for a salary cap, which would hurt teams like the Red Sox and Yankees, but would eventually bring parity to the league and fun to some of the small market teams who haven't had a chance in years.