Archive of SportingNews.com's old SOM Baseball forum

This is good timing to put to rest the premise that baseball needs a salary cap or that it is competitively unbalanced.

Facts speak.

Last 25 championships were won by 16 different franchises in MLB. 19 different ones if you go to 1983.

Same period?

NFL 14 (so much for tinkering with schedules)
NBA 7
NHL 13

And still a chance for it this year.

Baseball, for all its faults such as the DH, short fences, long games and extended seasons, still produces the best chance for a fan to experience the ultimate victory in sports entertainment during the last 25+ years at least--and in fact more but I got lazy.

cheers and play ball

Macnole/tersignf/frank

Unfortunately you are comparing apples and oranges. The salary cap was established in the NHL after the 2005 lockout. Since then - 6 different Cup winners.

It is the nature of the games, not the economic model that creates these results.

and the NBA? NFL? what fruits are they?

[quote:a065cb93b1="Mr. Baseball World"]It is the nature of the games, not the economic model that creates these results.[/quote:a065cb93b1]

Yes--that is exactly right. That's what the point is--any team can beat any other team, top to bottom, on any day. Not so in hockey, football, basketball. Nor the other original football/soccer.

[quote:bda061f89c="djmacb"]Unfortunately you are comparing apples and oranges. The salary cap was established in the NHL after the 2005 lockout. Since then - 6 different Cup winners.[/quote:bda061f89c]

By the way--apples to apples...6 different champs the same period in baseball...

As long as we agree that making the economic playing field in baseball more level would not mean fewer different champions nor make the game less competitive, then n argument here.o

A salary cap would not work in baseball.....it would not unless there was revenue sharing to the same degree there is in football.

right and there already is limited rev sharing via the tax.
I think a cap would have negligible effect on the outcomes. In fact, it could make it more unbalanced because the differential spending on player development would be even more pronounced because that's where the excess cash would go.

It is already the most competitively balanced sport for championships because of its format.

Brilliant baseball minds pretty much agree the only way a salary cap would work is with a salary floor as well. A couple of years ago MLB put their foot down and demanded the Marlins spend more money on player salaries instead of pocketing the luxury tax.