New Year's Resolution: Get a Salary Cap

As the dawn of winter vacation approaches, I thought it would be good for Major League Baseball to have a New Year's Resolution. Of course, as all New Year's Resolutions, this "promise" will be ignored and neglected. Yet, the sore subject must be addressed.

For the love of humanity, Major League Baseball, please get a salary cap.

How long is America going to put up with this? There are 31 teams in the Majors, but only about eight are in the running every year (and for that matter, over the past four years, only one team has been in the running).

Hello Minnesota? Kansas City? Montreal? Milwaukee? Let's get a union together! Baseball fans of the world unite! Protest in the streets. Stop going to games all together. Do something small market fans, because how are you living with yourselves? When the Twins, Royals, Expos and Brewers begin each season, what are you thinking? Hoping for .500? Please, this has to get old.

The 1980s are over. The days of Kirby Puckett, George Brett and Robin Yount are over. Now, fans, you're stuck with Ron Coomer, Dave McCarty, and Henry Blanco.

It is inherently unfair that Kansas City, Minnesota, Milwaukee, Pittsburgh, Montreal, Philadelphia, and San Diego will never win under the current format of major league baseball. You can probably add Oakland, the White Sox and Cincinnati to that list despite their remarkable recent success (which only went so far).

If baseball took a page from the NFL's playbook, fan appeal would double. No longer would New York be the only game in town. Since the NFL adopted a salary cap, players' salaries can only be so high (bottom line: A Rod and Manny lose, society gains). Ticket prices do not need to be jacked up every year (see: John Harrington) to support the astronomical salaries.

But, by far the biggest benefit of a salary cap is the parity that would immediately race across Major League Baseball. After three years of a salary cap in the NFL, the bad teams became good and vice versa. The resident bottom dwellers (the Rams, the Falcons, and even the lowly Buccaneers!) rose to the top. Recently, the Saints and the Ravens have shown themselves to be Super Bowl contenders.

Where is San Francisco? Where is Dallas? Where is Green Bay? Where is Pittsburgh? Out of the playoffs, out of the playoffs, out of the playoffs, out of the playoffs. The class of the NFL has been forced to taste a piece of humble pie. The 49ers won 10 or more games for 17 straight seasons. Institute a salary cap, and hello No. 3 draft pick.

Under the current format of Major League Baseball, the Yankees will never finish lower than third place in their division. Never. The Twins will never finish higher than third. Never. It just won't happen. That statement alone is absolutely absurd. In the history of professional sports, there has never been as much inequality as there is now in Major League Baseball.

Critics of the salary cap say that if a team does not generate fan support, it therefore should not be competitive. Yankees fans will argue that the reason their team wins is because their fans pay up and sell out their games. They point to the lowly crowds that amass in Minnesota, Oakland, and Montreal, saying, "see, no one cares there! They're not entitled to a good team!""

But, which came first? When Oakland had a winning team, the A's drew 40,000-50,000 people per game. Minnesota has great fans, and in '87 and '91, the Twins won the World Series amidst mass Minneapolis hysteria.

Salary capless baseball can no longer be tolerated. Pray for an owner's strike. That's right. I want a lockout. I want all the overpaid players to suck it up for the good of the league.

Baseball, where's your Christmas spirit? Though this resolution will probably turn out just like the 'exercise more' and 'spend less time watching TV and more time reading' ones, we can always hope for a miracle.

Unfortunately, 34th street happens to be in New York.