Saving Baseball

[SKILORD]

What do you, (This thread is aimed at Americans), think Baseball needs to redeem itself?

Personally i don't watch the sport, but it's still interesting. (IO mean the battle between Managers and Players here)

1. Salary Caps
2. Abolition of the Player's Union or at least a massive loss of it's powers.

[DinoDoc]

Shove broad drug testing down the Unions throat with extremely stiff penalties for the people caught.

[drake]

They strike again, they can get ****ed, thats my opinion. Baseball in its purest form is a great game......however, like most pro sports these days, its been perverted by money.

They walk out, I walk out...for good. Never will come back. Only a fool would take a slap in the face and come back for more. And thats what baseball has been doing to its fans.

They deserve to play games in empty stadiums. They don't deserve fans.

Most make more in three games played than the average American makes in a year. Isn't it time we brought these kooks back to reality?

[DinoDoc]

Fan strikes have been tried before without any success.

[rah]

If they go on strike this time, I hope the owners lock them out until the union is busted. Even if it takes a few years. Players averaging 2.4 million claiming they'll strike to protect the future monetary care of their families. What a load of bull. It makes me sick.

(not that I have a lot of love for the moronic owners, but it is time for them to win one, for once)

Rich

[drake]

Thats because most "fans" have no resolve and are weak minded.

A true fan of the game would see how corrupted things have become and do their part to get things back in hand.

I could care less truthfully. The players don't care about winning anymore. It's all about the money. No team loyalty whatsoever.

[Arrian]

Here is what I think needs to be done (no way in hell, I know):

1) remove the special anti-trust protection baseball has, and allow new franchises to pop up if people are willing to fund them (DC springs to mind, and NY could support 1-2 more teams). At the same time, if a team is badly run or in a market which cannot support them, allow them to go bankrupt. Them's the breaks.

2) Revenue sharing that makes sense. By this I mean a system which rewards small market teams that are well-run, not one that just takes from the rich and gives to the "poor." In order to do this, we need: a workable definition, in hard numbers, of what exactly constitutes "small market" and "medium market" and "large market." The Baseball Prospectus website has had two different, but very interesting, revenue sharing plans posted in the past weeks. The more recent one would probably kill my favorite team (yep, I'm a Yankees fan), but I like the attempt to evaluate the different markets and what each team is doing with what it has.

3) No more publicly funded stadiums. What the hell is this? We give money to incredibly rich people to build stadiums and then pay more money for tickets? WTF!?

The MLBPA sucks, yes, but I don't favor abolishing it. First off, that's not legal, and it's not right. As much as I loathe Donald Fehr, I accept the player's right to organize.

I do not want total "competitive balance" such that any team can win in any given season. I want a normal development cycle (a team will be good for a few seasons, then be bad for a bit, then be back up there again... assuming they are well-run) with a system that prevents total dominance by the rich teams without screwing them for being successful. A sport needs excellence to be really interesting... I don't want a bunch of mediocre teams so that everyone has a chance. I want everyone to have a chance, with proper management, to become a good team and go on a sustained run, like the Oakland A's have done with nothing but Billy Beane's brilliance (I shudder at the thought of what he could do with a decent payroll).

-Arrian

[Vlad Antlerkov]

-- Revenue sharing through a luxury tax (on nine-figure payrolls). Require that the stipends the smaller teams get be spent on salary.

-- Kill Bud Selig by throwing him into a tank with sharks with frikkin' lasers attached to their heads. Then either reinstate Fay Vincent or put Frank Robinson in as commish.

-- Currently, there's a rule that any eight owners can block a labor settlement. This played a big role in the 1994-95 strike and derailed labor talks earlier this month.

-- Eliminate salary arbitration. It's caused salaries to go up all because of the stupidity of some rich owners (*cough*Steinbrenner*cough*), forcing smarter but poorer owners (Oakland) to up their salary offers. (Or just throw Steinbrenner in the tank with Selig. )

-- Random drug testing.

-- Raise the mound two inches.

-- Keep the three divisions, but eliminate wild-card play. The team with the best record in each league gets a first-round bye and goes straight to the LCS. (Or, alternatively, add another wildcard slot. Each division champ gets a first-round bye while the wild card teams play a best-of-5 series to go on.)

-- Reduce interleague play to two three-game series per season (one per half).

-- Make the All-Star Game mean something again. Examples: Have it so the winner gets home-field advantage in the Series, or so that the winner determines whether the DH is used or not.

-- Remove baseball's anti-trust protection.

[monkspider]

I never thought I would want to see a union busted, but this one I most certainly do. I have never been a huge baseball fan, but what small ammount of love I have for the sport will be gone forever if they strike.

[Ming]

1) Hard salary cap
2) A set percentage of profits to go to the players with the owners books open to independent auditors
(and no funny stuff like with WGN, the Tribune Company and the Cubs)
2) Revenue sharing of all (local and national) broadcast fees
3) eliminate arbitration
4) No guaranteed contracts... but you can't cut an injured player.
5) Drug testing... one miss, rehab... second miss... toast time
6) Yeah... might as well make the All Star game mean something... good idea Vlad.

[Bosh]

City-owned teams could possibly help a bit, especially since cities seem to be footing the bill anyway and this would stop teams from committing such horrors as moving the Albuquerque
worked for green bay...

[Arrian]

No offense, but municpal ownership of teams would probably be disastrous. I want good management - which means keeping to a budget, hiring competent employees, and at the same time, knowing when to go for it all. Do you think a city government is capable of that?

I think Ming's idea of a set percentage of profits going to players plus transparency of the team's books has promise. It's radically different than what we have now, but it might work.

-Arrian

[monkspider]

When are they supposed to go on strike, by the way?

[DinoDoc]

In 4 days, IIRC.

[chequita guevara]

I think the fans are a bunch of whiners. Actually I think they're a bunch of jerks, demanding that these people entertain them in spite of the problems between the two sides.