I’d like to congratulate the Yankees on their 27th World Series title last night. Congratulations on essentially buying the World Series. Congratulations on winning the World Series in a league where more then half the league really can’t compete. So if you are a Yankee fan don’t take too much pride in winning again. When a Yankee fan brags about how good they are I sort of have the same response that I have when I was in high school and a 6 foot 10 inch guy dunks on me and the screams in my face, I look at him and say “Good job. Way to be tall!!” Now don’t misunderstand me I’m not bitter. Ok, maybe I’m a little bitter but something needs to be done.
Major League baseball needs to wake up and realize that while having the Yankees in the World Series every other year may be good for ratings today, but it hurts the game in the long run. How about the Kansas City Royals or the Baltimore Orioles? These are two franchises with rich histories and until something is done to correct the current inequities neither of them will likely ever sniff another World Series. In the National League you have teams like the Pirates and the Reds both of them also have a past filled with Hall of Famers, World Series titles, and unforgettable moments. But like the Royals and the Orioles the Pirates and the Reds may never make the playoffs again let alone a World Series.
With each passing year the gap between the Yankees and the rst of the league grows bigger and bigger. The pace at which this gap spreads will only quicken in the coming years as the Yankees begin to rake in the profits from their new stadium. Meanwhile teams like the Pirates and Royals will once again finish in last place and their fans will continue to feel alienated from a game and a team that they used to love. A fan base can only survive for so long without hope. The Cubs have been historically bad for a long time but Cubs fans have always had hope. I think hope died in a lot of cities last night if it was alive at all to begin with.
I’m not the Commish and I don’t claim to have all the answers but I do know baseball is broken and it needs to be fixed. For the sake of the survival of baseball in Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Kansas City, Baltimore, Washington, Tampa Bay, Miami, Milwaukee and Oakland do something. In the end the fate of each individual team is entwined with all the others. If the teams mentioned above collapse as their fan base evaporates the league itself won’t be able to really survive.