MiddleClassSports.com

Baseball will always be America’s national pastime. I recognize that the NFL is America’s most popular sport right now, but being most popular is not the same as being the pastime. Baseball is, and will forever be, part of American culture. It was there during the Great Depression, during and after each of the World Wars and, in our lifetimes, it was there after 9/11. No one remembers a football game that helped us to move on after 9/11. In a time of crisis, we turned to baseball.

The first baseball game after 9/11 was played at Shea Stadium. The Mets and Braves, rivals in the NL East, met on a heavy September night. There was a tearful and moving opening ceremony, followed by a tearful and moving game that saw the Mets win it on an 8th-inning Mike Piazza home run. A month later, the country gathered to watch the second-best World Series ever between the D-Backs and Yankees, and even though the New York team lost, we were able to heal a bit more.

In many ways, our sport reflects our nation. What few people realize, however, is that this is most true within the economics of the sport.

We are a mixed capitalist society. We do not have an entirely free market. There is some government regulation overseeing our economy, distributing some of the wealth from rich to poor, and passing laws to prevent monopolies, among other items of oversight.

The alternative to capitalism is socialism, which requires more involvement on a day-to-day basis by our government. It’s the choice for those who want to see universal health care, distribution of wealth and more.

Now, look at the sports world. The NFL, NBA and NHL have something called “salary caps.” As a sports fan, you know the term very well. The league collects all of the revenues from each team and pools them together. Then, they set a spending limit, or salary cap, for each team. It is the same for everyone. Teams are then allowed to spend that money designated to them on the players they want to obtain or keep.

This system is heralded as one of parity. Every team, no matter what market it comes from, has an equal playing field. If you’re the Indianapolis Colts, you can compete with the New York Giants. If you’re the Milwaukee Bucks, you can compete with the Los Angeles Lakers.

Take a look at baseball. It’s a capitalist sport. Teams collect their own revenues and spend their own money. It doesn’t matter if you are in a big or small market; you are expected to do the best you can with what you have.

This has created an uneven playing field. Many “experts” decry baseball as being only a two-team sport. On the national level, no one cares about half of the teams, they say, because, before the season starts, they don’t have a chance to compete for the championship. Pittsburgh and Milwaukee and Minnesota and Oakland cannot compete with New York and Los Angeles and Boston because they don’t have the money. The teams with the money have the greater chance to win.

This is true to some extent. Certainly, the margin for error is smaller for a small-market team. Two years ago, when Francisco Liriano went down to an injury, the Minnesota Twins had no one to replace him. When this happens to the Yankees or Red Sox, they simply look for someone else to sign.

Baseball has made some changes, just like America has changed. Baseball is not a fully capitalist sport, just like America is not a fully capitalist country. MLB has implemented a luxury tax, which means that if a team spends more than a certain amount designated by the sport, that team is taxed a percentage of each dollar over the limit. It’s a tax on the rich that is distributed to the poor.

Let no one tell you that mixed capitalism in sports doesn’t work. Sure, in the 90’s, the rich got richer and bought World Series titles, but, folks, that isn’t happening anymore. The Royals and the Pirates are not losing because they are poor; they are losing because their owners don’t care enough about them to win. The same goes for the Orioles and Rangers. Teams like the A’s, Twins and Marlins have developed the way to win with less money. Look at the World Series champions of this decade. There has been only one team that has won multiple championships (the Boston Red Sox). The Marlins have won the same number of titles as the Yankees in the 2000’s. Where is the lack of parity?

Baseball will always be our sport. It may not generate the TV ratings due to its design, and it may not have the stars that other sports have, but it is our sport.

It is American.

It is America.