Both

Baseball is in equal parts beautiful and cruel. Anyone who ever stepped into Comiskey Park off of 35th Street can attest to the former; that lush green field practically jumped across the main concourse to greet fans. The Guardians’ fifteen-inning, walk-off win against the Rays on Saturday also qualifies. As for cruel, consider the Phillies’ the sweep of the Cardinals in their wild card series. If sentiment ruled in sports, the Cardinals would’ve taken two games in St. Louis, where the fans were hoping to see Albert Pujols and Yadier Molina stave off retirement until at least the NLDS. Instead, the Cards gave up six ninth-inning runs—all after one out and nobody on—to lose 6-3in game one before getting shut out 2-0 in game two. See you in…Cooperstown in five years, guys. The Mets losing to the Padres could qualify as either beautiful or cruel, depending on your perspective. Me, I see the team with the highest payroll in baseball ($282.7 million) lose two out of three, and it makes me think. Why do owners want a salary cap/luxury tax? Mets’ owner Steve Cohen didn’t care how much a winner cost. He bought and bought players until he thought he had enough talent for a World Series’ title. Nope. Between the humiliation and the cost of all those contracts, that’s true market discipline, folks. In my humble opinion, owners would be wise to drop the luxury tax for some kind of salary relief on arbitration. I have no problems with the most talented players getting the most they can, but the B players who cash in through arbitration? No, and if that makes me a mouthpiece for management, so be it. Of course, management wants no part of such a deal. That’s both stupid and sad.