Cap This

Evan Drellich did a story in The Athletic the other day about a possible salary cap in baseball. The crocodile tears shed by owners is nothing short of hilarious: Good of the game, competitive balance, blah, blah, blah. If small- and mid-market teams were starved for revenue, they would be dusting off blueprints of the old Yankee Stadium, which early on after its 1923 opening could seat over 80,000 fans. Instead, the A’s are building a stadium in Las Vegas with a capacity of just 33,000. Why not go after those extra fans as a way to close the revenue gap with the big guys? Because a salary cap is so much easier for the lazy set, that’s why. Drellich quotes Rockies’ owner Dick Monfort, who told the Denver Gazette last season, “The only way to fix baseball is to do a salary cap and a floor. Something’s got to happen. The competitive imbalance in baseball has gotten to the point of ludicrosity now. It’s an unregulated industry.” Beware rich people calling for regulation of their business. Forget for a moment that the Rockies are a terrible organization and have been for a long time; they last finished over .500 in 2018. What I really find amazing is how owners think they bring something of value to the game, that fans go to the ball park to see the people in the owners’ suite and not the players on the field. If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a hundred times. No salary cap in baseball without a windfall profits’ tax on the sale of teams, with that money going to the players.