As the end of April looms, so do the deadlines for all of my final projects this semester. So while I continue writing and researching, none of what I am working on quite fits into a sports blog. (Sports fans haven’t shown a particular interest in Chinese social structure or the lifestyle of merchants in the Anhui Province at the end of the Qing Dynasty, so I’ll keep that research paper off the site.) Rest assured that this article drought will not last. Please bear with me. The school year will be over soon.
On the plus side, I have decided to take a break from the monotony of my projects in order to bring you the exciting conclusion of “A Modest Baseball Proposal.” Savor it, because it may be another two weeks before we can get together like this again.
In my last column, we explored the possibility of a global professional baseball tournament to be held annually in America. This tournament would be based on the UEFA Cup, and would be a monumental step in the globalization of baseball. This is step one in my quest to keep baseball from falling further behind football, NASCAR, and celebrity poker.
Step two is raising the stakes in MLB. As it stands, the worst things that could happen to your team are: 1) missing the playoffs/heartbreaking postseason elimination, 2) career threatening injury to a young star, 3) a lifelong losing tradition, 4) your team packing up and getting the hell out of dodge, Brooklyn-style.
These are all bad, but none guarantee humiliation for the fan base and the organization. This season, Newcastle United was on such a bad streak from Week 17 to Week 30, playing four games to a draw while losing the rest over the 13-week period, that the team was in real danger of finishing amongst the bottom three clubs in the league, and therefore being demoted to the Champions League.
The Champions League, despite its name, is not a place that Premiership teams want to be. It may well be the purgatory of soccer. Even if your team wins the championship at that level, all that really matters is that they will be promoted to the Premier League.
What better punishment would befit Major League organizations who annually field a team that cannot compete, then just sit back and enjoy all the revenue sharing that comes from the collective bargaining agreement? Do you think the Twins would have let Johan Santana and Torii Hunter go if they knew that they ran the risk of falling to an inferior league at the end of the season? Would Kansas City and Tampa Bay have taken so long to get their acts together? Would San Francisco have bet the farm on Barry Zito?
Teams today have the luxury of revenue sharing and rebuilding years. There is no punishment for terrible play and management. If we want teams to start playing better, then it is time to start a new era in baseball. I call it, the “High Stakes Era”.
Wouldn’t Pittsburgh fans like to see a meaningful game played in September without the Pirates trying to play “spoiler” to some other team’s playoff chances. The whole month of September would be very meaningful if the Bucs started the month two games below the last team to avoid relegation.
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