Bleacher Report - Articles by Matthew Donato

WBC a Must-See for American Fans

Matthew Donato — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 00:28:43 -0400

American sports legends are built on gritty underdog stories. They are the plot line to every sports movie, the magic of the NCAA Tournament, and the dream of every sports obsessed child.

Sports media devour these stories to pull at the heart strings of impassioned viewers and readers and to capture the attention of the casual or indifferent passer by.

It is rare if ever that a story of this magnitude could seemingly pass through the filter of modern media and not get the attention it rightfully deserves, but on Mar. 10, for the second time, the Netherlands defeated the Dominican Republic in the World Baseball Classic, knocking them out of baseball’s version of the World Cup.

The Netherlands boast only two active major league players, (CF Greg Halman of the Seattle Mariners and SP Rick VandenHurk of the Florida Marlins), and neither player is featured on their team’s active depth charts.

The Dominican Republic took the field to oppose the Dutch with 23 current major-league ballplayers, including four that played in last year’s All-Star game.

Traditional sports viewers understand the impact of this upset and appreciate it as the Dutch version of USA 4-USSR 3, but casual Americans still cannot get overly involved in a world competition of the national pastime where the finals take place on their home soil.

The arguments are clear. Fans want the players of their team to focus on preparing for the only season that matters to those fans. They do not want their stars getting injured in an exhibition.

They want their players to get the same amount of at-bats as they would in spring training. What those same fans also feel but cannot say is this: Baseball is our game, and winning this tournament only verifies that further, whereas if we lose, we must hear about our collapse and the rise of our sport in other markets.

It will be international basketball in the years before the Redeem Team all over again. Too much to lose. Too little to gain.

As a fanbase, we must accept that the sport has grown beyond our borders. Its continued growth depends on international interest, and events like the World Baseball Classic are the best way to promote baseball against other sports.

Fans of the other countries in the tournament have made the event into their own World Series, and we as fans, with our stars involved, should not feel like we are above it.

Players find inventive ways to injure themselves all the time (cross reference Sosa, Sammy, and sneezing). If they do get injured, what difference does it make if it is in a spring training exhibition or the World Baseball Classic?

In Europe, professionals in each of the premier leagues leave their teams for a short time when chosen to play for their countries in international competition. It is seen as a privilege and an honor for the players, and a necessary dilemma for their teams, who are happy to know that they have such promotable players on their squad.

This is a chance for fans of different clubs to set aside their differences. New York fans and Boston fans can cheer along side each other as Derek Jeter and Dustin Pedroia turn an inning ending double play.

Best of all is that the tournament produces a postseason energy.

As printed on ESPN.com, San Diego Padres pitcher Jake Peavy said after a narrow victory for the United States against Canada, "This is a playoff atmosphere. Everything is on the line, you're doing everything you can to win and advance in this tournament, and playing for your country just takes that through the roof. It's as good an atmosphere as it gets, I believe."

The World Baseball Classic is a gift to fans who love competitive baseball. These exhibitions may have nothing to do with our favorite clubs, but they are certainly not meaningless, and all who watch already have a favorite team by default.

On Mar. 17, with the bases loaded and one out in the bottom of the ninth, the United States trailed by two runs. Kevin Youkilis walked to bring the team within one of tying the game, and David Wright singled in two more to not only eliminate Puerto Rico, but to send the United States into the tournament semifinals.

In a scene that used to come only in the playoffs, Wright was mobbed around second base by the overjoyed children who had moments before been some of the highest paid professional players in the game. The Olympics are shown on network stations. This game was shown on the MLB network.

Steroids in Baseball: Tinker to Evers to a Second Chance

Matthew Donato — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 07:16:02 -0400

It was so noticeable in its absence, like a recently passed loved one at a large family gathering.

Before this defeat, it had been an unyielding symbol of pride and tradition. Both man and mother nature herself had tried to stop it, even for only a little while, and yet it had prevailed.

Now October of 1994 was without its festivities, and it was as unbelievable as Memorial Day without a parade, or the Fourth of July without fireworks.

The World Series, which had persisted perennially despite World Wars, an earthquake, and anything else that could stand in its way, was not held for the first time since 1904.

Had it happened, fans would likely have been treated to a series featuring the Montreal Expos and the New York Yankees, and perhaps this chance at a championship would have been the thing that saved baseball in Montreal.

Instead, it became a bitter insult to the fans of the league, because it was not war or a natural disaster or anything insurmountable attacking from the outside that prevented the end of the 1994 season—it was a disease that rotted from within.

Major League Baseball collapsed upon itself in a labor dispute and locked out many of its most loyal fans. Attendance plummeted as many fans were not eager to forgive the league and the players for being so blind in their lust for money.

There seemed to be no revival in sight. America was moving on, and Major League Baseball was being left behind.

Hope for the sullied tradition revealed itself in 1998, in the form of a year-long Home Run Derby that gripped the nation. Three players—Ken Griffey, Jr., Sammy Sosa, and Mark McGwire—would take aim at the single-season record of 61 home runs, set by Roger Maris in 1961, and two would surpass this most fabled mark.

Because of this chase, and because one of baseball's most hallowed records was in jeopardy, baseball became a hot topic again in America. It was debated and reveled like it hadn't been since before the player's strike, and attendance across the league began to noticeably increase.

Today, we know that at least one of those players who helped save baseball with his incredible home run tally that season, Mark McGwire, was using steroids. Although steroid use was not meant to last in baseball, its brief impact revived the league, and despite its many evils, succeeded in doing many good things.

One negative that did emerge once it became clear that players were using steroids were the dishonestly broken records, and many fans felt that they had been drawn back into their relationship with baseball under false pretenses.

Once it was revealed by the Associated Press' Steve Wilstein that McGwire had taken androstenedione, the joyous story of his home run record became a debate about greatness and integrity that has only swollen further in the decade since.

Now greats like Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens have also come under fire with allegations of their own steroid use. Just how good were these players? Would they have been Hall of Famers without the help of steroids? How do they compare with the hitting and pitching legends that came before and after them who did not participate in the abuse of steroids?

Fortunately, baseball is not completely about statistics. It is difficult to compare numbers between any two eras due to all the variables, and adding unknown steroid use makes it almost impossible. Every baseball fan has his or her own favorite players, and will rank players differently from other fans.

Even though Barry Bonds has the most home runs now, fans are still well within their rights to argue that Hank Aaron is still the home run king, that Babe Ruth is still the greatest power hitter of all time, or that Josh Gibson could hit the ball further than any man who has ever lived.

A player's greatness is all based on opinion, with statistics there only to back it up, and that will never change.

Because of this, steroid use is just another variable, such as the height of the mound or the distance of the mound from the plate, that has not remained consistent throughout the history of the game.

Another problem that surfaced once some of baseball's heroes were exposed as steroid users was how parents would be able to explain the situation to their children. This was especially problematic for parents whose children were old enough to understand the concept of steroid use, and had the means to obtain it.

Although suspected and proven steroid users across the league have found success in multi-million dollar contracts, awards, and postseason success, parents and society still have to prove that these men did so without honor and, because they cheated, have lost their credibility.

Rafael Palmeiro was ready to become one of the few men in Major League Baseball history to accumulate 3,000 hits and 500 home runs in his career when he appeared before the United States House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. While pointing his finger at the questioning senators, he declared that he had never used steroids in his life.

Later that same year, Palmeiro was suspended for 10 games for taking what the New York Times reported was a steroid called Stanozolol.

Parents can use Palmeiro as an example about how the public feels about those who cheat to get ahead. Players like Palmeiro are the opportunity within this crisis.

No matter how successful he was in his career, or how much he earned during that career, he will never receive the same amount of respect, even in the cities he played for, as those who do not fall under the shadow of steroids.

The Mitchell Report may not have even happened were it not for the United States House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform's investigation into steroid abuse within Major League Baseball and the inability to police the illegal use of such drugs by its players.

The committee was worried that teenagers were being tempted to use steroids based on the example that professional players were setting. Those who spoke before the committee were Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa, Curt Schilling, Frank Thomas, Jose Canseco, and as previously mentioned, Rafael Palmeiro.

During his opening statement in regards to a player being asked if they have used steroids, McGwire said, “If a player answers 'No,' he simply will not be believed. If he answers 'Yes,' he risks public scorn and endless government investigations."

In the court of public opinion, most sluggers of this era are already considered guilty. Every era of baseball had power hitters, and if they could hit so well without using steroids, then there is a chance that some sluggers of the last decade or two were able to perform at that level on their own.

Baseball has had many great hitters during this era, including Ken Griffey, Jr., Vladimir Guerrero, and Manny Ramirez, whose integrity has never come into question.

Jose Canseco, who before testifying before the House Committee had written a book about his use of steroids over his career that also named a few other players as having injected or purchased steroids, requested immunity for his testimony.

When it wasn't granted, he kept his answers guarded, but he chastised the media for blaming the players when it was Major League Baseball that condoned the behavior of the players by not testing properly for steroids.

In an interview before his testimony, Canseco estimated that 85 percent of professional baseball players were using steroids at some point. Curt Schilling would later plead that the committee and the nation should not listen to Canseco, flatly stating, “He's a liar.”

It may be that Canseco was merely trying to promote himself with his book and return to the spotlight, but McGwire's insistence that he did not want to talk about the past and avoidance of questions about his alleged illegal steroid use, along with Palmeiro's staunch testimony that would soon blow up in his face, discredited them in the long run.

Although the government decided not to seek perjury claims against Palmeiro because they were unable to determine whether he had taken steroids before his testimony to the United States House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, or if he did for his first time afterwards, Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens are both currently under investigation for perjury regarding their steroid use.

If they are found to have lied under oath, then there will be solid grounds to use them as examples in the same way that Palmeiro was vilified for his hypocrisy.

Parents do not need much more than the stories of these men and their career- and life-altering choices to prove to their children that steroids can come with dire social consequences, even without the specifics of their dire health effects.

Nobody wants the baggage that would come from being the next vilified superstar, and the peer pressure of a nation that disapproves of the use of steroids could help discourage young athletes from taking the drug.

The Mitchell Report claimed to have found enough evidence on 86 current and former major league players to have listed them in Congress's official steroid investigation.

Most of this evidence came from the investigation into the Bay Area Laboratory Cooperative (BALCO), the testimony of former New York Mets clubhouse attendant Kirk Radomski, the testimony of former New York Yankees personal trainer and conditioning coach Brian McNamee, and newspaper reports, although one player admitted his use in a phone interview for the investigation.

The overwhelming majority of evidence came from the Radomski testimony, who was cooperating with officials in exchange for a lighter sentence after pleading guilty to distributing steroids and money laundering.

Since so much of the evidence came from one source that had something to gain from his testimony, it would not take much to believe that there were more players involved in steroid abuse that the investigation failed to reveal, or players who were falsely accused.

Because of this, it is difficult to accept this report as being the definitive list of professional baseball players that participated in steroid abuse. Considering the Mitchell Report has been the most extensive investigation into steroids within Major League Baseball, there is a good chance that some players who participated in steroid abuse will never be brought to light.

Since fans cannot control the situation and will never know the complete truth about the practice of steroid abuse among Major League Baseball players, it may be best to accept the steroid era as a time when huge offensive numbers and scandal renewed baseball and made it relevant again.

The announcement of the Mitchell Report kept baseball in the front pages, even though it was the offseason, and the speculation of steroids in baseball has been a feature of news broadcasts for years, catching the attention of Americans who otherwise would not have cared much about baseball.

Dating back to May of 2002, the Vanderbilt University News Archive has counted 165 stories about steroids and baseball on CNN, Fox News, NBC, CBS, and ABC—and that does not even count the stories featured on ESPN or any other cable sports channel.

Some in the public relations field argue that all publicity is good publicity, and for better or for worse, America was enthralled with what was happening in baseball.

Baseball players have been trying to get an edge for as long as the game has existed. These methods vary from superstitious acts, like Wade Boggs's pre-game chicken meal or Nomar Garciaparra's adjustments between pitches, to illegal maneuvers like sign-stealing, scuffing baseballs before they are pitched, or Gaylord Perry's spitball.

It was even said that back in his playing days, Ty Cobb would sharpen his cleats so that when he had to slide into second base on a steal, the player covering would hesitate to apply the tag for fear of serious injury.

Steroids were, at the time they started being used, simply the next in line on the progression of cheating within the sport. Had they been more available in previous years, then the problems they caused would have started earlier, and dealt with in the same way earlier.

The players of today are no better or worse morally than players of any other era. They just had access to the steroids.

This will not stop players from looking for an edge either. There is too much at stake for them and their families. Players struggling to stay in the league want to keep being paid professional baseball player money, and players who are above average want to be paid superstar money.

Players already get eye surgery to artificially improve their vision. Who is to say that in the future there will not be surgeries to make muscles more durable and faster, a type of medication that would let you make better pitch decisions, or a drink that would make you run faster? How would the public accept players that took these advantages?

There will always be players who are willing to go first and test the waters. Steroid abuse was not always illegal in baseball. When Mark McGwire admitted to taking androstenedione during the 1998 season, it was not banned in Major League Baseball.

Getting an edge on the competition is part of human nature. It is something people seek in a working environment to make them stand out and get a job done better.

Working men and women are always after the latest technology to make their lives easier, and if your job is your body, then steroids during this latest era was that technology.

I have been good friends with some men who admit to having used steroids in the past. Their claim at the time (2004) was if steroids are taken in the proper dosage and are used on a cycle, then they would have no adverse health effects.

Researchers have discovered that use of anabolic steroids can lead to, among other things, tumors, acne, and infertility. Since my friends were not qualified researchers, one must take the word of the scientists who did the study.

In defense of the friends though, their claim was made before Major League Baseball was under investigation, and steroid research findings had not yet been brought to the forefront.

This has been another positive outcome of baseball's steroid scandal—these friends have since stopped using steroids because they are now aware of what could happen to their bodies if they continued abusing steroids. They may not have found out if baseball had not made it a front page issue.

It is a situation similar to tobacco use in the past. People used to think that it could not hurt you but now know better thanks to high profile research. Without Major League Baseball's scandal, steroids may never have undergone such high profile research.

Baseball players are part of a fraternity, and that fraternity is governed by the rules set forth by Major League Baseball. If one player like Jose Canseco found success with the help of steroids and had no repercussions from the league, other players who might not have taken steroids on their own would have taken his lead and begun using themselves, thinking that under the new circumstances, it was completely acceptable.

Doris Lessing wrote in her essay “Group Minds” that it only takes one person in a group to step over the line of what is acceptable without anyone else in the group stopping him for that thing that was once immoral and unacceptable to all of a sudden become acceptable.

The players waited for Major League Baseball to stop them, and Major League Baseball felt it had too much to lose by putting an end to their practices. This stalemate could have continued indefinitely had Congress not stepped in.

For all of its strengths and weaknesses, the steroid era brought about the revival of fans. In 1993, the last full season before the strike, the average Major League team drew 2,509,212 fans over the course of the season.

In 1995, the first full season after the strike, the average team only drew 1,802,472 fans over the course of the season.

By the home run chase of 1998, attendance had climbed back up to 2,353,371 fans over the course of the season, but the the number of fans that would go to support the average baseball team would not pass its record high from 1993 until the 2006 season.

Last season, with steroids under investigation and all the buzz about stricter testing and reform swirling around the league, attendance for the league as a whole jumped by a total of 3,488,145 fans.

Purging the league of steroids was the final act in the circle to entice new fans with more home runs and offense in general, and then make a scandal of it that caught everyone's attention, completely redeeming Major League Baseball from its strike.

This also brought about a new generation of fans who were too young to remember the bitterness of 1994, as well as casual fans who got caught up in the scandal and front page news that baseball had become.

The investigations into the health risks that surrounded steroids also became focal news topics, opening the eyes of many young athletes who felt that steroid use could be done without any adverse effects to their health. The exposure and subsequent humiliation of some of the sport's best players have been further examples of the social stigma that comes with cheating.

Steroids united fans with great offensive numbers, and then, upon their revelation, united fans against cheating. Now they have united fans by getting their sport back to the way it was meant to be played.

For all of its evils, steroids did a world of good, and we are better for it. We strengthened ourselves from this problem like one develops an immunity to a sickness after getting it once.

When historians look back on the steroid era, they will see something resembling the death and rebirth of a phoenix—with the ravages of age being the strike of 1994; the flames being the inflated offensive numbers, shattered records, and government investigations; and the healthy young phoenix that is reborn as the state of baseball now and in the future.

Attendance at games are higher than ever, the sport is gaining popularity in other parts of the world, and to the delight of all baseball fans in this new world, the game will be clean again—at least until the next artificial advantage comes around.

MLB: A Modest Proposal, Pt. 2

Matthew Donato — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 05:33:46 -0400

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.

Newcastle is among the most storied football clubs in England. If they fall to relegation, their rivals would show them no mercy for it. Imagine if Detroit or St. Louis were to flop this season and be relegated. (Detroit is just happy this system isn’t in place after the season’s dreadful start.) Cubs and Indians fans wouldn’t just laugh and say “Your team sucks.” They would say, “Your team sucks and they don’t belong in our league. Come talk to us again when you’ve proven yourself.”

How definitive and final of an argument is that? There is no comeback. After a loss like that, all you can do is bandage yourself up, train harder, win at the lower level, and come back seeking revenge. Wait! That sounds like the plot to any sports movie!

Teams and fans of teams that move up or down from any league would have a huge chip on their shoulder. On the 20th of this month, when Sunderland, (who played their way into and out of the Champions League over the last two seasons), comes to play archrival Newcastle, it will be that much more meaningful, because Sunderland has had to endure an entire season of their rival neighbor’s taunts about their relegation without any form of comeback.

If they can win on the pitch, then all of a sudden, the Mackems have the upper hand again. With so little success this season, Newcastle would be desperate to keep at least these bragging rights. With so much at stake, one can only expect this match to be a slugfest. Personally, I can’t wait.

So, now the question is, “How does one go about reorganizing baseball to have a hierarchy of leagues?” I’m glad you asked.

In England, there are four professional leagues: Premier League, Champions League, League 1, and League 2. If you add up all the clubs representing those leagues, you get 92 teams. In America, there are currently 62 professional independent teams playing in various leagues across the country and in Canada. If you add those teams with the 30 MLB clubs, you get 92 teams. (I’ll give you a minute so you can start to piece this together yourself and imagine how awesome this could be.)

As we all know from the downfall of hockey, expansion isn’t always best for making the league more competitive or marketable, but this is the combination of expansion and compression. The Premier League, (America will give our version some forced national pride name like “Patriot League” or the “Freedom League”, even though it would be much better to name the leagues after four of the five original inductees into the Baseball Hall of Fame: Ruth League, Wagner League, Mathewson League, and Johnson League. Cobb had the personality of a feral dog, so I’m leaving him out, even though it may be better to name the lowest league after him), only has 20 teams competing in it, thus eliminating the 10 teams in baseball that have the worst records and have fallen to the level of speed bump on the road to the playoffs for major teams.

The Ruth League teams only play each other, raising the level of competition. (I understand the DH is going to be an issue on this one, so we will assume that teams that formally played in the AL will either keep it for their home parks as they do now, or the rule is dropped all together and the game is played the way it was always supposed to.)

The 10 MLB teams that are dropped will join the champions of each of the current Independent leagues, as well as the runners up from each league except the Continental Baseball League and United League Baseball. (They only have four and six teams in their leagues. I know the Northern League only has six as well, but they have been around longer, and have seniority.) The last two leagues will be filled up accordingly, based on the talent of the league the team was in and its standing at the end of the season.

The top four teams in each league will make the playoffs, with the one seed playing the four seed and the two seed playing the three seed in a best of seven series to make it to the finals.

Of the four playoff teams, the one seed and the two seed are guaranteed promotion, based on their performance during the regular season. Whichever team makes it furthest in the playoffs between the three and four seed will also be promoted. If both lose in the first round, then the three seed moves on by virtue of the regular season record tiebreaker. This way, the playoffs for lower level leagues will still have a captivating storyline to go along with the excitement that already comes from playoff baseball.

So, let’s take a look at how the first two leagues would be filled if this reorganization had started at the beginning of this season. (I’d put in the bottom two leagues as well, but I don’t know enough about the quality of each Independent League to compare teams in different leagues and categorize them in this new system. Somebody out there does, and if this reorganization ever actually takes place, that person will surely be hired.)

(Please note, these teams are not listed in any order, they just had the top 20 records in the MLB last season. I also considered dropping the bottom 5 from each league, but I decided it would be better for controversy, buzz, and NL fans to cry foul because more of their teams are being dropped.)

Ruth League

Philadelphia Phillies

New York Mets

Atlanta Braves

Chicago Cubs

Milwaukee Brewers

St. Louis Cardinals

Arizona Diamondbacks

Colorado Rockies

San Diego Padres

Los Angeles Dodgers

Boston Red Sox

New York Yankees

Toronto Blue Jays

Cleveland Indians

Detroit Tigers

Minnesota Twins

Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim

Seattle Mariners

Oakland Athletics

Texas Rangers

Wagner League

Baltimore Orioles

Tampa Bay Rays

Kansas City Royals

Chicago White Sox

Pittsburgh Pirates

Florida Marlins

Cincinnati Reds

Houston Astros

Washington Nationals

San Francisco Giants

Ft. Worth Cats

St. Paul Saints

Newark Bears

Somerset Patriots

Nashua Pride

Atlantic City Surf (Replacing the North Shore Spirit, which disbanded)

Tarrant County Blue Thunder

Windy City Thunderbolts

Washington Wild Things

Chico Outlaws

Long Beach Armada

Gary SouthShore RailCats

Fargo-Moorhead RedHawks (Replacing Calgary Vipers, who switched leagues)

Alexandria Aces

If this is how we were entering the season, how nervous would Oakland and Texas fans be? How excited would people be in Newark and Nashua, just knowing that they had a chance to Cinderella themselves to the top, and perhaps gain their own identity instead of associating themselves with Boston and New York.

A team from Fargo is one brilliant season away from the Ruth League? North Dakota wouldn’t know what to do with itself in the celebration. It will probably take years for Independent teams to really make a splash against clubs that have luxuries like a farm system and boatloads of cash, but those things do not guarantee success. If nothing else, this will keep teams like Florida from phoning it in, and teams like Minnesota, who have one of the richest owners, if not the richest owner in baseball, to start using his money to keep the team competitive and relevant.

It will cause Baseball Tonight to turn itself into a four hour morning show, giving guys like me something to watch other than “Today” or “Good Morning America”, or the same repeated “SportsCenter” over and over. It will make the average game in the highest league that much better, and since it is only the best teams playing with only four playoff spots for 20 clubs, teams couldn’t take a series off.

The major benefactors are the fans. They get better competition, higher stakes, more to talk about, more meaningful games, taunting goes up a level in the case of a rival being relegated, new rivalries are formed, (Gary, Indiana finally gets a shot at Chicago), and places like Fargo and Chico don’t have to travel for hundreds of miles just to see top-level baseball in person.

Between the new organization of Major League Baseball and the UEFA-style tournament, baseball will reclaim its dominance here in America, and perhaps challenge soccer, rugby, cricket, and field hockey to become one of the most popular sports in the world. If nothing else, at least it will never be shut out of an Olympics, as it is planned to be for 2012. Baseball needs to reinforce itself in America and globalize further if it ever wants to be one of the world’s sports. I just hope we can make it past field hockey.