Does baseball need a salary cap?
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Does baseball need a salary cap?
David Murphy, Daily News Staff Writer
First and foremost, Merry Christmas to everyone out there. Thought I'd throw one more thought out there for those of you still slaving away on this Christmas Eve.
Does baseball need a salary cap?
I ask this because Brewers owner Mark Attanasio pondered the idea in an interview with the Bloomberg News last night. The impetus for all this talk, of course, is the Yankees, who yesterday came from nowhere to sign free agent slugger Mark Texeira to an eight-year, $180 million deal, despite the fact that they had traded for first baseman Nick Swisher earlier in the offseason and had already locked up C.C. Sabathia and A.J. Burnett to long-term deals.
"At the rate the Yankees are going, I'm not sure anyone can compete with them," Attanasio told said via e-mail. "Frankly, the sport might need a salary cap."
It's an interesting thought, one that has always been a topic of conversation in baseball. I don't really have a personal opinion on it one way or the other, but I'd be interested to hear yours.
Comments (50)
Bud Selig is owned by the Yankees and other teams. He really is not a "Commissioner."- Salary caps do nothing more than enrich owners. If you are worried that the big market teams have too much of an advantage, why don't you demand that sports follow the same laws as everyone else and allow more teams to locate in the big markets? NYC had 3 teams in the 1950's and with new, smaller stadiums coming on-line over 1,000,000 in attendance will be displaced next year. 5 teams could thrive there now. Instead sports has uncompetitive legal status that restricts the # of teams, who can own a team, and where it can locate. If you think the result in a problem, the answer isn't more uncompetitive restrictions (salary cap). Communism doesn't work.— jtj06
- Also, realize that in MLB talent is locked up for 6 years with the original team. Most players who reach free agency are past their primes. So the Yankees have a roster of aging stars whose best seasons are in the past. How is that an advantage? Year after year, in sport after sport, titles are won by teams led by players in their late 20s, not their mid 30s.— jtj06
Mick-funny. I often ask myself that question. No system is ever perfect so there will always be inequalities....or fixes needed. Without guaranteeing revenue sharing being used for the purpose of fielding quality teams I don't think there's anything that can be done. Including a cap. The NFL is a well oiled machine and sells itself. MLB is far from that.— fuss77- How can you NOT have a cap? Remember when you were a kid and picked teams. One team got a guy, then the other team, then the first team, etc...Now in MLB, with NO CAP, it's like the Yankees take the first 5 guys, then everyone else starts picking.— phillybob
- In the '50s and early '60s as well as the late '90s much of the joy of baseball was taken out of the game for fans when you knew that it was a foregone conclusion that the Yankees would win the American League pennant and quite possibly the World Series every year. I'd impose a salary cap to limit their spending. Right now they have a natural advantage over more budget restricted-teams. There would certainly be players'nion resistance, but if owners had to shut down the sport for a year, the way the National Hockey League did in 2004-05, I'd be in favor of it in order to create a much fairer system and a more level playing field.— Dennis O.
- Yes.— philly psu 24
A salary cap is the owners dream. Cap his costs and allow him to set prices at whatever the market will bear. It's a great idea, but only if you own stock in a club. It does nothing for the fans or the players. The free market system has it's problems, but this is no solution.- NO,,, all that would do is make the owners WEALTHER!... what should stop is all the money Yankees and the redsox dish out in taxes and not being spent by the "smaller" markets... the yankees make money because they spend it! it's as simple as that! anybody who thinks different is blinded by the tight wads running their team! dont fault the Yankees and red sox for wanting to win,, blame the "smaller" markets for being cheap!— osi is hurt boohoo
- this is not baseball anymore..shame on the MLB purists...this is a joke.... the rays and marlins will compete with the yankees yea right...this is a flat out joke major league baseball is a joke..... a big fat joke...— donofrio
Comment removed.- MLB needs to get rid of Bud Selig ASAP. This worthless man is letting the great game go to the dogs. A salary cap won't help anything if there isn't strong and capable leadership from the commish.— Timmy
- Baseball, like the other three major sports, should have a salary cap for the same reasons, to allow all teams to compete. No luxury tax, if a team should decide to spend in excess of the cap, disqualify them from post season play. That will fix that problem real quick Ken— Titaniumklf
they almost had a salary cap in 2002 when they came a day from striking, but they than agreed on revenue sharing, which is worthless— jamarder- To Beef 69: the kind of cap on individual salaries you proposed would be s violation of anti-trust laws, and in any event won't go through. Also, insofar as it reduced the salaries of players already under contract, it would be unenforceable if imposed by MLB and unconstitutional if imposed by Congress. Unless the economic situation really impacts baseball revenues, I see no chance that a cap could be adopted under the current labor contract, and little chance even for a new contract when the current one expires.— judas_priest
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