MLB is Stupid!!!
As the 2006 Major League Baseball season opened in April, I found myself simply not caring. As a lifelong Oakland A's fan, my discontent with the organization's inability to keep its top players year after year has me so jaded that I am not only boycotting this season of MLB, but I am seriously considering quitting on baseball for good if something doesn't change to allow the A's (and other small market teams) to at least keep some of their top talent. Seeing my team basically become a "farm team" for the rest of the playoff contenders in baseball over the last four or five years has just gotten to be too much for me to take anymore.
It started for me after the 2001 season. After falling to the Yankees in the first round of the playoffs in five games for the second straight year (I still wonder what the hell Jeter was doing there when he made his back-handed flip to home plate!!!??), I was very fearful of what would happen next.
Jason Giambi was becoming a free agent, and there had been talk all season that the Yankees wanted him and wanted him bad. I knew that it was 50-50 at best that Giambi would be back. Then something happened.......Something that made me so pissed that I wound up boycotting baseball altogether in 2002!!! A couple of weeks after the World Series, the Raiders were playing the Broncos in Oakland on Monday Night Football. Giambi was there. He was decked out, head-to-toe in Raider Black. Melissa Stark tracked him down and did an interview with him before kickoff. He was all smiles!! You could hear the fans in the background chanting "MVP!!! MVP!!! MVP!!!" This made me actually believe that the A's had a shot at bringing Giambi back. Ten days later, Giambi signed with the Yankees. I was crushed. I still haven't completely gotten over that slap in the face from Giambi!! If he was never going to don the Green and Gold again, that mother-f*cker had no f*cking business showing up at my stadium that night!!!!!!! AND I MEAN NO F*CKING BUSINESS!!!! To show up at Oakland Coliseum that night to get his rocks off in front of the Oakland fans one last time before signing with the Yankees was classless!!
This occurrence led to my boycott of baseball in 2002. I had waited nearly a decade for the A's to become contenders again, and now that they were, their first significant free agent flies the coop. I knew the A's would probably still be good in 2002 (they made the playoffs again), but it didn't matter. After the Giambi fiasco, I needed a break. The 2002 season was the first time since the fifth grade that I hadn't followed baseball and the A's on a daily basis. If an A's game was on ESPN or FOX...I wouldn't watch. When A's highlights came on SportsCenter...I'd change the channel. Even when the 2002 A's had that 20-game win streak....I just didn't care. The 2002 season came and went, and I barely gave it a second thought.
Toward the end of the 2002 season, MLB actually avoided a work stoppage and agreed with its players on a new collective bargaining agreement. The parameters of the deal were actually supposed to level the playing field between the large and small market teams...or so we thought. With this agreement in place, I came back to baseball in 2003. The Giambi sting had begun to subside. The A's had a new AL MVP in Miguel Tejada. Eric Chavez had established himself as one of the best 3B in the game. The big 3(Hudson, Zito, Mulder) were still intact. Oakland had a new all-star caliber closer in Keith Foulke. And after a year off to "cool my jets," I was ready to return. 2003 was fun! The A's won the AL West again and despite ANOTHER first-round fifth-game loss in the playoffs (this time to Boston), 2003 was worth the ride. Unfortunately the off season came......here we go again.
Now it was Tejada's turn to test the free agent market, and right on cue.....he leaves. The Orioles signed Tejada, and I was now more furious than ever!!!! I was ready to boycott.....again. I just couldn't take it anymore. Then the unthinkable happened....The A's actually signed somebody!! During spring training 2004, the A's reached a long-term deal with Eric Chavez, who was going to be up for free agency himself at season's end. Like an idiot, I fell for it. I actually believed that this was a sign of things to come. I thought "Maybe now we'll start keeping some of these guys."
2004 was alright. The A's won 91 games but just barely missed the playoffs largely due to a bullpen that had 37 blown saves. When the off season started, I quickly realized that the Chavez contract was nothing more than a "token-signing" to pacify myself and other A's fans who were just as fed up with everyone leaving. Billy Beane and Co. wasted no time. Both Tim Hudson and Mark Mulder were traded to the Braves and Cardinals respectively, for no other reason than the fact that the A's knew they couldn't afford them when they each reached free agency in the next couple of years. Just a couple more playoff teams getting better through the use of the "Triple-A's."
A's departures since end of 2001.....Johnny Damon, Keith Foulke (Red Sox), Jason Giambi (Yankees), Mark Mulder, Jason Isringhausen (Cardinals), Tim Hudson (Braves) Miguel Tejada (Orioles), Jermaine Dye (White Sox). The list goes on and on. You could put together a frickin' All-Star team with these guys. I'm not saying we have to keep everybody, but some of them would be nice. As good as they've been in recent years, imagine how good the A's would've been if they could've kept just a few of these players.
It may take a new collective bargaining agreement that actually does level the playing field. It may take the new A's ownership showing that they actually do have the $$$ to keep some players. It may take the A's getting a new stadium. It may just take another season-long boycott. One way or another, it'll take some sort of significant change for me to give MLB another chance. As it stands now.....Baseball is stupid!!
Any Royals or Pirates fans agree with me?
Are you the fan of a small market team that is fed up with baseball too?
If baseball is your passion, tell me why I shouldn't quit on MLB.
Anyone think baseball's just fine the way it is and nothing needs to change? I really do want to hear all sides.
posted by Grey Stenhouse @ 3:25 PM
2 Comments:
I understand your feeling about the Giambi thing, but aren't you misplacing your anger? The problem is free agency not the smaller markets. Players fought and won the right to switch teams for big bucks before that no one moved much. Your problem isn't your market it's greed. Players aren't loyal and owners don't care. Owners are in it for the money and facilities so think about this again in slow motion and you might come up with a different answer.
The Lovely and Gracious
If you recall back when we were first choosing our blog topics, I said I wanted to go head-to-head with you on why there is nothing wrong with baseball not having a salary cap. Just a month later, I think that has again been proven.
Everybody whines and complains that the Yankees take all the good players but the bottom line is the Yankees still haven't won jack this century. The freaking Red Sox have won a title more recently than them (God that's a terrible thing to say). To be honest, I wouldn't be surprised if the Cubs capture a championship sooner.
Yes, free agency has made the Yankees a dominant force in the MLB year after year but they are finally paying the price. An aging Gary Sheffield, a washed up Jason Giambi and a retiring Bernie Williams will leave the Yankees scrambling these next few offseasons. Randy Johnson and Mike Mussina will be on their way out shortly and all the free agents in the world aren't going to put Humpty Dumpty back together again.
The Oakland Athletics are still playing right now. Maybe not for long, but how can you complain about a front office whose team qualifies for the MLB postseason each and every year??? There are Pirates fans out there who would kill for their team to have the success of the Oakland Athletics.
No, the A's can't seem to retain their players but does that mean baseball should change its policies so players can make less money working in smaller markets? Maybe the A's need to get over that hump and quit choking each and every season. It's not like their players are leaving and the team is struggling. Maybe then I'd have some sympathy. But when a big name player leaves and the team still has a 2-0 series lead the following season just to blow it, only the players and manager are to blame. Not the front office.
Last year I did extensive research on this subject for a project I did for class. I don't care to bore you with all the statistics that I found as to why baseball works fine the way it is. The best point made though may just be comparing baseball to a sport with a salary cap in professional basketball.
The NBA has a salary cap and still we see dynasty after dynasty. Since 1990, how many teams not named the Pistons, Bulls, Rockets, Spurs and Lakers have won the NBA Championship? Major League Baseball offers the spice of life as the past 16 years have produced a number of different champions. Including teams like the Minnesota Twins and Toronto Bluejays who fans continue to weep for.
Anything can happen in baseball, it's one of the reasons it's the greatest sport we have. It was proven just this offseason as the Tigers (whose biggest free agency aquisition this decade was Ivan Rodriguez) bounced out the high and mighty Yankees from the playoffs. If teams want to go out there and spend big bucks, that's fine. It doesn't guarantee anything. In fact, it only seems to make things more interesting as nobody roots for Goliath.
Brad G. Faye
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