Every major team sport argues about the same things to try and gain favor with fans. Most exciting, most fun, best stadium experiences, best fantasy sports leagues. But what exactly makes a sport the best from a consumer’s standpoint, maybe even frustratingly so? Parity, and only one league can claim to have the best right now: Major League Baseball.
Ten years ago, fans were praising the National Football League for its turnover in the playoff races. A team with just one solid free agency and draft period could seemingly go worst to first. In that time, dynasties still reigned and many teams continued to be mired in the muck at the bottom of the standings with no light at the end of the tunnel. Meanwhile, MLB was crushed for not having a salary cap. Fans and pundits alike felt that since the Yankees, Red Sox and Dodgers of the world could spend much more, the small market clubs did not stand a chance.
There are basic ways to back up my sentiments, such as the variety of championship winners in the three major sports over the last decade. If you just look at that, the NFL actually grades out the best, with seven of the last ten Super Bowl champions being unique winners. The National Basketball Association and MLB tied with six unique winners each. If we go a little deeper and look at how many different teams have competed for a championship in each sport over the last ten years, then MLB leads in parity with 13 different teams challenging for a World Series in that time frame. The NFL is second, with 12 and the NBA a distant third, with just half of the teams being unique to the Finals over the last decade.
If we want to look at a less numbers-based example and take one happening right now, the annual MLB trade deadline is a great example of how quickly the buyers become sellers and vice versa. Pitcher Scott Kazmir was traded from the Oakland Athletics to the Houston Astros Thursday, and this scenario is a perfect “Exhibit A” for my argument since the Athletics, who have made the playoffs the last three seasons, unloaded a key piece of that run to the suddenly resurgent Astros, who have lost a combined 203 games since moving to the American League West two years ago.
Eleven teams in the AL are within five games of a playoff spot post-All Star break, while an additional seven teams in the National League find themselves in the same boat. This has been the case the last few years after the addition of the second wild card, which has more teams feeling like major players for the postseason, and thus reducing the amount of deadline sellers. This conversely has keep the rich from getting richer by simply unloading a few measly prospects for an ace or power hitter wasting away on a club that has no idea how to build a contender.
Two examples of how baseball has changed for the better in the last decade are the aforementioned Astros and the New York Yankees. The Astros bided their time with young prospects and veteran minimum players while stocking their farm systems with ripe young players who were just a few years away from hitting the big leagues ready to contribute. They are now seeing the fruits of their labor with young players like All Star second baseman Jose Altuve who rode out the last place experiences the last few seasons and 20-year-old shortstop phenom Carlos Correa (whom I profiled in my “Future of MLB is Now” blog on Monday) who arrived in the bigs to much fanfare just three years after being drafted number one overall. The Yankees on the other hand, are finally returning to their roots after years of throwing cash at every hard throwing pitcher and left handed power bat alive. The mix of young superstars, homegrown talent, big priced free agents and cheap, resurgent veterans have a new look Yankees squad in first place after the All Star break with few notable challengers in sight. It’s a different look for the Pinstripes, but it appears to be one that suits them well.
The final two months of the season are quickly approaching, and things will heat up especially around September call up time. I tip my cap to Major League Baseball for proving that you do not need a salary cap or oodles of playoff spots in order for your league to be competitive and entertaining. Hopefully the other sports leagues are taking notes.
#ScottTake 
Leave a comment