Disclosure: This is not a humor piece.
After reading the Top Ten List provided by whoever compiled
it, I realized that as the minor league
landscape continues to change/erode I suspect that the emphasis on who we have
coming up is going to shift to "Who are we going to draft?" much like
it is in the other leagues.
The minors will be used for training ball players from Latin
America and the Caribbean (until they can figure out a way to do that without
paying) and to keep players ready for their call up the bigs.
Why pay to train players when the NCAA is prepared to not
pay them for you?
On one level it’s a bummer because killing the minor leagues
is just killing another part of America and Americana. Small town baseball is a wonderful thing as
most of us here will attest to.
But there is another level and, as much as it shocks me, I am going to defend the change.
Minor league
baseball takes HS kids with dreams and makes them choose between playing the
game they love, while having a shot at becoming a professional, with going to college.
Add a few thousand bucks to the deal and what 17 year old doesn’t jump at it?
However, virtually NONE of them make it. Even if they get as
far as AAA they will be (SHAMEFULLY) underpaid. At the end of their careers, shortened
by lack of talent or injury they are left in their 20’s with a HS diploma and a
jock's attitude towards life.
If MLB makes the shift to de-emphasizing the minors in favor
of the “College Draft” these kids will
be incentivized to take the scholarship.
I know, I know, the NCAA is a horrible an exploitive organization that
makes millions and millions of dollars off these kids. I get it. But… since, as I said before the vast majority of
them will not be MLB players at least they will get a better leg up on the rest
of their lives.
The benefit to the league is obvious, STARS! Ready made, free, stars!
Should the Yankees
take that pitcher from USC or the second
baseman from Arizona? I guess we should
watch a couple of college games or at least the College World Series which
translates to…
RATINGS! ESPN, Fox Sports, all of them. Finally, a reason to watch college baseball which, full circle, gives us back small-town baseball, because colleges and universities will still have that ten-dollar ticket we all crave. Well, until the playoffs.
Sure, you will have to sneak in your alcohol or other inebriant of choice, but that’s why G-d created the edible.
So, it’s a win-win-win-win-win. MLB doesn’t pay to train and gets built in
stars, The NCAA gets better TV deals, the networks get better ratings as well as pre-draft and draft day shows, the
players who don’t make it get an education (such as it is) and the fans get to
keep cheap, local baseball.
I can’t believe I’m saying this but, it works for me.
Posts
12 comments:
As long as Hal Steinbrenner gets to make more money by doing nothing, I am happy.
He is such a deserving guy.
It is difficult not to admire someone who strives for mediocrity.
It is enough just to be in the league.
And, one day, we will bring home our 28th ---WILDCARD.
See you at the bank, Hal.
Alphonso,
I hear you. My opinion of the front office hasn't changed. I just see the sense in the restructuring.
I will miss small town baseball. One of my favorite nights as a spectator was watching the Billings Mustangs on a perfect summer night in July.
I know it won't be the same. Sucks.
But as I wrote, I get it. Doesn't mean I like it. But I get it. Or, as Chris Rock once said, "I don't condone it. But I understand."
Doug K.
Interesting thoughts, Doug K., but I don't know if that will happen.
Thinking from the POV of MLB: If you're a cartel, be a cartel.
In other words, when you're everywhere and control everything, why pull back? That way only danger lies.
Right now, minor-league ball is not a very cheap—and often subsidized—way to develop talent. It's also a great advertisement for your product, sorry, game, appearing all over the country.
You cut that loose, and you're just begging more independent leagues to spring up like toadstools. Independent minor leagues lead to another big league—which is how the AL first came into being...
...What's more, NCAA football and basketball players now seem a hairsbreadth away from gaining professional status. If that happens, so much for your "free" ballplayers.
A much more rational plan?
MLB should pour some money into funding high school teams and amateur leagues in the D.R. and elsewhere. Sure, it will cost something up front, but you'll end up saving much more on NOT trying to judge the talent of 16-year-olds.
Hoss, if MLB has one thing in abundance, it's hubris. Doug's plan just might be to their liking. I mean, how many billionaires would you need to start an alternative league these days? At least ten or twelve, I'd guess. Then you'd need to find cities and find or build stadiums that are at least on the level of MLB's. That's a lot of shekels. And a lot of development time. And battling Japan for the American players who might be willing to jump. I mean, the ABA had a nifty basketball design, but I don't see it around these days.
In fact, even if a rival league could get off the ground, recent history in, say, football would point to a fizzling out or, at best, absorption into the established game. Given the relative popularity of baseball as a sport in general, I lean toward the fizzling.
So, lots to consider about this. Doug's idea may sound crazy, but it just might work.
Hey Doug,
Billings as in Billings, Montana?
My family is from Kalispell.
Do you live there?
Alphonso,
Yeah, Billings, Montana. It's Reds affiliate if I recall.
That's very cool that your family is from there.
I live in Sacramento after years in SF, LA, and The Coachella Valley but I've always been prone to walkabouts and ended up spending a few days in Billings for no reason other than it was on a map.
Nice town. Nice ball park. Great night of watching baseball. I have a cap somewhere. I should go look for it.
BTW if you are a working stand up and were during the 80's it is entirely possible that we know each other. Never did it my self but wrote for over 20 of them. Spent 14 years in LA.
If you want to get my email address from Hoss or Duque that's OK with me. I'm kind of curious.
Doug K.
I dunno, JM. I still say the idea of a cartel is to be everywhere.
If you're Standard Oil, you don't just say, one bright morning, "To hell with those rubes up in Bedford Falls! Let them get their own gasoline, and kerosene, and motor oil."
The next thing you know, young George Bailey has left the Savings & Loan to invent his own form of "Bedfordline." Then, backed by Old Mr. Potter over at the bank, he's selling it in Rome and Utica and Syracuse. Pretty soon fellas are saying that their flivver runs smoother on it, and it's a dime less a gallon. Next, somebody sneaks it into New York City...
All the hurdles you mention are there—and all could come down in a hurry if, say, the general agreement falls apart. And again: why remove this advertisement for the majors from town after town?
Hoss,
It's interesting... The current structure of how MLB finds its players probably exists because the sport was around and successful before the advent of the college feeder system.
Pro Football and Basketball leagues had the advantage of tapping into it and didn't really have to deal with minor leagues. Yes there were local teams but they were not affiliated. (There might be exceptions)
The NBA's G League is an interesting development and the NFL was trying to use the XFL as a development league but colleges do all the heavy lifting.
I suspect if baseball came into it's own in the 40's-50s as opposed to the turn of the (20th)century this would have been the case for them as well. So it might just be a market correction. And again not saying I love it but does make sense given the realities of modern sports.
Doug K.
One other thought...
College football and basketball are both way more interesting than college baseball but I think it's because most of the good to great baseball players go into the MLB system so the college bb game is a watered down one.
When all the best HS athletes start joining college programs the game will improve dramatically.
Doug K.
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