IS A SALARY CAP THE ONLY WAY TO STOP THE EVIL YANKEE EMPIRE FROM TAKING OVER THE WORLD?

By English Paul…

A.J. Burnett; $82.5 million over five years; CC Sabathia; $161 million over seven years; Mark Teixira; $180 million over eight years.  According to Forbes Magazine, sixteen of the thirty MLB teams are worth less than what the Yankees paid for Burnett, Sabathia and Teixira.

As a result of the ridiculous amount of money, which New York has been throwing around recently, there’s once again talk about the need for a salary cap.  This is one of those subjects, which you could spend all day discussing.  I’m not going to go quite that far, but I decided to dedicate an entire column to the subject.

Before writing this article, I was among the legions of people who are all for a salary cap in baseball.   I thought it would be interesting to try and be more objective.  As such, I decided to write this piece as if I was someone who was against the introduction of a salary cap.  My research uncovered some surprising results.

I just wanted to make that point, because you may think I’m a Yankees fan after reading this piece.  For the record, I’m a Toronto Blue Jays fan and (sort of) proud of it.

Ok, let’s talk about what actually is in place in the MLB, more specifically, the luxury cap.   The luxury cap is calculated annually.  Any teams, which go over the set figure, are taxed on the excess amount.  The money is then distributed however the MLB deems appropriate.  Normally, this will include giving a good portion of the funds to the lower revenue teams around the league.

It won’t surprise you to know that the Yankees are the only team to have exceeded the payroll limit every year since the luxury tax was first implemented (in 2003.)  Second to New York are the Boston Red Sox  (again, no surprise), who’ve had to pay the luxury tax on three occasions (between 2004-07).  Finally, the L.A. Angels of Anaheim (2004) and the Detroit Tigers (2008) have each been penalised once.

In total, the Yankees have paid over $148.5 million since 2003.  The Red Sox had to pay $13.9 million.  The Angels and the Tigers have made out cheques for $927,000 and $1.3 million respectively.  So overall, more than $164.6 million has been given to the MLB.  In effect, going over the luxury cap has proved to be beneficial to only one team and that’s the Red Soxs, who won the World Series two out of the three times they exceeded the limit.

A lot of people have concluded that the luxury tax is worthless.  All they see are the Yankees appearing to show utter contempt for it, vastly exceeding the limit by a huge amount, year after year.

However, it should be stated that this revenue benefits the small market teams within the league. A lot of the money ends up going into the pockets of the owners of these franchises.  You could even go as far as to say that at least the Yankees are making an effort year in year out to try and win the World Series.  There are certain franchises out there that have no interest whatsoever in winning anything.  They just want to make as much money as possible, while shelling out as little cash as they can get away with.  You know who you are!

And don’t forget that all of this spending doesn’t necessarily give New York the advantage they are looking for.  They haven’t actually won a World Series since the luxury tax was introduced.  In fact, you have to go back to 2000 to find the last time the Bronx Bombers won a title.

I should also add that, despite all of these astronomical signings, their payroll is actually lower for the coming season than in 2008.  So, really, everyone should have been in uproar about the Salary cap before last season, which incidentally ended with the Yankees missing the playoffs for the first time since 1993.

Turning to the actual Salary cap, there’s no denying that it has worked wonders in other sports.  The most notable example is the NFL, resulting in the league being seen as the perfect example of parity and a level playing field.

However, you can still ask why a salary cap is needed in baseball to theoretically make it a more level playing field.  Yes, the more money a team can spend increases their chances of making the playoffs, but what about actually winning the World Series?

Want proof?  Lets look back over the last thirty years for each of the four major North American sports leagues.  The results may shock you.  In that time, nine different teams have won the NBA finals, thirteen teams took home the Stanley cup and fourteen teams have triumphed in the Super Bowl.  How many teams have won the World Series?  Go on, have a guess.  Ten?  Twelve?  Fifteen?  Wrong.  Nineteen different teams have won baseballs holy grail.  How’s that for parity within sports?

Almost inevitably fans of the NFL will still say that a salary cap is the way to go.   Before its introduction, the Super Bowl era was dominated by dynasties such as the Packers, Steelers, 49ers and Cowboys.  Fine, lets look at this in a bit more detail.

The NFL instigated the Salary cap for the 1994 season.  Since then, there have been eleven different winners of the Super Bowl.  For the same period, baseball has had nine champions.  However, if we consider that the calls for a salary cap have increased of late, lets look at this decade alone.  In that time the MLB has had eight different World Series champions compared to six from the NFL.

You can pretty much manipulate the statistics and figures however you want, but I think it’s safe to say that this proves there are just as many arguments against instigating a salary cap.

In any event, a new five-year collective bargaining agreement was made in October 2006, so you wouldn’t be looking at a change in the system until the start of the 2012 season at the earliest.  And lets be honest, there would be major opposition from the players union and the Yankees and Red Sox.  The MLB can’t really afford to have another strike, which is what would happen.  As we all know, it took the league years to recover from the last lockout.

In other words, people can kick up a fuss as much as they want about the need for a salary cap, but it’s not happening.  I’m not saying that I suddenly think there shouldn’t be one.  I just have a more rounded viewpoint on the situation than before and am now at a point where I’m quite happy to go down either route in the future.

As it is, let’s all just sit back and enjoy the game of baseball as it continues to set records for attendances and revenue.  Combine this with a decade, which has been a memorable one for fans of old and new franchises alike.  Boston broke they’re 86 year curse to become world champions.  This was closely followed by the Chicago White Sox, who finally ended an 88 year drought.  And least we forget, Arizona and Anaheim both clinched their first titles in two of the better finals series ever played.

I love this game and I’m sure the majority of you feel the same way.  Roll on April 5.

Paul Taylor can be contacted at [email protected]

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