One thing is for certain. Bob Costas loves baseball. He breaks down the problems with the greatest game on earth in his book, Fair Ball (A Fan's Case for Baseball).Only 175 pages long, this book is a relatively quick read. I did get sleepy during a couple of chapters where he covers the economics of the game. If you can make it through those chapters, you're home free.
One main point really got me thinking. Costas claims that only about 8-10 teams fans have any realistic thought of their team winning the World Series. I agree. When the best players on smaller market teams have to be traded, it stinks. I am still feeling the burn of the whole Granderson debacle. The Royals would have had a nice outfield over the last ten years with Damon and Dye out there. I feel bad for the fans of teams like that. The NFL has 20-some teams with fan bases that can have high hopes each season, or at the very least a quick turn around to contention. How can a team in freaking Green Bay survive, but a team in Pittsburgh can't? MLB needs to figure this out.
I think another issue in the MLB is that revenue sharing business. I read where teams like the Pirates make more money than winning teams by being a losing team. It boggles the mind. Gives the owners very little incentive to be competitive.
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