August 31, 2002
Well, the regularly-scheduled prick-waving contest is over. Whether or not this is a good thing remains to be seen.
The players grudgingly agreed to revenue-sharing and luxury taxes. They don't realize that they're doing themselves a favor this way -- now any team can afford a couple good free agents. Now Steinbrenner can't pay ridiculous salaries that drive other owners to banrupt their teams (think Alex Rodruiguez and his quarter-billion-dollar, ten-year deal). Now more than four of five teams will have a chance to win the World Series.
Now the question is, will these benefits come about fast enough to build on this agreement when it ends in 2006? Will the players like Jason Kendall and Brian Giles come to the realization that their chances of playing for a winning team just went up? Will the next collective bargaining agreement institute a more NFL-like parity in which a majority of the teams stand a credible chance of making the playoffs?
Well, that all remains to be seen. In the meantime... what do you think the chances are that the Pirates, at 60-74 and 14 games out of first in the mediocre National League Central, will have 20,000 people in attendance tonight?
A little light reading for you from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette's Ron Cook: "Baseball players could learn a lot from football."
