The Boss has passed.

[Cannon Shell]

Originally Posted by Cardus

I know that there are multiple ways to gauge "competitive balance," but consider that baseball has had eight different champions over the last nine or 10 seasons; football about the same; but basketball has had eight champion organizations over the last 32 years. (Good work by the ESPN radio morning guys, though sports fans probably would have arrived at similar numbers for the last eight champions in the three sports without hearing them yesterday morning.)

basketball has always been controlled by a relatively small number of teams because a sport with 5 players on the court only takes a few top players to win unlike the other sports where the rosters are much bigger.

Only one team can win the championship every year and the problem with baseball is that many of the teams arent even making the playoffs.
KC-24 years
Expos/Nats-28 years
Orioles-12 years
Toronto-16 years
texas-10 years
Pirates-17 years
Reds -14 years

There are several other teams with recent appearances that were rarities including the Astros, Mariners, Rays, Indians, brewers, padres, cubs.

Now no doubt some of this is due to mismanagement/owners happy to squeeze out a profit but it is hard to make a case to become a fan of one of these teams when we all know that they realistically have no chance of winning.
Even teams like minnesota and Tampa that have great baseball people are seemingly hitting their heads on the glass ceiling because of strict budgets that they must adhere to.

The longest drought in the NFL is Buffalo and Detroit with 10 years. True a greater proportion of teams make the playoffs but teams in small markets like Indy and Green Bay are able to excel on the field due to peoper management, player selection and coaching. This isn't so in baseball.

And I am not saying that George was intending on creating this situation. But as the primary owner who lavished free agents with over the top contracts, he helped create the system that led to 2 work stoppages and an unequitable salary heiracrcy that continues to this day. As I said in one of the first posts, it eventually may have played out like this anyway. And in the 2nd strike George was willing to accept a salary cap system despite it being a negative for the Yankees.

There are a lot of factors why baseball has dropped in popularity. The length of the games is a huge factor in a society that has been increasingly speeding up life. The 2 strikes were way more harmful to baseball than the one mid season strike was to football. The rise of sports gambling and the fact that baseball is not an easy game to bet on especially versus football. But the fact that a great many baseball games are played against teams with few stars or recognizable names because of the inequity of revenues/payrolls surely plays a role as well.