Welcome to Snyder's Soapbox! Here, I pontificate about matters related to Major League Baseball on a weekly basis. Some of the topics will be pressing matters, some might seem insignificant in the grand scheme of things, and most will be somewhere in between. The good thing about this website is that it's free, and you are allowed to click away. If you stay, you'll get smarter, though. That's a money-back guarantee. Let's get to it.
I've long said that one of the ugliest human emotions is jealousy. Even if people won't admit it, jealousy surfaces so much in sports discussions. Far too often, there's a twinge of jealousy when it comes to the players. They get to play a game and make millions of dollars. It does sound pretty awesome. But hey, life ain't fair and most of us weren't born with the physical skills to make it happen.
Still, there's always an underlying current. You can see it when salary cap discussions come up, even when presented with facts about how MLB has had just as much, if not more, parity than the salary cap leagues (NFL, NBA, NHL). I've discussed it so many times, I'm not going to bother to do it again, because ultimately it doesn't even matter.
I could bring up the Brewers sitting 20th in payroll and being one of the most well-run organizations in sports, heading toward their eighth playoff berth in nine years. They own the NL Central despite playing in baseball's smallest market. We could talk about the Guardians positioned for their eighth playoff berth in 11 seasons despite sitting 29th in payroll. We could discuss the Mets sitting in last place despite being first in Opening Day payroll. There just isn't a correlation between the payrolls and the standings.
We could discuss the ability of the Reds to keep Joey Votto for his entire career or the Twins to keep Joe Mauer or the extensions signed relatively recently by Bobby Witt Jr. with the Royals and Julio Rodriguez with the Mariners. José Ramírez is going to spend his entire career in Cleveland.
Again, none of this matters. The argument being made is that sports aren't fair unless there's a salary cap. No amount of evidence convinces people otherwise due to decades of conditioning -- thank you, sports talk radio! -- and that little twinge of jealousy.
The owners are far richer than players and making more money than ever (MLB clocked in with more than $12.6 billion in revenue last season), yet they aren't reviled nearly as much as the players -- those same players who are going to lose a battle with Father Time and then be out of the league before hitting age 45 (and that's generous; most don't even come close to 35). It's because somehow, deep down in places people don't talk about at parties, there's a feeling that the billionaires in business earned their dollars and the players just won the lottery by being good at a kids' game. It's a game we all played.
It's no fair that they made it and we didn't. It's not like they worked harder or anything. They just got lucky.
As for me? I like talent. I like rewarding talent. I don't believe the "ability" of Tom Ricketts or Phil Castellini or John Fisher to be born into a wealthy family means they are owed our reverence. That isn't a skill. They were born three feet from home plate and hailed for hitting a home run after finding a way to take a few steps without falling over. The players are why we watch. They are the talent. They are incredible and work their asses off. Am I a "fanboy" for acting like this? Sure. You can call me that if it makes you feel better.
That's what this is all about anyway: feeling better. A salary cap would make all the salary cap fans feel better. Why? Because it feels like the players make too much money playing a game. If they are at least capped, it'll make many people feel a bit better and we could rest easy knowing those poor billionaire owners are getting to save some money.
MLB players have to play for six years before even getting to free agency. In theory, that's exactly what it sounds like: freedom. They can sign anywhere, take any deal they want. But we all know that's not how it goes. Players have priorities and they've earned the right to do so. Didn't you get to choose where you took a job?
How is that any different than other sports, by the way? I'm a Pacers fan. Did my team ever have a shot at signing LeBron James? Don't say something like, "yes, in theory." In practice, did the Pacers ever have a chance at signing LeBron James? Absolutely not. No chance. Is the allure of Indiana in free agency able to match New York or Los Angeles? Get outta here. Of course not. Salary caps don't fix the realities that some players are always going to prefer certain destinations.
But hey, don't let me stand in your way, Salary Cap Fanboys. Root for a salary cap with impunity -- just as long as you know the only real reason is that it'll make you feel better because you're jealous of the money.
