Free Agency Gone Wild

The Yankees' latest free agent splurge has generated much controversy and even outrage - there have even been unconfirmed reports of shoes, both loafers and oxfords, being thrown at Brian Cashman and Hank Steinbrenner. Prior to the advent of free agency in baseball, the reserve clause permitted a team to retain the rights to a player in perpetuity after that player was initially signed. Clearly the reserve clause was unfair and unjust to players and needed to be addressed, and it was, thanks to the efforts of Curt Flood. The reserve clause was overturned and the players have prospered, more than Flood or anyone else could have ever dreamed.

But there was a price to pay. Pre-free agency, the cost for for a ballpark ticket, hot dog and beverage was affordable for almost anyone. Since the players on a team were for the most part same year after year, fans could develop a connection with them. The players and the franchise were one and the same. Even watching a game on TV was more enjoyable - a faster pace with few commercials. Fast forward to free agency and what are the results? Wildly inflated salaries even for the most mediocre of players. A night at the park is now prohibitively expensive for an average family. Team rosters in flux except for stars under long-term contracts. Interminable commercial breaks during the broadcasts.

The point is that the genie is out of the bottle and has been for decades. Once you combined free agency with the arrival of cable and its insatiable need for programming, you had a combustible mix. ESPN and Fox are in the driver's seat. Money rules and in the new landscape the big media markets in New York and LA will always have a huge advantage on the free agent market. A salary cap is unwieldy and of questionable efficacy. A more punitive luxury tax might help but it's still only a slap on the wrist for a rich franchise. One even wonders how critical it is for the big market teams to win championships, at least from an economic point of view. Sure it's a lucrative bonus, but they either way, the mega-franchises will be continue to be profitable cash cows.

The best revenge on the Yankees and Mets and Dodgers continues to be to beat them with less expensive talent. And in fact while these legendary franchises have been less than dominant in the recent past, there has been no shortage of small-to-mid-market teams who have had post-season success including Minnesota, St. Louis, Detroit, Colorado and now Philadelphia. Superstar-laden rosters, while they probably provide a bump at the box office, are not a guarantee of success on the field. And the unique nature of baseball is that with a couple of starting pitchers, and a closer, anything is possible.