Contraction Action?

Jason Michael Barker

If a story in the Windsor Star is to be believed, Major League Baseball will rid itself of the Montreal Expos and Florida Marlins after the World Series. The story quotes a "highly-placed baseball executive," who of course spoke on the condition that he not be identified. Isn't that always the way?

If you haven't read the article, go check it out and then get back here so we can talk. Basically, our friend the baseball official says that Major League Baseball is paying Jeffrey Loria (Montreal) and John Henry (Florida) to fold their teams, and that a dispersal draft among the 28 remaining teams will be held to spread the team-less players around.

Just when you thought this was yet another boring contraction story, we're treated to an interesting twist. Apparently Loria has three options after receiving his contraction check. He could take the money and run, use the money to buy the Devil Rays, or -- and here's where it gets interesting -- use the money to buy the Devil Rays and then fold them, at the same time moving the current Expos to Tampa.

My question is this: in that last scenario, would we then have the Tampa Bay Expos? And another question: Would anybody really care? And finally: What's the deal with airline food? But I digress.

A similar choice is in store for Henry, with the "other club" being the Anaheim Angels, because Disney, who also owns the NHL's Mighty Ducks, wants to get out of pro sports entirely. Again: Anaheim Marlins? That makes about as much sense as the Utah Jazz, or the Los Angeles Lakers for that matter, but that's neither here nor there.

Before you Pittsburgh fans get excited at the prospect of drafting Vladimir Guererro or Josh Beckett with the first pick in a dispersal draft, keep in mind that the Major League Baseball Players Association would still have to agree to such a drastic measure -- and that's not a likely proposition.

For starters, the elimination of two teams means the losses of 50 jobs (two 25-man rosters) and roughly $70M in salary, using 2001 opening day figures. Expanding to a 26-man roster is often cited as a way to offset the loss of the designated hitter, and will no doubt be mentioned again in contraction talks. That brings back 28 of the 50 lost big league jobs, but doesn't begin to address the salary issue -- the 26th man on a roster is going to be an extra pitcher or utility infielder making the minimum or just over it.

Removing two teams from the National League East would also necessitate some realignment, though moving the Pirates from the Central to the East seems to be both the easy and obvious choice - in any event, this isn't a serious barrier to contraction.

The final issue, and one which flies in the face of contraction, is that there are markets out there which could support a baseball team -- New York, New Jersey and Washington, D.C. to name three. Instead of removing two teams, why not simply relocate them to more viable markets?

If the Sacramento RiverCats, Oakland's AAA affiliate, can draw 12,517 fans per game, there are cities out there that could support Major League Baseball. Don't believe me about New York being able to support a third team? Consider this -- the Staten Island Yankees, Brooklyn Cyclones and New Jersey Cardinals combined to average better than 16,000 fans a game this season. Not only is that more than the Expos drew on a good night (think "Bobblehead"), those fans were turning out for short-season A-ball!

Elsewhere, the aforementioned Players Association is set to ask Major League Baseball to go back to the original format of the Division Series, in which the team with home field advantage played two games on the road, followed by, potentially, three games at home. The current 2-2-1 format is apparently unfavorable because it leads to long flights between the fourth and fifth games, such as what happened with the Yankees and Athletics this year when the two teams flew from Oakland to New York without a day off to play Game Five last Monday.

What's missing here is that a five game series, with or without travel, is unfavorable simply because it really isn't a good enough judge of which is the better club. There's a reason they play a 162-game schedule -- it separates the good teams from the bad teams, and vice versa. Over the course of five games, even the Devil Rays can beat the Athletics three times.

Baseball should trim the regular season back to 154 games, and then expand the post-season such that each series is a best-of-seven affair. They might even go back to a best-of-nine World Series, but that would probably interfere with whatever important programming FOX has planned for the Fall season, be it NFL Football, Temptation Love Boat III, or a hilarious new sitcom in which a middle-aged, single man has to raise children all by himself, with wacky consequences. The possibilities are endless!

I personally would watch every inning of a nine-game World Series, provided the Yankees and/or Braves weren't in it, and from that you can probably guess both how little I'll be watching this year's World Series, and which team I'll be rooting for when I do watch.

Go Diamondbacks.

about the author

If you've been following along, you'll know that Jason Michael Barker is now two-for-six in his post-season predictions. Feel free to razz him about it at jmb@strikethree.com, but keep in mind that's a better clip than Cal Ripken Jr. had in his career.

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