Frank: New York, New York,it's a wonderful town. The Yanks are up and the Mets are way down!
Artie: It's good for baseball tohave the Yankees on top again. It stirs the passion for all fans, a few of themhappy but most of them outraged.
Frank: The Yankees take thatpublic service seriously. Already the talk here is about their free-agenttargets for 2010—Matt Holliday? John Lackey?
Artie: Cripes, they ponied up morethan $400 million last winter for CC Sabathia, A.J. Burnett and Mark Teixeira.That ain't enough?
Frank: Not in the city whereexpectations never sleep. Of course, the Yankees' success with a $200million-plus payroll fuels another passion.
Artie: The one for having MajorLeague Baseball enact a salary cap. The owner of our Brewers, Mark Attanasio,is a big advocate.
Frank: He called for a salary cap,or more accurately a payroll cap, after the Yankees splurged for Sabathia,Burnett and Teixeira. He said, "I am concerned, especially in a badeconomy like this, that you have a segmenting out of the haves and the have-nots.When the gap widens between the haves and the have-nots, it throws thecompetitive balance out of whack."
Artie: Small-Market Economics 101,as we heard for decades from the commish, Bud Selig, when he was the Brewers'kingpin, ain’a?
Frank: Bud used the "woe isus" line so much that it became self-fulfilling. If you believe you can'tcompete, maybe you don't do everything you can to compete.
Artie: I'm all for screwing theYankees, but I don't think a salary cap gets small markets any more representedin playoffs and titles. The NBA has a cap, but it's always the same teams atthe top.
Frank: In the NFL there's a salarycap and the notion of "parity," thanks to a somewhat weightedscheduling system. But is that parity or just volatility?
Artie: This year there sure are alot of NFL teams that stink. At the halfway mark eight teams, a quarter of theleague, had only one or two wins.
Frank: I'm embarrassed by theYankees' spending, and if MLB put a cap on payrolls I wouldn't squawk. But I'vecrunched some numbers indicating that competitive balance does not necessarilydepend on a salary cap.
Artie: To quote Tom Cruise, showme the data!
Frank: I looked at MLB, the NFLand NBA over their last 10 completed seasons, and how many teams reached theplayoffs.
Artie: There are big differencesin the playoff spots available.
Frank: Twelve NFL teams out of 32make the playoffs. More than half the NBA gets there, 16 of the 30 teams. Forbaseball, it's eight out of 30.
Artie: I love this stuff. It's soprecise—like rocket science!
Frank: In the last 10 NFL seasons,29 of the 32 teams had at least one playoff appearance. Twenty-three teamsreached the conference finals at least once and 13 appeared in the Super Bowl.
Artie: That's with a salary cap,although it's completely incomprehensible to Joe Fan and me.
Frank: In the NBA, 29 teams had atleast one playoff year, 19 reached at least one conference final and 11 madethe NBA Finals.
Artie: NFL-like numbers, and againwith a cap.
Frank: Now consider baseball, withno cap. In the last 10 seasons, 24 of the 30 teams have made the playoffs atleast once, 21 have reached the league championship series and 14 have reachedthe World Series.
Artie: And that's with the fewestavailable playoff spots.
Frank: Now take the number of teamsthat reached the top. Over the 10 seasons there were seven different Super Bowlwinners; New England won three times and Pittsburghtwice. In the NBA, only five teams shared the titles; the Lakers took four and San Antonio three. But inbaseball there were eight World Series winners, with the Yankees and Boston taking two each.
Artie: That's more diversity atthe top than in the two sports with salary caps.
Frank: The Yankees have been infour of the last 10 World Series. Isn't that better than in the 1950s, whenthey were in eight? Free agency, divisional play and wild cards have producedbalance. Even Mr. Attanasio said last winter, "Competitive balance hasbeen great in baseball for the last decade or so and we have to keep it likethat."
Artie: So it's too early to saythe Yankees' latest title has messed it all up.
Frank: Baseball already has somerevenue sharing as well as a luxury tax on teams that exceed a certain payroll.The Yankees paid $148 million from 2003-'08, with this year's bill coming soon.
Artie: In the old days everythingdepended on signing and developing your own players, and guess what? The biggermarkets had an edge in money then, too. But with free agency there's a flow ofplayers into the open market, and a team that spends wisely can make bigchanges.
Frank: The key is "wisely.”The Yankees spent a ton on guys who didn't produce championships: RandyJohnson, Kevin Brown, Carl Pavano, Jaret Wright, Jason Giambi.
Artie: Their payroll was more thandouble the Brewers' last year, but the Crew made the playoffs and the Yankeeswatched. I say no salary cap. Let teams sink or swim by shrewd management.
Frank: How do the Twins keepgetting to the playoffs? How did Tampa Bay suddenly make theWorld Series in '08? How do the Marlins rebuild every few years?
Artie: And Florida's on the rise again, with youngtalent.
Frank: When did the Brewers becomecontenders? When they scouted and drafted well and produced Ben Sheets, PrinceFielder, Ryan Braun, Rickie Weeks, J.J. Hardy and Yovani Gallardo.
Artie: And then used their pool ofyoung talent to "rent" Sabathia. True, the Yankees lured him away,but would Brewer fans have preferred to not have CC at all?
Frank: Unfortunately, Attanasio isright when he says the Brewers have a lot less margin for error. When theyspend $42 million on one guy, they're hamstrung if it doesn't turn out well.
Artie: Which it surely hasn't withJeff Suppan.
Frank: I repeat, I'd have noproblem with MLB capping payrolls or increasing the luxury tax to restrain theYankees. But I don't think it would make a huge difference in competitivebalance.
Artie: I'm not sure Attanasiocould get enough owners to back a salary cap.
Frank: Unlike NFL owners, whocommitted to revenue sharing in the 1960s, baseball owners have remainedlargely "every man for himself." The Yankees aren't the only bigspenders. It was Texas that gave AlexRodriguez that 10-year, $252 million deal in December 2000, and Colorado that spent $170million on Mike Hampton and Denny Neagle that same month.
Artie: Plus, the players' unioncan't possibly want a salary cap.
Frank: You'd hear howls aplenty ifMLB tried to put a cap into the next labor agreement after the 2011 season.
Artie: Besides, a salary cap canget so byzantine that it discourages trading. You almost never see a straighttrade in the NFL, and NBA trade talk focuses not on the players' skills buttheir contracts.
Frank: The Bucks dealt RichardJefferson after one season to dump salary so they wouldn't pay a luxury tax.
Artie: With a salary cap, theBrewers might not have been able to trade Hardy for Carlos Gomez because Hardyhas a much bigger salary. A cap would stifle trading, and that's what the fansfind compelling.
Frank: That, and hating theYankees.
