Baseball the one at fault

Nobody asked me, but …

-Don’t blame Yankees owner George Steinbrenner; blame Major… Nobody asked me, but …

-Don’t blame Yankees owner George Steinbrenner; blame Major League Baseball.

You can’t fault someone for utilizing his financial assets to try to better the team. He’s not breaking any rules. Which is why it is the financial structure of professional baseball that is to blame.

Attendance is down. Fan bases are shrinking. And the reason is that fans are sick of seeing the rich teams get richer and the poor teams get poorer. Teams like the Pirates and Royals are left scrounging the lower rungs of the free agent market for players like Raul Mondesi, while big market teams like the Yankees and Red Sox play tug of war for the game’s best player, Alex Rodriguez.

MLB should learn from the precedent that the NFL has set.

NFL owners are often referred to as a bunch of capitalists who have learned to behave like socialists. Meaning, in the NFL, team owners are willing to look out for what is in the league’s best interest, not just that of their individual franchises.

Baseball’s players’ union holds all the cards. Players must first allow at least some type of salary cap to be put in place. Next could come the elimination of salary arbitration, then maybe even revenue sharing.

But, by the looks of things, quantum changes like these could be light-years away.

-What is it about the University of Colorado that keeps the school in the headlines for all the wrong reasons?

Over the past four years, five women have alleged that Colorado football players sexually assaulted them. Four of those accusations have occurred in the last 28 months.

Head coach Gary Barnett’s response to former kicker Katie Hnida’s sexual assault claim?

“It was obvious Katie was not very good,” Barnett said. “She was awful. You know what guys do? They respect your ability. You can be 90 years old, but if you can go out and play, they’ll respect you. Katie was not only a girl, she was terrible. OK? There’s no other way to say it.”

I can think of about a hundred other ways to say it.

-Legal experts are predicting that the impact of the ruling in the Maurice Clarett case will be short-lived.

The theory is that, once Clarett is in the NFL, his legal team will not fight the appeal. Therefore, the NFL will win, and the league’s policy on draft eligibility will be reinstated.

But does that theory really make sense?

If U.S. District Judge Shira Scheindlin felt that the NFL rule prohibiting players from entering the draft until they are three years removed from high school violated antitrust laws, who is to say another judge would not feel the same way?

If a player like Clarett, who is far from being a model citizen, found a way to win in court, I’d say the chances of another judge ruling the same way are pretty high.

Ryan Walker is a senior staff writer for The Pitt News and can be reached at rpw973@yahoo.com.