Let me talk to you this morning about baseball. Do you like baseball? I know I do, I love baseball. America's Pastime. Pastime is defined by Mirriam-Webster dictionary as "something that amuses and serves to make time pass agreeably." That's baseball! Some have argued that football has taken over as our national pastime, but I will disagree here. While I would say that football has become the most popular sport in America, and easily the most watched and followed, baseball is the pastime of our nation, if not the favorite sport. Baseball is not intended to be an action-packed game of excitement, in which you devote entire days sitting on the couch watching. Baseball is a game you throw on the radio, TV, or you attend in person, to hang out, relax, and enjoy a game. Granted, there are moments of intensity involved in baseball games. A close game, in the late innings, especially in September or October, can be as intense as any football game. But the fact that major league baseball is played for 7 months, with 162 games, a weekend series against the Pittsburgh Pirates just isn't that intense. But that's what makes baseball so great. It's to be taken as a casual game played among millionaires in the heat of the summer. Just hangin' out, playin' ball. Love it.
Speaking of the Pittsburgh Pirates, I don't know if you know much about that team, but they are not a very good team. In fact, they have been bad for quite some time now. You could safely say that the team has been pitiful for at least 17 years. It was 1992, the last season the Pirates had a winning record. 1992, I was nine years old and in the fourth grade. George H. W. Bush was the President. Right around the time the Pirates were wrapping up this last winning season, Nick Jonas was born, if that helps visualize the length of this futility. The Pirates have become Major League Baseball's farm team (farm team meaning minor league teams that send the good players to the big leagues when they're ready to play.)
They are constantly searching for success, while keeping their budget ridiculously low, rarely paying big name players to play there. The estimated 2010 payroll of the Pirates is $34.9 Million. Alex Rodriguez is making $33 million HIMSELF this season.
You can't compare the Pirates payroll to the Yankees, they're in their own league as far as spending money on players, even if it's fun to try. Take a middle of the road team like Cincinnati, which is similar in size of market, including geographically located in the middle of the country, as well as in the same division in the National League, as well as futility in the teams recent past, and they're payroll is $72.3. The San Diego Padres and the Texas Rangers both rank in the bottom four of the MLB payrolls, yet both of those teams are in first place in their divisions, as of this writing. So payroll shouldn't matter if the team is run correctly. All I'm saying is that Pittsburgh is bad, and probably will be bad for a long time, and it's sad that those fans in that great city haven't seen a winner for a while, and won't see one in even longer. Baseball is too great a game to be forgotten about in such a wonderful city. The Pirates have won 5 World Series championships in their history, and there are only 5 teams in baseball that have won more championships than Pittsburgh. It should be factored in that the Pirates have been a Major League team for 120 years. Most of baseball's championships have gone to either the Yankees and the Cardinals, taking 37 of them combined in the 105 World Series' played. That's 35% right there.
But I digress. If you can't get people to the ballpark to watch a game, no one is paying them money to go get better players. If they can't get better players, they can't be a better team, and no one wants to come out to the park to see a bad team. It is baseball's ultimate Catch 22. Revenue sharing is supposed to help, where the big markets share monies with the smaller market teams, but that's not even the answer to me. Look at a team like the Tampa Bay Rays. They are just as much a small market team as Pittsburgh, with only 11 seasons under their belt, and they made the World Series in 2008. The Florida Marlins, who play games in a football stadium in front of about 2,000 people, who have only been a team since 1993, have won two World Series'...in less time than the Pirates have had since their last winning season, I might remind you. If a team can start from nothing, with no one, and no history, and can get players and win a Championship in THREE YEARS like the expansion team Arizona Diamondbacks did in 2001, then there's no reason the Pirates couldn't turn it around and do it quickly.
The Pirates are one of the original 16 teams from the olden days of baseball, and I would love nothing more than to see them gain success in the near future, because that city deserves it. If they keep making poor personnel decisions, both player personnel and management, they will continue to embarrass themselves year after year as they have done for Nick Jonas' entire life. To show that this season is no different than the past 17, and potentially worse, they were outscored by the lowly Milwaukee Brewers 54-3 in three games this past April. That's an average of game score of 18-1...Three times in a row. I can promise you that if a player on the team starts to play well in the near future, he will be traded to a different team for other young prospects. It has happened consistently in their recent history, because they just seem like a team that doesn't want to win, and they blame it on financial restraints. Small market teams complaining about being a small market team is getting old and worn, because you can't use that argument anymore. Look at the Rays. Look at the Rangers and Padres this season. You can win, if you want to. Just do a better job, Pittsburgh.
Do a better job.
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