For those of you who've followed the podcast for a while, but don't know how I came to fall in love with Australian Rules Football. In many ways, it became a necessity. Major League Baseball here in the United States did it's level best to alienate fans like me. I spent over a half century in love with the game of baseball. I played it. I coached it. I watched it at every opportunity. I spent more time watching, coaching or thinking about baseball than just about anything else.
And then I didn't. Why is that?
Well, there are a few reasons.
Why did I give up on my sports "first love" of baseball?
A short list.
1. A lack of a salary cap. You can't begrudge the NFL for trying it's level best to ensure that all 32 clubs have an opportunity to put together a winning side, with all operating under the same financial limitations. The Green Bay Packers call a town about 1/2 the size of Geelong home, and they have as much of an opportunity to build a championship team as do the Los Angeles Rams or the New York Giants. Each poker player sits down at the table with the same number of chips. No more or no less than any other team.
This is very similar to the way the salary cap works in the AFL. Each club is afforded the same amount of money creating their list. Every club has an opportunity to build a club to play finals. (Even Gold Coast, which I think is going to happen VERY soon.) This is one of the things I absolutely love about the AFL.
This weekend, the New York Mets signed outfielder Juan Soto (29 years old) to a 15 year contract worth $750 million U.S. (1.172 billion AUD). With the combined salaries of all 18 clubs of the AFL in 2024 was roughly $284 million AUD ($183 million U.S.), the total of that contract is over 4 years worth of all of the salaries of every player in the AFL (at the 2024 pay rates). Now, don't get me wrong. I don't begrudge anyone from earning every dollar they can earn. I am a diehard capitalist. But that being said, when it comes to sports, and there are teams in a particular league competing for a title, I think the proverbial playing field should be level. Imagine an AFL with no salary cap. The Magpies, Blues and Eagles would be able to outspend the Giants by a factor of more than 4. Would that be a fair competition? I think not.
MATT O. from the AFL All Sports Arena page on Facebook pointed out the huge amount of money being spent on this one player, and the comments from footy fans in Australia are exactly what I thought they'd be. Below you'll find a link to the salaries by team in Major League Baseball for the 2024 season. The New York Mets (who signed this player) had a total payout of salary for their club which was almost as much as the bottom 4 teams in the league (Miami, Tampa Bay, Pittsburgh and Oakland).
Imagine what the AFL would look like if the Magpies or Blues (the two largest memberships in the comp) were unrestrained by a salary cap. You could find these two clubs "gobbling up" the top free agents year in and year out. Would we see Marcus Bontempelli, Christian Petracca and Nick Daicos all playing for Collingwood, or even joining up with Patrick Cripps at Ikon Park. The best players in the comp would want to go to where they were going to be able to get the most money, and that would be the biggest clubs. In MLB, the top team payrolls were the New York Mets, New York Yankees, Houston Astros, Philadelphia Phillies and Los Angeles Dodgers. Small market teams like the Cleveland Guardians, Minnesota Twins or Kansas City Royals wouldn't be able to compete with the likes of the aforementioned clubs, and as is the case today, they become "feeder" clubs, where players develop their talents, only to leave in free agency, signing with the biggest teams, leaving major gaps in the smaller clubs. It is a totally unfair competition in that regard.
2. The lack of punishment (banishment) for the Houston Astros players and coaches that partook in the 2017/18 cheating scandal. In my opinion, none of them should have been able to continue their playing career. (looking at you, Shoeless Joe Jackson). In 1919, the Chicago White Sox (see the Shoeless Joe Jackson link) "threw" the World Series. The players felt as though they were underpaid (rather ironic given the focus of much of this post), and 8 of the players "bet" on their team to lose the Series, securing winnings on wagers placed to supplement their meager salaries.
The crux of their scandal was that they utilized video equipment to signal pitch information to the dugout, which was than transmitted to the batter through the use of simply banging on a trash can in the dug out, signaling whether or not the pitch was going to be a fast ball or a breaking pitch. There were even allegations made that players wore a buzzer system taped to their chest, which would buzz when an offspeed (breaking) pitch was coming. Imagine if the Indian Cricket team had video equipment to transmit this type of material to their batters when Pat Cummins or Mitchell Starc was bowling in the test series that is taking place right now. I can imagine that if discovered, cricket fans around the world would be outraged.
The Astros players scandal had an economic impact the league, and individual players. Teams that may have won games against the Astros, didn't, as they had an unfair advantage. Pitchers who were battling for their careers, which could end with a bad performance or two, lost their spots in baseball, and their livelihoods due to this cheating. The podcast, American Scandal, did a five episode series on the Astros cheating scandal. (I have linked to it above.)
3. Banning the shift. If you're a poor hitter and can't hit the ball the opposite way (looking at you Joey Gallo), the only launch angle we should be talking about is launching your severely handicapped hitting abilities out of the MLB. Baseball has been the home to terrific homerun hitters like Babe Ruth, Hank Aaron and Barry Bonds to name but a few. But the game has long been blessed by hitters that are magicians at the plate, able to hit the ball "where it is pitched", to all parts of the field. Players like Ichiro Suzuki have long been able to use the entire field when it comes to hitting. Sure, we all love home runs, or sixes in cricket, but seeing a virtuoso at the plate, driving the ball to the opposite field, similar to watching a batter dropping the ball over the gully and in between the Third Man and the Long Stop. Fans love to see that ball roll to the boundary.
Can you imagine if the NFL told the defensive backs on NFL teams that, for example, they can't chase receivers further than 20 yards down field, because the league wants more scoring. What a joke.
Can you imagine if the ICC came along and told teams in test cricket that they were no longer allowed to line up multiple players in the slip, along with having one in the gully? Can you imagine if the AFL wanted to increase scoring by no longer allowing defenders to roam freely through the defensive 50 like Tom Stewart, a terrific player at taking intercept marks? It would turn the game on it's ear.
Major League Baseball rewards bad hitters. In my opinion, it isn't good for the game at all. Rod Carew has to well up with tears, and Tony Gwynn and Pete Rose roll over in their graves watching crappy hitters only being able to pull the ball. Sure "chicks dig the long ball", but I think the game is suffering do these restrictions that have been put in place on poor performers at the plate.
So, what does this all mean?
Baseball, you lost a 55 year fan of your beautiful, bucolic game, and I don't miss it one bit. Pretty sure that I'm not the only "non-Yankee(Mets)(Dodgers) (insert other large market team)" supporter who is disgusted with what this beautiful game has become. Soccer is kicking your butt with young kids, and I am so SO happy that I fell in love with Australian Rules Football in 2016. I'm doing my level best to encourage disgruntled baseball fans and gridiron fans to check out the game that we all love. Baseball, you could fix this if you would rectify the situations I outlined in this post. that being said, I don't baseball will do a thing to fix these problems, and that really saddens me.
(MLB Commissioner) Rob Manfred, you disgust me.
Thank goodness for Footy.....and more and more cricket.
