Brian Young

[general counsel]

Fascinating political analogy ferter. I think fans buy into it because they believe that the cap levels the playing field and makes it possible for teams to go from lousy to good very quickly (ie see the rams in 99). While the society as a whole may be capitalistic, a lot of hard core baseball fans, especially those in small market towns, hate the fact that the yankees can buy their way into contention every year.

general counsel

[Curly Horns]

For every success story (lousy to good very quickly) there is the opposite story like the cardinals, bengals etc. It is a false assumption if you ask me. I think baseball is a good example of the rich team not always winning. Look at the Florida Marlins, Anaheim Angels, Arizona Diamondbacks. The Yankees just don't win every year, but for some reason there is this perception that they do.

I think the owners and the league did a good job of selling the players as greedy and overpaid while the owners cried poor mouth. One rich owner is not as visible to hard working fans who see a team full of overpaid athletes. The thing is, the popularity of the sport, the fans, create the large volume of dollars available to pay these athletes. Just take a look at the network contracts and the price of a 30 second spot for a company to advertise during a game. Reality is, that this all gets passed back to the consumer which in many cases is also the fan. Dare I mention publicly funded stadiums. To me, the salary cap is a joke and a means for the already rich owners to gain even more wealth.

[Bob L. Head]

Is Eric Crouch really worth fighting over?

Not sure. Maybe we need a poll on the issue.