Mail Bag Day

Fill up our word hole (heh heh) in the comments. You can also write to us at shoot out at mail city dot com. (And yes, I'm spelling it out just to frustrate spambots.)

Dear FTT,

Saw your cheap shot at the Yankees for signing the Rocket. Why don't you just admit that you are just jealous that your team doesn't care enough to really try to win?

- Wade from Staten Island

"The poor don't want a revolution. They just want more money." -- the graphic novel "From Hell"

Look, the issue isn't so much that the Yankees can take on (another) ridiculous contract as part of their Champion of Each Other / Coke v. Pepsi war with the Red Sox.

(Side note: People should start laying off Carl Pavano already. With the Kei Igawa Experience this year, he's not the biggest bust in Yankee history -- he's not even the biggest bust of the year. All the pressure is off now!)

Rather, the issue is that we're going back in time -- back to the early 20th century era where teams simply bought players from lower leagues, and competitive balance suffered.

Competitive balance is a tricky thing -- too much, you get the recent NFL seasons of malaise mediocrity, which only the league's unstoppable PR cheerleading covers up. Too little, you get the MLB years of today, where a dozen teams start the year with the very strong suspicion that they have no chance.

So what's the solution? Not, believe it or not, greater revenue sharing. We're also not going to pool all local and stadium revenues and create a hard cap for all. Beyond the fact that it will never happen, you'd also be creating a nakedly socialist play -- you know, just like the NFL and NBA -- and socialism never works. Just ask our liberal media. (Yes, yes, that's a cheap shot digression. Moving on.)

Rather, I want to see the Bill James "Revolution" option -- outlaw working relationships between the major and minor leagues, then treat MLB like it was the English Premier League. There, the worst teams get moved down to a lower division, and the best teams move up.

Since there would be no farm teams, there would also be no real need for a player draft that's larger than the NBA equivalent. Right away, you create a good moment for the MLB, who has never had any real public interest in its draft.

The top teams get to toss revenue sharing out the window and push themselves to oblivion. The middle teams get their own championships. The lower teams get to develop their local talent and fan bases and create actual, honest pennant races and competition. MLB becomes more like college basketball -- complete with a big tourney at the end of the year, if that floats your boat -- with people all over the country caring not just about their fantasy players, but their real, live, local teams.

And the rest of us get to stop paying attention to the GMs, and start paying attention to the games. The games are better.

Just how many of these letters are real, anyway? - Eric Blair, London

Ignorance is Wisdom, my friend.

Why don't you cover the Stanley Cup Playoffs?
- Brian Poppel, Charlotte

Short mean answer: Because then we'd also have to cover curling. (SWEEP!)

Medium and somewhat true answer: We tried to bring on a new writer to cover the event, but he was too busy waxing his cat.

Longer anecdotal answer: A few months ago, I met up with some guys from my high school days. I played street hockey with them back in the day, went to NHL games, and even started an NHL fantasy league. Not to be an ass about this, but none of them had moved since high school, or seemed very excited about their work or lives or families. They had also all put on a lot of weight, and they no longer really seemed to care about any sport but hockey.

Let's just say that it didn't make me want to go and scout up for next year's draft, or start figuring out which relentlessly white mullet-headed announcer made the most sense. (You want to know the real problem with the NHL? It's Canadian. There, I just threw a whole country under the bus. Let's get it on, Habs!)

As for the NHL, they are in a cycle where the choir will grow while the congregation will shrink (if you catch my meaning).

So watch for longer mullets. And not a whole lot more words.

Why don't you cover NASCAR?
- Mike Kennedy, Tallahasse

See above, and change very little.

What the hell am I reading? (Babel Fish translation)
- Miguel Sanchez, Guatemala

Judging from the site traffic logs that we now think about far too much, you are relentlessly looking for porn. Have some. We'll even make it old school for you.

(Just in case you wondered why sports blogs always go for cheerleader shots, despite the fact that, since we're all in Media 0.1, we're all gay. And liberal.)