1 0 / SPORTS ILLUSTRATED KIDS ALEJANDRA VILLA LORACA/NEWSDAY RM/GE T T Y IMAGES
YOU BUY IT,
YOU BREAK IT
Cohen uses his
extreme wealth
to give the Mets
an advantage
over smaller
markets.WHAT’S YOUR HOT TAKE? Do you have a question for
Kip Shoremore? A complaint? A topic he should write
about in a future issue? Send your letters to Kip’s
Treehouse-based editor at [email protected].in player salaries in one day. The
Rangers gave a 10-year, $
million deal to shortstop Corey
Seager. The Mets signed Max
Scherzer to a contract that will
pay him more than $43 million
per season. That deal pushed
New York’s estimated 2022
payroll beyond $235 million,
more than that of the bottom-
five teams (Cleveland, Baltimore,
Pittsburgh, Miami, and Arizona)
combined. That deficit probably
made supporters of those five
franchises sympathetic to MLB’s
proposal this offseason to expand
its playoff format to 14 teams.
Adding four more wild cards,however, just increases the chance
that another mediocre 83-win
squad like those 2006 Cards will
get hot and topple the teams
that were consistently great over
162 games. (I again apologize
to our subscribers in St. Louis.)
League commissioners act like
making teams more equal is an
obviously good goal. After all, so
many conventions of professional
sports exist to level the playing
field: drafts, luxury taxes, salary
caps. But why? Parity is bad for
business, bad for the growth of a
sport, and ultimately, bad for fans.
The financial argument fora lopsided league is simple.
Ask yourself: What is the ideal
distribution of championships
among franchises? In a perfect
world, would the Larry O’Brien
Trophy get passed around in
a circle by the 30 NBA teams,
with each enjoying at least one
victory lap before anyone won
it again? That might satisfy the
11 franchises who have yet to
plan a parade route. But that’s
probably not what the league
wants, even if it’d
never admit it. Certain
cities have bigger fan
bases, and those fans
spend more money
and watch more games
when times are good.
It wouldn’t be bad for
the NBA if, for instance,
the Knicks’ first title
since 1973 energized
New York City.
One could argue that
preventing the Knicks
from spending their
way out of obscurity,
like their orange-and-
blue baseball cousins
in Queens, has been
good for expanding
the game’s popularity.
New Yorkers will always
watch basketball, but
now the fan bases in Toronto and
Milwaukee are stronger than ever.
A wide-open NBA, however,
has never really grown the game
because it doesn’t pique the
interest of the casual viewer.
Those seemingly unstoppable
Golden State Warriors teams of
a few years ago drew way more
TV viewers to the NBA Finals
than the Raptors or Bucks. And
not even the Splash Brothers
could approach the record-setting
ratings of Michael Jordan’s Bulls.
It makes sense: If you’re trying
to convince someone to give a
sport a chance, you show them
the most gaudy clips of ankles
getting broken or pitches getting
crushed—not examples of equally
matched competition.
Still, fans don’t want what’s
best for the league in the long
run. They want hope that
their hometown heroes canone day win the big game. Title
runs, however, don’t happen in
a vacuum. The story of how a
team prevailed is as important
as the trophy. In a world of
theoretical true parity, in which
all professional teams are about
even, nothing matters. Triumphing
in any particular game, including
a championship, feels more like
chance than destiny. Rooting for
an underdog is fun, but impossible
without a villainous favorite.
After all, wouldn’t you rather
witness a few great teams than a
handful of pretty good ones? Or
watch a handful of classic flicks
than endless average movies?
Or read a single kid-focused
sports publication than a stack of
magazines with lukewarm takes
and inferiorly perforated trading
cards? Mr. Steve Cohen, sir, if you
would like to do in the periodical
space what you’ve done for the
Mets, I will work for a lot less
than Scherzer’s $43 million. Just a
healthy chocolate-milk stipend and
a year’s supply of comic books and
I’m on board. Get in touch.