Don't get me wrong, I love baseball. I'm psyched about a new season of Blue Jays baseball and hopeful we can return to the playoffs for the first time in fifteen years. It's a fantastic game, but there's a problem with parity.
Take our AL East division as a good example. The New York Yankees have won the AL East pennant nine of the last ten seasons. The only time the Yankees didn't win the pennant, they won the wildcard and the Red Sox won the pennant. Over the past ten seasons, the wildcard team has come out of our AL East division six times, and it's always been the Red Sox or Yankees. That's an entire decade completely dominated by the Yankees and Red Sox.
Not coincidentally, the Yankees and Red Sox have the highest payrolls by a long shot. Last season, the Yankees payroll was $195,229,045, the Red Sox' payroll was $143,123,714 and the Blue Jays payroll was $79,925,600. No wonder we keep finishing third.
I just read that A-Rod makes more money than the entire Florida Marlins team. A-Rod will earn $28 million this season and the 33 players on the Marlins' opening-day roster and disabled list total $21.8 million.
It just doesn't seem fair, does it?
