Strikes are one of the biggest things slowing baseball down. Every strike lowers the faith of people and their interest in the game. Since 1972 there has been eight stoppages of play, which does not make the fans very happy, not to mention the owners and players do not always want it either. They just get too greedy and provoke these play stoppages. In fact, this ongoing war between the players and the owners is what causes all this to keep going on. The salary cap is a main reason for strikes, and as Michael Knisley states in the 01/31/2000 issue of Sporting News “Let’s remember that the union continues to think a salary cap is the work of Satan. (p54)”

The latest strike has really stirred things up and could have ended the way baseball is played for years to come. America did not really need baseball fighting each other on how many millions of dollars peopl

If the owners and players are not careful, baseball will only be an American pass time, and then they both will not receive the amount of money that they want. The players should give up a little of their salaries to keep the sport alive, while the owners should try to let the players do a little more with free agency. Hopefully the whole situation will work out in the end for years to come.

The way that different teams buy players hurt the game a lot, also. The Yankees buy championship after championship with their enormous payroll that is now up to one hundred and seventy-one million dollars. Compared to the tiny payroll sixty million by the Montreal Expos, how do you think that these teams are suppose to compete with each other? These numbers would indicate that the Yankees should be able to almost triple the Expos’ score. They do not have to do this though, so they should win every time, and what is the fun in beating some one like that. Playing teams that are so unequal is like a professional team playing a college team. The money that they buy these players with are not just given to them. Different teams make different salaries. Steinbrennern, the Yankees’ owner, charges basic cable customers a two dollar charge whether they want it or not to

Some topics in this essay:
Alex Rodriguez’s, Baseball America’s, Steinbrennern Yankees’, Michael Knisley, David Kaplan, Montreal Expos, Sports Illustrated, free agents, major league, free agency, actually free agents, buy players, owners players, actually free, players actually, salary cap, 8/26/2002 issue, players little,