New Rules: Poppin' a cap on baseball salaries
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The NFL has one. The NBA has one. The NHL has one.
Now baseball has one.
The New Rules of Baseball, CBSSports.com's mission to re-write the way baseball is played, managed and operated is bringing in the salary cap -- as per your vote.
With 26 percent, imposing a salary cap (New Rule 30) took home the highest percentage of votes cast.
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| Once upon a time, sluggers like Carlos Beltran played in much smaller markets. (Getty Images) |
Go down the list and you'll rarely see the Royals, Rays, Padres, Rockies, Pirates or Twins as buyers. There are arguments to be made that small-market teams, for the most part, have been relegated to a feeder-system role in the marketplace. The A's develop talent they know they'll never be able to keep for the long haul. The same could be said for the late '90s Royals and Pirates -- when they did actually uncover a useful player, they ended up shipping him out before he got too pricey.
On the flip side, salary caps are a bit un-American. I'm not the right person to be talking about market forces and capitalism, but allowing an industry to determine how much it will pay its workforce reeks of collusion.
I'll leave that debate for others.
So salary cap is in, unless voted out in later rounds.
The other big vote getter -- wins determine World Series home field (New Rule 31) -- isn't debatable. Bud Selig has made numerous illogical decisions in his tenure as commish, but this was one of the silliest. Giving the All-Star Game any legitimate weight, aside from performance-based incentives, wasn't just pointless, it was reckless. All this rule does is add pressure to what's supposed to be a lighthearted exhibition and burden the skippers with the possibility of injuring one of their, or one of their competitor's, players, particularly pitchers, in a game that's now extremely meaningful.
I can fully support the notion of teams out of the playoff race being forces to sell cheaper goods at their stadiums. Dollar beers (Rule 32) might be a bit extreme, but I like the concept.
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And keeping the first pitch of the season in Cincinnati (Rule 33) ? I'll buy this. Anything that takes away from ESPN that Sunday night game that almost always starts the season in March is fine with me.
The one reversal up for vote -- reverting the IBB to its original form -- didn't go through. According to the New Rules of Baseball, pitchers will still only have to point to indicate a runner can take a free base.
Last, the paperclip to Rule No. 26 (balancing the divisions) got passed (New Rule 26.1). In order to have balanced divisions, interleague play will be spread throughout the entire season. For more on the paperclip, click here.
As always, we appreciate all your input and feedback in creating this new rulebook. We'll be scanning the message board for more New Rules of Baseball so submit any new rules or reversal of rules by Wednesday at 4 p.m. ET. Remember, just because your rule wasn't included this time doesn't mean it's not worthy. Re-post oldies but goodies and share any new ones that you think of.
