Baseball Thread

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OJ Simpson said:
I think that's a problem across all sports, for a bevy of reasons.

But yeah, when maybe the most "fierce" sporting rivalry in America (I know it is for me) can only garner apathy, sports are in a tough spot. At least college football is more about the program than any one player. Same for the Red Sox vs Yankees but it certainly helps when the star power is there. It puts butts in seats and eyes on the tv screen.
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I feel old I remember there were like 4 judge caliber players in the AL alone, arod, Vlad, ortiz and Manny, let alone albert pujols. Miss those days......
 
All this reminiscing compelled me to look at some old numbers from 20 years ago. A couple of things stood out:

The Yankees had the highest payroll in baseball ($194,663,079,) which was around $74,000,000 more than the second highest team (Boston) who had a $120,099,824 roster. Adjusted for inflation, the Yankees' payroll was a whopping $323,453,562.52 which would still be about $45,000,000 less than the current Dodgers payroll of $368,699,449.

Meanwhile, the (Florida) Marlins had a hilariously low payroll of $14,671,500. With inflation, that's $24,378,269.20 today or, to drive the point home: that's about $200,000 less than what Aaron Nola of the Phillies was paid this year for 175.1 innings of work. Despite this, the Marlins still managed 78 wins. They did this with a team that featured only one position player (Wes Helms, 30) with over 250 plate appearances and who was also over the age of 28.
 
Xavier Renegade Angel said:
The fact the Yankees sox rivalry is irrelevant shows you that star power in this sport is completely gone. From Pedro Manny, arod and Jeter to who?
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I'm going to laugh if Mookie Betts gets his third ring with the Dodgers. I'm sure the Red Sox organization is going to feel even dumber for letting good players like him go. They're just incapable of keeping anyone good, while placing misguided faith in their farming system. Farming systems take a long time to develop players, if any of them are worthy enough for a call-up. For an established MLB team, you should focus on getting and retaining good players in the present while having that farming system.

But they got it all backwards too in that.
 
Xavier Renegade Angel said:
The fact the Yankees sox rivalry is irrelevant shows you that star power in this sport is completely gone. From Pedro Manny, arod and Jeter to who?
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OJ Simpson said:
But yeah, when maybe the most "fierce" sporting rivalry in America (I know it is for me) can only garner apathy, sports are in a tough spot. At least college football is more about the program than any one player. Same for the Red Sox vs Yankees but it certainly helps when the star power is there. It puts butts in seats and eyes on the tv screen.
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Part of the issue here is that a rivalry only becomes "fierce" when certain factors come into play. You both have great players, you both are looking to compete, there is some kind of "storyline" involved. You don't just have these epic matchups because you guys compete in the same division. That alone is not how a rivalry works. Yankees vs Red Sox is a good example of this: they weren't rivals simply because of playing in the same division. It was because of how their histories intertwined with each other and the events over the years that fueled them hating one another. Especially when one had a lot of success while the other one didn't.

Twenty-years ago in the NFL we had Colts vs Patriots. Which is nonexistent today. It took a lot of things to happen for us to have the Detroit Red Wings vs Colorado Avalanche brawls in the 90s. Again, nonexistent today. Look at the lead up to the Malice at the Palace in the NBA. Or if the NBA decides to reinstate the Seattle SuperSonics. You just know that one day they will have a big matchup against the Thunder that everyone is going to be talking about.

Sports rivalries often aren't these lifelong blood feuds as much as they are flashes in the pan. They are meant to capture a moment in time. The Yankees versus the Red Sox had meaning in the 90s and 2000s that it doesn't have today because of the events of that period. If Yankees-Red Sox was a book starting from the very beginning of the rivalry, the 2004 World Series would literally be ending. Because that was what the actual story of this rivalry was: could the dragon continue to dominant the underling, or would the underling finally slay that dragon?

What reason does anyone have today to care about a matchup between these two now and days? The dynamics between the two changed in 2004, and have only continued to change since. No one cares about the rivalry anymore for precisely that reason.
 
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Kermit the Frog said:
White Sox blow a 2-0 series lead, Guardians advance to the ALCS against the Rays.
Brutal end to the season for the White Sox, but they had a much better season than expected.
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Manfred is yanking his hair out over the two lowest payrolls in the AL having the chance to become American League champions.

EDIT: Holy shit, I just looked at the box score and the White Sox struck out TWENTY-ONE times. That has got to be a single-game postseason record.
 
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Kermit the Frog said:
Mookie already has 3 rings with the Dodgers.
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The Dodgers are absolutely playing better but the Brewers are winning.
PopularMediaToaster said:
I know it means nothing because he has 2 chips and 4 MVPs, but has Shohei gone ghost mode in October again? I just tuned in and this 2-1 is triggering me
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He got injured mid-season and has not been to form since. He has productive at-bats getting walks and hits and can move on the bases.
 
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