Okay Boston, It's Time For the Red Sox to "Pay Their Fair Share"

[PittsburghAfterDark]

It's great that Boston has finally won its first World Series since 1918. It's nice to see 86 years of futility now come to an end and the organization meet with success. Now that that success has come Boston and New England is filled with joy. Generations have come together, tiny Red Sox banners are being placed on gravestones and the city is going to have a massive hangover this morning.

Now it's time to pay the price Red Sox fans. It's time to pay the price of your success. As your Senators and this years Democratic Presidential nominee (Ironically also one of your Senators.) have taught us it is now time to "Pay your fair share.".

Let's start out with the basics. It's not fair that your payroll came in at the beginning of the 2004 baseball season at $125.2 million while the Milwuakee Brewers payroll was a mere $27 million. Since baseball's union and owners decree that there is no salary cap to be had we're going to redistribute your wealth, or in your case, your players. Now don't consider this stealing, don't consider it unfair, we need to balance out the playing field. It isn't fair that your team "won life's lottery" by having such a large population base to market to.

So we'll start out with the basics. Curt Schilling is no longer a player. Medicaid and Medicare have found his ankle injury to be career ending. SSI has been notified and he will now be receiving disability pay. Think of him as being 70 1/2 and no longer able to continue contributing to tax deferred savings pools and effectively retired and now on the "waiting to die" list. No appeal.

Next we're going to comb over your roster and see how your roster needs to be adjusted to make things fair with the rest of the baseball population.

We'll start with WS MVP Manny Ramierez. He is no longer eligble to be a Boston Red Sock. Why? He's not really Boston property, he came up and made his bones with the Cleveland Indians. You are now to surrender Manny Ramierez to the Indians, but since the tribe is rebuilding and only have a $34 million team salary and an average player salary of $1.1 million the Red Sox will be forced to pick up the $9 million plus between the Indian average and Ramierez' contract value. Reason? The Indians are poor and should not be paying above the 10% tax bracket.

Bronson Arroyo and Tim Wakefield will be returned to the Pittsburgh Pirates, who originally gave them their major league starts. Pokey Reese will be returned to the Cincinnati Reds. Jason Varitek and Derek Lowe wer originally drafted by the Seattly Mariners, God knows they need help... so guess what, they're gone now too.

Sounds painful so far no? Well, we're not done. We've only moved 6 players so far on a 25 man playoff roster. Don't you know that a 25% tax bracket is too low? We still have another 4 players to go before we get to 38% tax bracket. But wait, there's more. We haven't included FICA or SSI, we haven't begun to get into your state tax rates either. By the time we're done taxing your team Boston we think 55-60% will be enough. Guess we have another 9 players to go until you've paid "YOUR FAIR SHARE."

Pedro Martinez, well he had great success with Montreal. But, Montreal has no more team. Well, they moved to Washington. What better way to ensure the growth of baseball in our nation's capital than returning your 16 game winner to ensure a healthy team in DC. I mean, it's only fair that they have a decent 1 or 2 starter.

David Ortiz, well it's not fair that his contract outgrew Minnesota's market size. In the name of fairness not only are the Red Sox to give him up to the Twins but since he's going to be a free agent it's only fair the Red Sox pick up the difference between his market value and the $2 million Twins team average. I mean, we can't blow up their payroll just because they can't afford him is it? We want to be fair here.

Well, I think you get the point here. I've only gotten up to 8 players and we still have 5 more to go! So let's just imagine I've placed Johnny Damon, Kevil Millar, Mark Bellhorn, Bill Mueller and Kevin Foulke somewhere. Yeah, I mean we don't need a reason or an excuse to send them anywhere do we? In fact we may not even assign them to a baseball team, we'll consider them part of the overhead of government waste. I mean, so what if they're amongst the best baseball resources this generation? They got lost in the shuffle.

Or wait, consider that reparations for Josh Gibson, Satchel Paige, Rube Foster, Cool Pappa Bell and Oscar Charleston never getting their shot in the major leagues because of segregation. I mean it's not fair to those 5 players that will never play again, but it wasn't fair to the 5 that never got their shot because they're black.

All this talk of champions, success and money has made the baseball liberals angry. It's time for payback. It's time for the Red Sox to pay "Their fair share."

[misterrob]

The divisional structure no longer worked. Midwest teams having to constantly play teams as much as 3 hours out of their timezone? Hard to keep fans up during the midweek and watch the games and if the fans aren't watching, you have a problem.

The purpose of the 162 game schedule is not to pick the best team but the best teams.

Oakland picks up guys regularly and doesn't break the bank. In 2002 they let go of Giambi and won even more games the following year. The Sox dumped Nomar's salary for three guys who contributed. Some teams overspend but hey, free market rules and the smart sellers restock their systems for better days. See the Marlins team of last year and how it was built when they broke up the 97 team.

There is nothing disproportionate about money. If people would get off their ass and go to the games then teams would have more money to spend. If people would follow the games then the local TV contracts will get more money. While I hate the Yankees, I don't support the idea that NY fans should have to subsidize Pittsburgh and Milwaukee's teams.

The Red Sox were the AL's best team from late July through the end of the year. It started with the NY brawl and carried through. Theo did a masterful job of being a GM and did it better than anyone else in the game.

[Poodlebrain]

The divisional structure worked just fine. What didn't work was the fans anger over the 1994 strike/lock out. Fan interest was perked up with the introduction of new ball parks and a juiced baseball resulting in many more home runs. The McGuire-Sosa chase for Maris' home run record is what restored many fans' interests in baseball.

Yes, the A's actually won more games the year after losing Jason Giambi as their pitching staff developed into a better unit and Miguel Tejada had an MVP season. This past season the inability to replace a quality closer, injuries to the starting pitching and the lack of run production from below average salary players finally proved too much for the A's.

Do you really think the Red Sox would have been better than the A's if the A's had the wherewithal's to keep players such as Damon, Giambi, Tejada and Foulke? Theo Epstein is to be commended for filling out the Red Sox with proven major leaguers, but I think the way Billy Beane constructs the A's with castoffs and role players is more impressive.

[misterrob]

Belhorn, Millar, Mueller, Timlin all played key roles and they were spare parts as well...