The Red Sox have the 1994 strike to thank for their World Series title. Without that cataclysmic event baseball would not have realigned and introduced the wild card, along with interleague play. Despite selling out every game during the season the Red Sox still finished behind the Yankees in their divisional race and made the playoffs as a wild card team.
Are you content with competing for that wild card berth on an annual basis as your shot at the playoffs? Because the Yankees have financial resources that far exceed those of the Red Sox, and George Steinbrenner is willing to spend more than the Red Sox are willing to spend to acquire the ballplayers necessary for the Yankees to keep winning the AL East.
Somehow sharing revenue has not prevented the New England Patriots from assembling a winning team. And it didn't take 86 years with the playing field being closer to level.
The NFL and MLB are different entities......Salary cap being the biggest. Teams can turn over in 2 years and if you look at the Jets this year or the Pats in 2000/2001 and 2002/2003, one season is all it takes.
The wild card is actually good for baseball for the following reasons:
1) More divisions means better rivalries. Yankees and Sox play 19 games a year in the regular season. Same for Dodgers/Giants.
2) Last 3 WS champs were wild card.
3) Money is not the be all, end all. Marlins were a lower payroll team and the Angels had 1/2 the payroll of the Yankees in 2002. A's got to the playoffs 4 years in a row on a low payroll. Yes, money can help buy you a ticket to the playoffs but it cannot buy the series.
4) sox had 2nd best record in the conference and beat the 1st and second overall best record teams in the post season. No charity there.