Who Ruined Baseball?

Question

The owners or the players union? And why?

Answer 1

The players union and the owners both actually!!!!
Here is why:
Imagine a MLB season where all teams had the same payroll. Imagine Twins being able to sign Johan Santana-or Kansas City or Tampa Bay being able to financially compete with Boston and the two NY teams to get the next big name free agent. Becuase lets face it--players go to NY for money--not for the high rent and crime rate. This would bring about balance--higher fan bases-more revenue for MLB and owners.
With that said-the strongest union in sports--the MLB players union doesn't give a damn about the fans. The players don't either. Do you think they care about Florida,Cleveland,KC? No--they want fat pockets and by not agreeing on a salary cap in baseball they cheat fans in small market cities of quality baseball. KC has one of the most beautiful stadiums in MLB to see a game at-I have visited there three times. But a poor product on the field--and some really good fans that love baseball in that town endure that. NYY has always been the richest city. Therefore more titles. If I had 5 dollars to buy a car--and you had $500--who gets the better car? You do...is that fair? No.
Now at the same token--these owners are sissies. They need to lock these players out. Put the foot down. Players will cave--they want paid. If MLB went away for 2 years--fine. The rewards would be outstanding. When Texas gave Arod 252 Million Dollars--they pissed every owner in MLB off.Made the players union happy though. Stupid owners.---unfortunate fans. That's my take...thanks for listening. OUT.

Answer 2

Not sure baseball is ruined. They seem healthy as ever with record breaking attendance and they are able to overcome all the controversy from Bonds and all the other users. TV deals are at an alltime high and salaries are escalating again (see...Barry Zito). If there is a problem it is greed...both sides share that problem and the willingness to turn their back on any and all forms of cheating. Does anyone really think if Canseco didnt decide to make a money grab and write a book (theres that greed thing I mentioned) that steroids would even be discussed? MLB was well aware of the steroid problem 20 years ago but as long as it helped guys put up numbers that sell tickets (just like the tight wound baseballs before that) they dont care. Even the strikes...lockouts and controversies of the past and present arent enough to damage the game, they are even able to overcome a phony commisioner, does anyone think a former fellow owner has the best interest of baseball in mind when he makes decisions? Baseball is Americas game and even scandal and greed arent enough to hurt the grand ole game. All seems well to me (and millions of other fans who fill the stands every night).

Answer 3

Expansion : They placed major league baseball in minor league cities
In order to attract a wider fan base they had to dumb down the game and make it easier for the casual fan to understand .
What's the easiest play to understand ?The home run of course So they lowered the mound , reduced the strike zone to the size of a friggin postage stamp and brought in the outfield fences all in an effort to make offense easier

Then to add insult to injury MLB decided to add multiple layers of playoffs to the game in order to sustain an artificial interest in the game.
WTF does MLB need a multi-tiered playoff system for ?
The beauty of the long season whether it was 154 game or 162 games was that there were no fluke pennant winners and thus no fluke World Series winners The long season separated the contenders from the pretenders .
The playoff system renders the long regular season meaningless and crowns a champion on the basis of a short series crap shoot[ in cold weather no less ] and on so many levels that is so wrong
Under the Old World Order last year The Mets would have been rewarded with the National League Pennant for finishing 9 games ahead of the Padre's and 14 games ahead of the Cardinals and incompetence would not have been rewarded. Instead a team that finished 2 games over .500 is called a World Champion and that too is so wrong on so many levels.
Now we can all go back to whining about the evil Barry Bonds who correctly analyzed the world as it is and with the help of a good chemist or two used it to his own advantage.

Answer 4

Baseball is not ruined. Most of the players are clean and play the game the right way. I would never pay to watch Bonds, but I never liked him before he started to mysteriously grow. There are things about the game that need fixed but it is not ruined.

Answer 5

Players Union and owners are equally responsible.

Answer 6

Both - the players' union for wanting to keep the status quo (i.e. no salary cap), and the owners for caving into the union's demands and for their overall incompetence (i.e. lousy revenue sharing "plans" like the luxury tax).

By the way, the guy who said KC "has one of the most beautiful stadiums" needs to change his answer to "had" - it WAS nice in the 80's when the Royals were winning, but Kauffman is old (over 30 years old), the location sucks (NOT downtown, and the closest restaurant is a Taco Bell across the sea of concrete called a parking lot), and the team's not making any money.

Answer 7

The person with the name of Barry Bonds. If only he was like Jason Giambi and would just come clean. all he is playing for is the record and thats just not right. Hank did it without any unatural help. I think that the players union did, but not sure why. Ups to Giambi for coming clean, so what if his contract is voided, if he saved his money I think he will have plenty to fall back on. Get out of Baseball bonds. All those streriods give you a tiny dick.

Answer 8

I would have to say no PERSON did it. It's all the hype and the drugs that have to do with baseball, such as steriods or bat corks. The players get caught up in all this crap so then ultimately THEY ruin it.

Answer 9

Marvin Miller. He enabled the players' union to go from being necessary to keep players from getting ripped off, to free agency destroying the community between fans and players, and creating the absurd salary leviathan we have today. Wanna blame someone? Blame him.
(Even though he's dead, blame him anyway.)

Answer 10

its not who ruined baseball the question is what ruined baseball and the answer to that is STEROIDS