Medea Invades Pro Sports

In Greek mythology she was the sorceress
daughter of Aeetes, king of Colchis. She seduced Jason in his quest for the
Golden Fleece, deceived her father and aided Jason’s capture of the Fleece, and
sailed to Greece with Jason alongside her younger brother Apsyrtus. In one
variation of the tale, she killed her brother and scattered his remains on the
sea, where Aeetes stopped to gather them and thus was unable to prevent their
escape.

She then helped Jason avenge the death of
his parents at the hands of his wicked uncle Pelius, and the two fled to Corinth
and bore two sons. But when Jason fell in love with the daughter of King Creon
of Corinth, she killed her rival and then her two sons, escaping Jason’s wrath
by fleeing in a winged car to Athens, where she gained influence over King
Aegeus and plotted to kill his son to prevent him from supplanting her
influence.

Thus has the name Medea
become synonymous with the practice of devouring one’s own.

Medea’s spirit has returned, and instead
of seducing the ruler of ancient Athens she has seduced pro sports, particularly
Major League Baseball. There has been a strikingly high level of praise for
baseball’s decision to disband two teams, with a lot of talk – such as a Tony
Massarotti column – about how contraction will cut out fat and improve the
quality of a game supposedly diluted by expansion.

NASCAR faces a similar potential
situation, with talk of reducing starting fields to 36 in the Grand National
series. Here, too, there is talk of how contraction will improve the quality of
the competition by elimination of weak teams.

No one seems to have noticed the angle of
sports devouring their own.

The dilution argument about contraction
isn’t terribly convincing. Gripes in baseball about how pitching has
deteriorated ignore that the real draw is offense – runs, RBIs, homers (hence
baseball’s trumpeting of its now-annual home run record races). And the point
remains that the object is to put more runs on the board to win games. Pitchers
duels do have a place in baseball, and we see them more frequently than some
critics seem to think – such as Hideo Nomo’s no-hitter in April, the varied
Roger Clemens-Pedro Martinez duels, and the Game 3,4,5, and 7 showdowns of the
World Series.

And few have noticed the greed factor.
Owners will divvy up the large amounts of revenue freed up by contraction – an
indication that they STILL will not address the real crisis of the game in its
absurd costs, salaries, etc. Owners and the Players Union are equally at fault
for the game’s economic absurdities, and it is well known how neither side –
money-grubbing players and sniveling owners – is worth provision of the time of
day.

There is a somewhat similar angle in
NASCAR, for reducing starting fields only rewards the richest teams. The truism
that you’re only as strong as your weakest link is supposed to be a warning
about the need to strengthen your weakest link, not to let it die out. The
Craftsman Truck Series has not seen fields higher than 36, and it has become a
strikingly stale exercise with little in the way of new blood or change – only
the rise of Rob Morgan’s #46 team with Dennis Setzer and the efforts of rookie
Travis Kvapil have given the Trucks anything in the way of a shot in the arm.

This angle also applies to NASCAR’s
overall approach. It has strengthened and strengthened its top level series, and
increasingly at the expense of its lower divisions. The lack of a TV deal for
the Modified Tour remains a sore spot, and the lack of attention by the
sanctioning body explains more about the deteriorating state of Grand National
etc. than the economy does.

As far as the racing, it is not a dilution
of talent that explains lower-quality racing – it is the lack of raceability in
the cars. The spiraling costs – a direct result of the infusion of money-guy
team owners – also are a major factor. NASCAR’s move to banning qualifying
engines will help somewhat, but addressing core costs such as the number of
racecars an individual team has and the long-ignored multi-car team scandal
would help a lot more.

Addition by subtraction has never been a
workable solution, in business or in sports. Baseball won’t solve its problems
until it is forced to give up power from the owners and players to the
commissioner – remember, this is how NASCAR grew and prospered, a lesson being
lost in the clamor for drivers to have a "voice" they in fact already
had and which proved worthless in the 5&5 rules fiasco – and until it
implements a hard salary cap and hard revenue sharing. Racing won’t solve its
problems with contraction, either – it needs to address costs and just who is
pricing them upward – the rules are not the only or even the primary reason.

No one wins with Medea.