A Brave New World (and it sucks)

Yeah, so TBS has gone "national" with its baseball coverage this year, rather than featuring the Braves, which means that I can no longer watch ANY of my favorite sports teams on a regular basis without paying extra for the subscriber-only bonus plans. I put "national" in quotes, since something like 6 of the first 8 broadcasts feature either the Red Sox or Yankees. Like we don't already see them enough on Fox and ESPN. As I prepare to catch at least one Braves game this weekend at Cracker Jack Stadium, I lament the loss of Ted Turner. Since he sold the team, not only have I lost my network, but also a team with the ability to spend with the big-boys in this absurdly non-capped sport. If MLB's goal was to create a two-horse race between the Yankees and Red Sox, with the occasional other contender thrown in, kudos. The National League seems to be headed in the same direction with New York and L.A. Since the Braves' run of dominance in the NL East, we've seen Tom Glavine (30s variety), Rafael Furcal, Andruw Jones, Kyle Farnsworth, Johnny Estrada, Edgar Renteria, etc.. etc.. walk off or traded with only Mark Teixeira , Glavine (40s variety) and Tim Hudson brought in (the former of which is Boras-represented and will never be able to be re-signed long term.) Meanwhile the Mets added Billy Wagner, Carlos Delgado, Carlos Beltran, Pedro Martinez, Johan Santana, et al to the tune of almost half a billion dollars. Philly and Atlanta will never be able to compete with that kind of spending, only the Dodgers seem to be able to (and maybe the Cubs, we'll see.)

Baseball needs to cap itself before it becomes a 5-6 team league with another 20-odd teams only able to compete for brief, shining moments by catching lightning in a bottle, only to see all their homegrown talent bought off by the same 5 teams.