OCT 14: Salary Caps, Pro Sports & Mediocrity

Iconic baseball writer Bill James, in 1987, frustrated with MLB’s labor stoppages and the decline of the minor leagues, wrote that the minors “were an abomination … if you’re selling a sport and the players don’t care about winning, that’s not a sport. That’s a fraud … an exhibition masquerading as a contest.”

Mr James imagined a better model and proposed that, as opposed to limiting the number of teams in MLB to protect parity, a free market was capable of sustaining many more franchises — hundreds, even — if we would just allow it to sort out the level at which those cities might best compete.

That is exactly how the soccer leagues in Europe are set up. Teams float between different leagues depending on their performance. Of course, the top leagues pay better, too.

And that's the a-ha moment for our next guest, the author of Cap in Hand: How Salary Caps are Killing Pro Sports and Why the Free Market Could Save Them.