Bud Selig's competitive balance draft is a good idea at a bad time.

        The High Commissioner of Cowhide (formerly horsehide) proposes to fortify baseball's weakest franchises by redistributing the surplus talent of the strong (Details). In theory, this is an idea whose time has come. In practice, it probably should be postponed.

        Were Selig's plans in place this year, the small-town Cincinnati Reds would be expected to help subsidize the big-city Philadelphia Phillies. The 72-90 Houston Astros could be compelled to turn over a player to the 79-83 Detroit Tigers. The eight teams with the best records over a three-year period would each lose a body to one of the game's eight worst
performers.

        Payroll considerations wouldn't count. Market size wouldn't matter. Prudent management would be penalized. Recklessness would be rewarded.
       

Plan not perfect
               Baseball's economic order is in need of a drastic overhaul, but asking the resourceful Oakland A's to bail out the profligate Baltimore Orioles would be like asking the tortoise to give the hare a head start.

        That said, maybe it's still worth doing. Maybe the way to fix baseball is to stay focused on the big picture and overlook some of the flaws inherent in contrived equality. Maybe a few egregious exceptions are a price worth paying for a generally more level playing field.

        “There are a whole slate of things that we're going to be talking about,” said John Allen, the Reds chief operating officer. “In the short-term, maybe it (the competitive balance draft) hurts us. But in combination with other rules changes, I think it is a positive thing. We want to be part of the solution and not part of the problem.”

        Baseball's enduring problem is the competitive imbalance spawned by the disproportionate income and self-interest of high-revenue clubs. So long as the New York Yankees' cable television fees exceed the gross revenues of several of their supposed competitors, baseball parity is impossible.

        Selig's goal is to narrow the gap between the elite and the exiles. His challenge is to do it without inciting a mutiny or another suicidal work stoppage.
       

Good first step
               While Alex Rodriguez' $252 million contract with the Texas Rangers may well signal the sport's imminent meltdown, the 37-page memorandum Selig sent to owners last week includes several constructive suggestions. While it does not provide the ultimate answer on competitive balance, its flanking maneuvers are a welcome change from the usual frontal assault against free agency and arbitration.

        Selig's plan, to be presented at the Jan. 17-18 owners meetings in Phoenix, includes the competitive balance draft and a world amateur draft that would curtail the open bidding on foreign-born ballplayers. It would allow teams to trade draft picks — a practice heretofore forbidden in baseball — and would delay the draft eligibility of college players until their senior year.

        Though the Players Association can be expected to challenge some of these changes because they have not been bargained, nothing in Selig's scheme can be construed as an act of war against the union.

        The Commissioner is pursuing competitive balance with a series of small steps. Each one advances the cause a little bit. None of them are liable to shut down the industry. This, people, is progress.

        E-mail: tsullivan@enquirer.com.
       

SULLIVAN: Selig plan is worth considering

UC loses Motor City Bowl
Bad ending to good run
Motor City Bowl Notebook
UC-Marshall Statistics
UC's Crawford breaks ankle
UC's Jones still struggling to find niche
Tonight's game: UNC-Wilmington at UC
Dillon rejects Bengals' first offer
Gilbride could be candidate to head offense
Nixon leaves Xavier team
Olympic funding takes hit
Kentucky 102, High Point 49
UK's Ledford treated for cancer
Boys basketball coverage
Girls basketball coverage
Cincinnati boys basketball games
Cincinnati girls basketball games
N.Ky. boys basketball games
N.Ky. girls basketball games
Ohio boys basketball scores
Ohio girls basketball scores
Kentucky boys basketball scores
Kentucky girls basketball scores
Indiana boys basketball scores
Indiana girls basketball scores
Boys basketball schedule
Girls basketball schedule

• Return to Reds front page...