A mere two days after one of the greatest seasons in Major League Baseball history concluded with one of the most dramatic World Series ever, the most sickening thing imaginable happened to America’s pastime. Baseball owners voted to contract the league to 28 teams, and to thereby end the existence of two Major League ball clubs. The final vote was 28-2, with only the owners of the Twins and the Expos (the two teams expected to be contracted) voting against the measure. Although the teams have not yet been chosen, the frontrunners are the Montreal Expos, Minnesota Twins, Florida Marlins, and Tampa Bay Devil Rays. While some say that the decision will be final by December 15, others are skeptical that the contraction will even occur.

Backing contraction is baseball commissioner Bud Selig. In addition to being commissioner, Selig owns 35% of the National League’s Milwaukee Brewers. Selig, you might remember, was also the man who supported the owners in the 1994 strike. "Contraction, we believe, deals with this problem because ... they are teams that we judge to be not capable, now or in the future, of generating enough revenue to be a productive franchise. And by shifting teams, oftentimes all you do is shift problems," Selig said.

Now, wait a second here. Can this guy get away with saying this? There are so many things wrong about Selig’s statement that it’s almost disgusting to read. First of all, how can he say that these teams will not be capable in the future? Is he Bud Selig the psychic, with mystical powers that only MLB commissioners can possess? Let’s just look at the four teams in question to determine the validity of Selig’s arguement.

First, we have the Montreal Expos. Sure, the ‘Spos drew only 600,000 fans this year, but much of this can be blamed on current owner Jeffrey Loria, who has crippled the popularity of baseball in French-Canada. He is criticized for only broadcasting Expos games in French this season, thinking it would draw more English-speaking fans to the games. This was a team that in 1994 had the League’s best record before the strike. Montreal is a team packed with a plethora of young talent, including one of the best young outfielders in the game, Vladimir Guerrero. Put this team in the right city and they will easily draw three million fans every year.

Next we have the Twins, who have the strongest complaint against contraction. The Twinkies are two-time world champions whose history includes Harmon Killebrew, the number four all-time home run hitter, and Kirby Puckett, who will be inducted into the Hall of Fame this year. The Twins pulled off one of the best turnarounds in history this season, leading the AL Central for much of the season while attendance boomed. They, like the Expos, have a young team solidified by gold glovers Torii Hunter and Doug Mientkiewicz along with shortstop Christian Guzman and pitcher Brad Radke. However, the problem with the Twins is their owner, 84-year-old Carl Pohlad, who is more interested in money than the Minnesota fans. In fact, after the owners’ meeting last Tuesday, Pohlad wrote a letter to Twins’ employees stating that he does not oppose contraction. In the letter, he wrote, "Our willingness to go along with contraction, if the commissioner so decides, has come from a feeling of hopelessness. Within the context of baseball’s commitment, when we are posed the question, ‘Why should the Minnesota Twins not be contracted?’ we are unable to find a plausible answer." Please help me, I think I’m going to barf. There have even been rumors that Pohlad has actually pushed Selig to eliminate his team in exchange for a large contraction payment. That’s just outrageous.

The other two contraction possibilities are the Tampa Bay Devil Rays and the Florida Marlins, two recent expansion teams. Tampa Bay joined the ML in 1998 while the Marlins came aboard in 1993. Just because these teams aren’t successful now doesn’t mean they won’t be in the future. Almost every expansion team has struggled in its first few years. Hell, the New York Mets, like the D-Rays, finished in last place each of their first four seasons. The Marlins have an even stronger case for survival. They won the World Series only five seasons ago! The Cubs and Red Sox haven’t won it in nearly a century!

Selig also argues that moving teams only moves the team’s problems to their new locale, but he has absolutely no historical evidence to back his position. In 35 years, a grand total of two Major League teams have moved cities. In 1972 the Washington Senators became the Texas Rangers, a team that made several playoff appearances in the 90s and remains one of the league’s biggest draws, featuring a relatively new ballpark and Alex Rodriguez. The only other move in the past 35 years came in 1970, when the Seattle Pilots became the Milwaukee Brewers. Is Selig calling his own team a failure? In other sports, you only have to look at the defending Super Bowl champion Baltimore Ravens or Stanley Cup champion Colorado Avalanche to see just how little moving a team can hurt a franchise. There are several places out there that want Major League baseball teams: Washington D.C., Portland, North Carolina and San Jose, just to name a few.

By getting rid of two small market teams, owners are looking for a quick fix to the overwhelming financial discrepancy between small-market and big-market teams. The big-market teams make the most money, and thus buy the best players and win every year. To fix this problem, Major League Baseball needs to adopt an effective system of revenue sharing. Something that will take some of the money out of the hands of the New Yorks and Atlantas and feed it back to the Minnesotas and Montreals. The league can do this by equally sharing just half of the local television revenue. This way, the major-market teams will still keep some advantage, just not one that is so overwhelming and detrimental to the game. The problem is, the large-market owners are so greedy that they don’t want to see any of their money leave while the small-market owners don’t want to be pushed to invest any more of their, or anyone else’s money into their teams. It sounds absurd, but many small market owners make huge profits while their teams decline into oblivion, since they invest only the bare minimum in their clubs.

The owners’ decision to terminate two teams has already met with strong opposition from players, fans and even the United States government. Minnesota Senator Paul Wellstone and John Conyers, the ranking Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, have already decided to take action. Major League Baseball has an antitrust exemption (formed by a 1922 Supreme Court decision), giving owners absolute power over the sport. "Any time 30 of the wealthiest and most influential individuals get together behind closed doors and agree to reduce output, that cannot be a good thing for anyone but the monopolists," Conyers said. "I will do everything in my power to see that this ill-considered decision does not stand, including introducing legislation to ensure that the full weight of the antitrust laws applies to this anticompetitive decision."

The Major League Baseball Players Association (MLBPA) responded quickly and decisively, filing a grievance just a day after the owners had voted for contraction. In the grievance, the MLBPA claimed that owners violated the sport’s collective bargaining agreement by deciding to cut teams. MLBPA union head Donald Fehr argued: "This decision has been made unilaterally, without any attempt to negotiate with the players, apparently without any serious consideration of other options, including relocation, and seemingly with little concern for the interests of the fans."

"Baseball is sacred. Money doesn’t need to be brought onto the playing field. By doing this, owners make it into just a business, when it should be more than one," said baseball fanatic Teresa Valdez Klein ’05.

However, Selig remains confident that this is the best move for Major League Baseball. Asked if this was a sad day for baseball, Selig said, "Sad day after the Series we just had? I wouldn’t say so. The human part of this equation is what bothers me most. As someone who ran a team on who a lot of people’s livelihood and careers depended, I’d say it’s a sad day. I worry a lot about that."

Somehow, I don’t think he actually believes that.