Baseball, America’s pastime. You know the one. Five minutes ago we just witnessed the greatest World Series ever (so they say). Now, two minutes later, they are getting rid of two teams. Could be the Minnesota Twins and the Montreal Expos. Talk about raining on your parade. The problem, loosely defined, is that baseball’s bankers came to Major League Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig and told him that the league has lost $4.5 billion dollars over the past few years, and was going to lose another $500 million next year unless something was done.

So Selig announced contraction. The owners would delete two teams, compensating those owners $250 million for their troubles. Meanwhile there would be more revenue to share among the rest of the team owners. The idea was sold enthusiastically and it was reported that most owners wanted to delete four teams.

Four? Why stop there, why not cut the league in half?

Once again, the fans have been hung out to dry. Fans in Montreal and Minnesota are wondering what they did wrong to deserve this. Meanwhile, fans of Oakland, Tampa Bay, and the Florida Marlins are holding their breath. The two teams have not been decided, and those mentioned so far stand a chance of being eliminated.

Why? Because they are the teams in the smallest markets and have the smallest profits. Or no profits at all.

This will not work. For those who may not understand, this would be like having a bunch of bathrooms in an office. The bathrooms are dirty and raunchy and no one cleans them. So they decide to eliminate a couple of bathrooms. But don’t worry, they take those toilets and spread them around to the other remaining bathrooms. Some even replace old toilets. This may sound like a godsend, but this has done nothing to improve the air quality of the bathrooms.

So who is at fault for stomping on the fans? Both players and owners. Owners just want to make a quick buck at the expense of everyone. They complain about their debts, yet they equally contribute to the astronomical salaries of players.

The players are just as guilty. They hit a ball with a stick of wood and for their troubles they get a quarter of a billion dollars. Not all get that much, but some do. They still get a ridiculous amount of money. These salaries have exploded and they have ruined baseball. I understand they are providing a unique service to society. There is a lot of money to be had and they deserve it. Other sports are surviving and giving large salaries to players, but not at the expense of ruining their leagues.

However, professional football and basketball have added some spending caps for the teams. This has lessened the escalating salaries and stopped management from buying world championship titles (though the football Washington Redskins tried this to no avail).

We need something like this to happen in baseball. It’s the American pastime. I love baseball, and like many fans out there, we enjoy watching and following baseball. I love buying tickets at ridiculous prices only to find out my seat is about as far away from the field as possible.

The point is, baseball is stuck in a cycle. Players are good – they hold the league hostage for gobs of money, the owners pay them because they need a good team to win, and thus their expenses are so high they have to raise ticket prices. Tickets are high, so they can pay lots of money for a good team, and so on. The cycle needs to be broken.

Players insist it is never about the money. I suppose so, considering they do have to pay the bills. The players can make a little less, so that putting together teams doesn’t break the owners’ wallets. At the very least, no teams will be eliminated, or, in other words, they make a profit. Then maybe we can pray for lower ticket prices, or at least no drastic increases.

Spending caps on salaries could do this. Otherwise, more teams could follow suit, as very few make much of a profit. Heck, I’d take 60 grand a year to play third base. Of course, once I had a decent season, I would become a free agent and hold the league hostage for tens of millions or maybe a new stadium in my name. After all, I have to pay the bills.

Jason Bruen is a senior in engineering operations from Lake Bluff, IL.