The crack of the bat as it hits an outside fastball. The odor of popcorn and bratwurst wafting through the air.

The baseball season is finally underway.

After a long winter, the boys of summer are back at the parks, fans are dusting off their copies of “Field of Dreams,” and the Cubs’ faithfuls are already conceding the season. (Just kidding, Adam.)

Actually, I know a little something about conceding the season before it even starts. That’s right — I’m a Minnesota Twins fan.

When I was younger, my family and I would load up our Caravan and drive to the Twin Cities to see my beloved Twins play. I would wave my homer hanky with abandon, eat frosty malts like there was no tomorrow and love every minute in the Metrodome.

That was back in the day when the Twins were good and the season had endless possibilities.

Flash forward to today.

The Twins weren’t picked to finish last in the American League Central, but that’s only because the Central is horrible. If the Twins don’t lose 100 games, I will be ecstatic.

The Twins currently have a roster that consists of 10 rookies; one of them is Ankeny native Benj Sampson, who is a starting pitcher. The Twins feature the youngest roster in the American League, at an average of 27.2 years.

But more important, the Twins have the lowest payroll in the American League and the third lowest overall, followed only by the lowly Florida Marlins and Montreal Expos.

The Twins pay their players a total of $19,142,500. This may sound like a lot of money to us non-owners, but compared to a team like the New York Yankees, who’s payroll is a whopping $85,054,360, it’s pitifully small.

In fact, the Twins only have one player, Rick Aguilera, who is paid more than the Yankees’ average salary. And the only reason Minnesota hasn’t dumped Aggie and his salary is because he has a no-trade clause.

But what difference does payroll make, you might ask. Simple — it makes all the difference in the world of baseball.

During the offseason, the Yankees traded for ace pitcher Roger Clemens from the Toronto Blue Jays. They’re paying Clemens $8.25 million, and in exchange for him, the Yankees traded away pitcher David Wells, who threw a no-hitter against the Twins last season.

Not only can the Twins not afford to pay anyone — not even Roger Clemens — $8.25 million, they don’t have anyone of the caliber of Wells to trade away.

The Twins can’t afford quality talent, so they rely almost exclusively on their young players — players with little or no big league experience. These players will eventually be quite good, but not this year, and not while they’re still with the Twins.

And because young players like Doug Mientkiewicz and Cristian Guzman won’t be as good as Derek Jeter or Albert Belle, the Twins simply won’t be as good as high-paying teams in the league.

It’s a vicious cycle for the low-end teams, because if they don’t win games, they can’t attract fans. And if they can’t bring in fans, they won’t make any money. And if they don’t turn a profit, they can’t afford any big name, big talent players next year.

But what’s worse is as each of the young players on the Twins’ roster matures and improves, they’ll all leave for better teams that can offer them more money. And the Twins will start all over again,

And so it goes.

There’s only one thing that can end this cycle and restore some sort of parity to the major leagues.

A salary cap.

Right now, teams like the Twins, the Royals, the Marlins and the Expos can’t even hope to have a shot at winning their divisions in the major leagues. They know from the beginning of the year that they will be outmanned by powerhouse teams like the Yankees, the Braves and the Indians.

Some sports writers have suggested splitting up the major leagues into the “haves” and the “have nots.” This would separate the good teams from the horrible teams, and it would give the fans of the horrible teams some hope for winning at least a few games.

Others have suggested that those teams that can’t hack it should just be eliminated, and baseball can go back to smaller leagues of competitive teams.

But destroying the infrastructure of major league baseball is not the answer, and killing teams that won the World Series as recently as nine years ago isn’t quite fair either.

The salary cap works in pro football, where teams all have about the same resources, and their success is measured by the talent of the players.

If there were a salary cap in baseball, the single most important element in the sport would be restored: hope. Hope for a winning record, hope for a chance at the postseason, hope for a shot at immortality.

Unfortunately, until baseball goes back to being about the game instead of about the money, the salary cap won’t stand a chance.

Until it does, I’ll keep rooting for my feeble Twins, and I’ll cheer even harder when they play against the Yankees. And hey, there’s always next year.

I feel more like a Cubs fan all the time.

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Sara Ziegler is a junior in journalism and mass communication from Sioux Falls, S.D.