Cap in Hand

Iconic baseball writer Bill James in 1987 frustrated with MLBs labor stoppages and the decline of the minor leagues wrote that the minors were an abomination if you are selling a sport and the players dont care about winning thats not a sport. "Thats a fraud an exhibition masquerading as a contest." Bill 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. Cap in Hand goes a step further arguing that a free market in sports teams and athletes once existed and could work again if the monopolists of MLB NFL NBA and NHL would simply relentfrom salary restraint schemes and reserve clause models that result in elite talent being spread as thinly as possible and mediocrity being rewarded via amateur drafts and equalization payments. In fact the model for this exists and may be the most wildly popular and monetarily successful of all professional sports: European football. Cap In Hand asks: what if the four major North American pro sports move beyond the restrictive covenants of the franchise model? The product sold to fans today is a pale copy of what it might be if the market could guide the best players to the best teams whose ingenuity and innovation would inspire everyone to do better and put on a better show.