The Legitimacy of our Professional sports

We are finally being be treated to fair professional sports leagues (Except Baseball), where dynasties are built based upon superb management rather than money or location.

It's something that bugs me when i think about dynasties in the 70's and 80's...not so much in basketball or football, but very much so in Hockey and in Baseball. The salary cap was established in 1994 for football and in 1992 for basketball, so right there all teams could only spend up to a certain allocated price limit, so this was not so bad. The problem with baseball is infuriating though and it truly is ridiculous that the same problem remains today.

Baseball:
Besides the steroid issue in Baseball, which is absolutely embarrassing for a "professional" league, Baseball has very clearly lost most of its ground to the NFL in every way possible.The once true and dominant sport of America is overshadowed by the spectacle and the drama on Sunday's, and the massive audiences of the Superbowl. I was never a fan of the MLB, and from my perspective, i have no reason to ever be one. With no salary cap limit for any team, it is a given, year in and year out that the Yankees and redsox will lead the bid for the best free agents. Yes, there is generally a new World series champion every year, which isn't the problem, the problem is with teams like Washington, and Pittsburgh, who may very well never have a roster that matches that of an uper echelon team. This is not the case in leagues that are governed by the salary cap. And consequently, teams do not become great from great management, but rather how far they reech into their wallets. The New England Patriots drafted Tom Brady in the 6th Round in the draft, and brought in a mastermind of a coach in Bill Bellichik, the two of them at the helms of their dynasty. The Yankees on the other hand this off season brought in A.J Burnett because no other team was willing to pay him 13.5 million dollars a year. As a result of the utter stupidity of not having a salary cap, these baseball players are getting paid like they discovered a way to teleport. Baseball will never catch up to the NFL, but until the sport establishes a salary cap and therefore has a league which wins based on skill and management, I can never lay my eyes on it.

Hockey:
We can finally say today, that in Hockey the great teams are built based on acquisitions and great management based moves (aka. Detroit Red Wings).. There are still some major issues with the league today and they stem from major problems in the past. I love the Montreal Canadiens. They are my home team, and hands down my favorite hockey team. But when people ask, why cant we be the same as we were in the 70's, 80's? There's a somewhat simple answer. A statistic recorded in 1987 showed that 81.67% of the NHL were Canadian born players, 59% of those from Quebec. So not only is there a problem that this insignificant province in a fairly insignificant country that is Canada is dominating this professional Hockey league. The problem is that Montreal was the obvious team to play for. Yes there were great signings and draft moves by the Canadiens, but it was virtually a team of all star quebecers vs the rest of the league. Is it fair to have the Canadiens up there with the Celtics as the second most winningest team in the history of professional sports? I wont answer that, i just know that in a more respectable, even league, like the NHL is today, it's taken the Canadiens 16 years and counting since their last Stanley cup. And like the NBA and the NFL, it's the Management moves that make all the difference.