Sunshine State squads great for baseball integrity

Living in the Midwest being a Boston sports fan, as you can imagine, is like a dream come true. I poke fun at the Milwaukee and Minnesota fans while all of my teams are contending for championships. And for them, a comeback is simply nonexistent.

Unless it’s baseball. Then of course you get the “Wow, you guys buy your team every year; good for you, you’ve become the Yankees.” Although Kevin Youlilis, Jon Lester, Dustin Pedroia, Clay Buchholz, Manny Delcarmen, Jonathan Papelbon, and Jacoby Ellsbury are all products of the Boston farm system, it’s still a tough claim to argue against when the salaries of Manny Ramirez, Daisuke Matsuzaka, and J.D. Drew are staring you in the face.

The accomplishments of the Celtics and Patriots especially are that much more impressive because of the salary caps that exist in each sport (of course the NBA has a soft cap and the NFL has a hard cap). Baseball has revenue sharing, but let’s be honest, it isn’t exactly making the rich any less rich.

This is why the first-place Rays and the No. 1 Marlins are so important to the integrity of Major League Baseball. After the Red Sox swept the beloved Brewers two weekends ago in Fenway, I – as any fan would – started to boast to the Miller Park lovers with whom I live. But the reaction I got from my friend Drew (yes, the same Drew that thinks LeBron James is bad for the NBA) was, “I don’t care about baseball, man; baseball is a joke.”

With all the steroid-related nonsense and lack of a decent salary cap, Drew’s claim is not all that ridiculous; baseball is somewhat of a joke (although I believe it’s getting cleaned up and there is light at the end of the tunnel). But now I can point to Tampa and Miami, because on May 28, both small-market teams are playing great baseball, and this is after a notorious Marlins fire sale.

Neither the Rays nor the Fish can come close to filling their stadiums on a regular basis. And we all know that ticket revenue is essential for creating the ability to sign big name free agents down the road. Each Sunshine State team is defying all odds by contending in divisions containing the bullying Red Sox, Yankees, Mets, and Braves: The perennial powerhouses.

And to tell you the truth, neither Florida team is a fluke, either. Tampa’s Scott Kazmir (boy, Omar Minaya must be kicking himself these days; forget the whole Willie Randolph situation) and James Shields are a 1,2 combination to be reckoned with, and is a nice compliment to superstar (at least in my mind) Carl Crawford, last year’s home run king Carlos Pena and future All-Star B.J. Upton.

The Marlins’ Hanley Ramirez is already on his way to becoming the most complete player in baseball – if he isn’t there already – and second baseman Dan Uggla won’t stop slugging home runs.

By the time August rolls around, the Rays won’t be able to keep up with the Red Sox – barring any serious injuries – and the Marlins’ lack of depth in their rotation will keep them from making the playoffs. But the longer they contend in their respective divisions, the better Bug Selig sleeps each night and the better for the game of baseball.

They may not have deep pockets, but the more small-market teams create parody in baseball, the more people – like my friend Drew – become interested on a national level, which is exactly what baseball needs right now.

Each night I watch mlb.com and cheer for Manny and Papi and hope that I can see the Papelbon Stare in the ninth. Don’t tell Red Sox Nation, but the baseball fan in me is secretly rooting for an all-Florida November showdown.