It's getting harder and harder to be a baseball fan these days.

The great game really knew how to tear my heart out after one of the most thrilling World Series competitions I have witnessed in my lifetime. Major League Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig announced that before the start of the 2002 season, two teams would be contracted in order to save them from financial turmoil. To top that off, just a few days ago our good friend Bud announced that Major League Baseball had turned a deficit this year of close to $500 million. Then, focus your attention on New York, where at this moment George Steinbrenner and his small nation-state of assistants are wooing Oakland Athletics star first-baseman Jason Giambi to the Big Apple to the sweet tune of $120 million.

Anybody else notice anything wrong with this picture?

It is obvious to everyone that baseball has never been the same since the strike back in 1994. Fan response has never quite been the same since then, as evidenced by attendance figures in parks across the league. Sure, attendance at BankOne Ballpark in Phoenix was stellar during the World Series, but the resort/stadium did not draw as many fans as they had hoped during the regular season. Fans aren't even watching on television anymore, much less attending games in person at the park. The ultimate proof: Game 5 of the ALCS between the Yankees and Mariners -- two of the best teams in the majors -- drew lower ratings than the Monday Night Football game between the 0-4 Dallas Cowboys and the 0-4 Washington Redskins.

As a diehard baseball fan since birth, I find all these recent developments to be quite staggering. True fans like myself have come back to the great game even after the debacle in 1994. One of the main points that pushes people away from the game is this new era of the free-agent offseason. Teams like the Yankees, Braves, Red Sox, and Dodgers who have loads of money to spend on free agents tend to gobble up the best talent. Fans of the other 20-or-so teams in the league whose payrolls don't even come close to $120 million therefore feel left out, and feel that the season is a foregone conclusion before it even begins. So, instead of going to the ballpark to cheer for the local team, the fan chooses to stay home because in the end, it won't be worth the high ticket prices to pay a player's exorbitant salary. For god's sake... the Yankees just created their own CABLE NETWORK... while teams like the Montreal Expos don't even have a contract to broadcast their games on television to begin with. And finally, the ultimate step taken a few weeks ago: baseball needs to eliminate teams who aren't succeeding financially.

Why doesn't baseball consider any alternatives? Simply because the big picture is messier than a five-year old kid playing in the mud after a rainstorm. The players' union doesn't want a salary cap of any kind - they are almost afraid of the words themselves. Seriously, mention the words "salary cap" to Don Fehr and his already scary face gets even scarier.

The fact is, some kind of salary cap or revenue-sharing program WOULD HELP baseball become a game again, rather than a contest to see who can spend the most money on the best talent. Take the enormous amounts of money generated by the large payroll teams and divide up the pot among ALL the teams. The players' union, in effect, is making baseball unfair. They refuse to place a salary cap on teams who simply have more money than others.

Of course, if this cycle of events continues... in 30 years or so, there will only be six teams left. I can see it now: "Yankees offer young prospect first ever $1 billion contract." I don't think it would be a stretch.

That's my two cents... enjoy the game, folks.

Dave Lefchak is a freelance sports columnist for Newsworthy Online. He actively encourages you to give him your two cents... just E-Mail him: dlefcha1@ic3.ithaca.edu.

You can also check out his own web site!