JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:
The World Series starts tonight between the Milwaukee Brewers and Tampa Bay Rays. Enjoy it. It could be the last baseball we see for a while. A labor battle is brewing between team owners and players over the prospect of a salary cap. NPR's Becky Sullivan reports from Milwaukee.
BECKY SULLIVAN, BYLINE: For months, Major League Baseball and its team owners have been beating a drum. Baseball has a problem, they say. It's too easy for rich teams to win and too hard for poor teams.
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UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: It needs to be more equitable.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: A hundred percent it needs a salary cap. That's the biggest issue in baseball right now.
SULLIVAN: This ad campaign from MLB has been running for the past few months. The answer, the league says, is a salary cap, and they say baseball fans support it.
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UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #3: If it's fair, it's more competitive fun for baseball.
SULLIVAN: Baseball has never had a salary cap, a limit on how much teams can spend on their players. It's the only major professional sport in North America without something like it. Players historically haven't wanted any limit on their compensation. In 1994, the last time the league pushed for a salary cap, the negotiations grew so contentious, the season ended early and the World Series was canceled. Neither side wants that to happen again because baseball's star has been rising. Attendance rose again this season, and national TV viewership has been up, too. Here's Drew Rasmussen, Tampa's ace starting pitcher.
DREW RASMUSSEN: It would be a real bummer to lose a season. That's for sure. I think the industry as a whole is in way too good of a place.
SULLIVAN: Yet now, the whole narrative has been a bit upended because the teams in the World Series, the Brewers and the Rays, are two small-budget teams. The Brewers are the No. 19 spenders in baseball. The Rays are 28th out of 30.
CEDRIC MULLINS: Yeah, it just kind of shows that any given moment, there's a team that can make it happen.
SULLIVAN: This is Rays outfielder Cedric Mullins, who has a role with the MLB Players Association. Negotiations between the league and the union over a new contract began earlier this year. By far, the biggest issue is competitive balance, AKA, how to make sure every team has a fair shot. The league's proposal is a salary cap plus a salary floor, basically a requirement that teams spend at least a certain amount. The union says the fact that the Rays and Brewers are here shows the league's proposal isn't needed.
MULLINS: You know, even though some people might think that it's in the form of a salary cap, I personally don't think so.
SULLIVAN: Tampa and Milwaukee are seen as two of the best-run organizations in all of baseball, but they are at a structural disadvantage compared to big-market teams like the Los Angeles Dodgers and New York Yankees. More fans means more revenue to spend on scouts and analysts and star free agents. For the past decade, every World Series has been won by a team in the country's top 10 media markets. Brewers owner Mark Attanasio says his team is here despite that.
MARK ATTANASIO: Look, this has been our goal for 22 seasons, to compete.
SULLIVAN: Since Attanasio took over in 2005, the Brewers have become a huge success. They've won more games than any other team in baseball over the past three years, but it has not been an easy road, he says.
ATTANASIO: It's the fan support, the sponsorship support, the support from our leaders in the community in the state has allowed us to - I used to use the words punch above our weight, and, you know, the payroll and whatnot, you know, reflects that.
SULLIVAN: He says the league salary cap proposal would help lower payroll teams. The current union contract is set to expire December 1, and a lockout appears certain to follow. The big question is, can this be resolved before the regular season begins next March? The uncertainty is hanging over this World Series. Young superstars could lose out if a salary cap is enacted, like Jacob Misiorowski, the pitcher for the Brewers, who's expected to win the NL Cy Young Award this year.
JACOB MISIOROWSKI: My thought with it all is, you know, keep building on the former generations and build on what they gave us, and, you know, you don't want to be the generation to send something backwards.
SULLIVAN: Mostly, though, his focus is on Game 1. He says he'll be on the mound as a stadium full of Brewers fans, desperate to see their first ever championship, root him on.
Becky Sullivan, NPR News, Milwaukee. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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