Cap in Hand

Iconic baseball writer Bill James, in 1987, frustrated with MLB's labor stoppages and the decline of the minor leagues, wrote that the minors "were an abomination if you're selling a sport and the players don't care about winning, that's not a sport. That's 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 relent from 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. Pitch to sports publications (Sports Illustrated, ESPN The Magazine, Sportnet Magazine)Also pitch to business publications (Fast Company, Forbes, Bloomberg Businessweek, Fortune, R.O.B. Magazine)Author is a veteran of the Canadian sports broadcasting scene, having worked for CBC, CTV, TVO, The Fan 590, The Fan 960, and others. We'll target places he's worked in the past.We'll pitch him for interviews on general interest morning shows in both Toronto and Calgary such as Your Morning, Breakfast Television (Toronto and Calgary), Global News Morning.Target top sports websites (such as ESPN.com, Yahoo! Sports, CBS Sports, Bleacher Report, SBNation). Short DescriptionBruce Dowbiggin and Ryan Gauthier chart the history of pro signings to make the case that salary caps promote not equality but mediocrity. Cap in Hand will become the go-to guide for fans seeking to understand the business of making a sports market.Sales and Market Bulletsauthor is active on Twitter @dowbboy and has a podcast called The Full Count on the Antica network of podcastsThis book started as a look into the most important sports contracts ever and morphed into an examination of how they fit into a salary cap systemSalary/contract negotiations and draft night coverage have become another highly discussed and watched event within sports enthusiastsAudienceFans of sports and literature about sportsReaders of business books with commercial appeal