I’ve never followed sports (I barely even knew the New York Yankees had been beaten in this year’s playoffs already), but I find this George Will column absurd in places. The conservative pundit lauds baseball’s improved competitive balance of the last few years, but he also says anti-New York Yankees sentiment stems from “envy.”

Having grown up in Wisconsin makes me a de facto Brewers fan, so I can say: No, it stems from the fact sports are boring when the same team wins all the time — while your team is rarely even in the top half of the league. I don’t wish the Brewers would win 10 World Series in a row. I wish they had a prayer of getting into the playoffs now and then.

Since 1970 the Brewers have achieved “1 pennant and 2 playoff appearances.” They last won more games than they lost in 1992 (they went an even .500 in 2005); the World Series appearance (they lost) was in 1982.

This gets especially annoying when the hegemonic team has a lot more money. In football, a franchise like the Green Bay Packers can compete because of revenue sharing, but in baseball the richest team can snap up all the best players. Will, to his credit, points out the gross financial disparities between the Yankees and the Tigers, arguing that better management decisions can close the performance gap. He also talks about how recent policy changes strike at the financial gap itself.

Finally, Will does a good job of showing that things are getting better in concrete, statistical ways. In the past seven years including 2006, no team has won twice, which is something the NFL and the NBA have never been able to say. This doesn’t prove that “great Yankees teams have been good for baseball” but that the franchise is loosening its death grip — Will doesn’t bother to mention that, between 1996 and 2003, the Yankees were in the World Series six times.

I’m all for unfettered capitalism in life, where a huge success for one competitor really does make everyone better off. But it just makes sports unwatchable.

Robert VerBruggen blogs at http://robertsrationale.blogspot.com.