Dean Beatty

I believe we have witnessed and are witnessing the biggest scandal in a North American major sport since the inception of legalized sports gambling. The Tampa Bay Rays and Milwaukee Brewers have each never won a World Series. Both are the AL and NL standards for building competitive teams without financial resources. What are the odds that, the season before a lockout amid financial competitiveness, two of MLB’s smallest markets make the World Series and are cited by players and media as proof you can compete without big-market spending? Both teams, of which each has never won one, have made it. We will have a first-time-ever World Series champion. It's all happening this season. Major coincidence? Or ultimate collusion? Baseball is a sport where if there’s a way to cheat, you will. The players’ union is one of the most unfair fighting mobs in any sports league. That's 'cause the sport of baseball is as dirty as it comes—always has been, always will be. I’m not saying it’s odd the Brewers swept the Dodgers, whose stars looked like they phoned it in. I'm saying it's very unbelievable. If you put on a tinfoil hat, you wonder if players pulled off the ultimate chess move. Yes, I believe the 2026 playoffs were thrown by big-market players and teams to prove a point and gain ammo for off-season CBA talks. There's many of you that will dismiss this already and think I'm crazy and that's fine—I don't think the average person understands how contentious discussions regarding a salary cap in this sport is and will be. This is Israel and Palestine. These players will never go down in history as the players that caved and gave a salary cap. The owners are prepared to lose multiple seasons in order to get one. If you think the world is very innocent, and this isn't something the players or the players' union would do, you do not have a true beat on what this moment is, and I have a bridge to sell you. People will call me crazy and point to how good the Brewers and Rays were. Making the World Series isn’t unbelievable—that’s the beauty of what they pulled off. When the CBA talks are in full force and the real shit starts to fly, I promise you that 2026 World Series will be exhibit A, B, and C. No, public perception has not been on the owner side, and I still think a good amount still will be. I think fans and smaller markets want a salary cap—however, the tide has begun to turn on perception, and this World Series has helped. Congratulations to the players and the players' union. Fucking incredible move. Respect.