Visiting New York Yankee fans laughed as Pirates fans chanted “sell the team” during Pittsburgh’s home opener. Why not? The Yankees are stocked with lavishly paid all-stars lured away from Pittsburgh and other smaller market teams that can’t afford enormous payrolls. For Yankee fans, it’s amusing to see little brothers throw tantrums.

Unhappy Pirates fans want owner Bob Nutting to pay more in salaries or sell. They are rightly fed up with losing — as are fans in other major league cities weary of seeing star players hired away.

Pay more for players, they say, or sell the team.

Yet and alas, it’s the wrong chant at the wrong beelzebub.

Rotting baseball

The real issue is that competitive baseball has rotted away in the last half century. The gap between the wealthiest teams and the rest

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