Another baseball season is on the way and-for the most part-we all pretty much know which teams will have a shot at the playoffs. Teams like the Pirates, Devil Rays, Royals, etc., have no shot at entering the playoffs and this is before the season has started. That is nothing short of a disgrace.

For all the talk about "balance" in baseball, the economic disparity is still way too great. The New York Yankees, of course, lead the "payroll party" with a ridiculous 208 million dollar payroll based on the 2005 numbers. The Red Sox, Mets, Dodgers, Angels-while having high payrolls-are no where near the Yankees.

Many will point to the Chicago White Sox winning the World Series last year. While it is true the Sox were not among the top-tier teams regarding payroll, they did have a payroll around 75 million dollars... not too shabby. Looking at the team payrolls from last year, that number would put them in the top 50% of team payrolls. However, the real problem comes when trying to keep a team together. Keeping a team together for an extended period of time becomes very hard. The Florida Marlins are the "poster child" for that one.

Let's face it: When you are a team like the Yankees you can keep coming back. Not winning a world series becomes a "bad" year. For so many other teams getting to the playoffs is like a dream.

Of course, this has an affect on fan interest. When living in a city like Kansas City or Tampa, baseball is almost like a side-show, a sort of weird interest. Then other people will pretend such cities simply have no passion for the sport while the lack of a real chance of winning is the real issue. Check out how fast New York fans desert their teams if even an average year is being had; and New York is a big baseball town.

Commissioner Bud Selig has done a credible job in at least doing something regarding the payroll disparity. It has brought some balance to the league. However, much is to be done. The league cannot just pretend people from certain areas "just don't like baseball" when in past years they had loved it. The Royals had a large fan base for years. The Pirates had a solid following for years as well. But when your heart is cut out, what do you expect? When your team is among the bottom five spenders year after year, what does one expect?

If this issue is avoided or at least not pursued with vigor, expect the same teams to be in the playoffs. There will always be an exception here and there. To actually predict who is going to be in the playoffs and who has no shot before a season starts is close to being fixed. That is known as wrestling. Or is it baseball?

Robert Carberry is a freelance writer from New York.