Another "Brilliant" Idea: Downsizing Pro Sports

Professional sports leagues have always gotten bigger and bigger, adding more teams. I think now would be a good time to eliminate a few franchises.

Charlotte Bobcats (NBA) - Does this team really need to exist? Michael Jordan is considered by all to be the greatest basketball player of all time, but he is a terrible executive. He is a co-owner of the team and has helped run the organization into the ground. To be fair, they've never been too far above the gutter. The Bobcats are perpetually bad and they just ended this season with a 23 game losing streak. More importantly, the 2011-2012 Bobcats finished the season with the worst winning percentage in NBA history.

Kansas City Royals (MLB) - I know that the Royals have had some good years, but most of those predate  my birth and I'm 21. The team is in a small market, does not have a lot of money to spend, and does not like to spend what is does have. Free agents don't want to go there and the players that they do develop leave. Every year they tend to be the bottom feeder of the AL Central. They show flashes of life at times, but never fail to disappoint.

Cleveland Browns (NFL) - It's true that the Browns have made some important picks in the ongoing NFL Draft. If they end up panning out, the Browns can be removed from this list. However, since the Browns are horrible and tend to draft plenty of busts, it is fairly likely that they will remain on this list. Cleveland does posses four NFL championships, but they all took place before the Superbowl Era. The Browns have never actually played in a Superbowl, let alone won one. The Pittsburgh Steelers, the Browns' division rival, has six Superbowl championships. I would not want to be a Browns fan and have that rubbed in my face all the time. What makes the Browns even worse is that they can be a tease. In 2007 the Browns went 10-6 and their starting quarterback at the time, Derek Anderson, made it to the Pro Bowl. The team missed the playoffs by one game, but showed some promise. The next year they went 4-12. During the 2010 season, running back Peyton Hillis had a breakout season and made it onto the cover of Madden. This past season Hillis spent much of the season injured, proved to be ineffective when healthy, contemplated leaving football, and was cut after the season ended. Cleveland fans have it rough.

Does there really need to be 32 teams in the NFL? Are there enough good basketball players to have 30 competitive teams in the NBA? Do enough people in America care about hockey to warrant having 28 teams? I don't think so.

"Bittersweet Symphony"

Ron Santo has finally been voted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame. The former Cubs' third baseman failed to make it in during his 15 years of eligibility Baseball Writers' Association of America ballot. The Veterans Committee also had several chances to vote him in, but declined. Today, Santo was elected into the National Baseball Hall of Fame on Monday by the Golden Era Committee.

He needed 12 of the 16 voters to select him to get in and 15 voted for him. By the numbers, most people around baseball (outside of the voters) had argued that Santo should be a hall of famer for years. Santo himself, never complained about not making it in. Cubs fans everywhere can rejoice that number 10 is finally in the hall, but the Golden Era Committee was still too late. Santo died on December 3rd last year, making the celebration bittersweet.

Rest in peace, Ron Santo.