Where is San Francisco? Where is Dallas? Where is Green Bay? Where is Pittsburgh? Out of the playoffs, out of the playoffs, out of the playoffs, out of the playoffs. The class of the NFL has been forced to taste a piece of humble pie. The 49ers won 10 or more games for 17 straight seasons. Institute a salary cap, and hello No. 3 draft pick.

Under the current format of Major League Baseball, the Yankees will never finish lower than third place in their division. Never. The Twins will never finish higher than third. Never. It just won't happen. That statement alone is absolutely absurd. In the history of professional sports, there has never been as much inequality as there is now in Major League Baseball.

Critics of the salary cap say that if a team does not generate fan support, it therefore should not be competitive. Yankees fans will argue that the reason their team wins is because their fans pay up and sell out their games. They point to the lowly crowds that amass in Minnesota, Oakland, and Montreal, saying, "see, no one cares there! They're not entitled to a good team!""

But, which came first? When Oakland had a winning team, the A's drew 40,000-50,000 people per game. Minnesota has great fans, and in '87 and '91, the Twins won the World Series amidst mass Minneapolis hysteria.

Salary capless baseball can no longer be tolerated. Pray for an owner's strike. That's right. I want a lockout. I want all the overpaid players to suck it up for the good of the league.

Baseball, where's your Christmas spirit? Though this resolution will probably turn out just like the 'exercise more' and 'spend less time watching TV and more time reading' ones, we can always hope for a miracle.

Unfortunately, 34th street happens to be in New York.