Staying together for the kids? How about keeping the kids together for the grown-ups.
Baseball has been doing it since Branch Rickey orchestrated the purchase of minor-league teams in 1920s St. Louis. In the modern game, with revenues skyrocketing, new attendance records every season and profits as high as ever, young talent in the MLB is often as prized as a dominant starter or established power hitter.
In today’s game, a young right-hander in the Bronx can have his own t-shirt and catchphrase, and a third baseman with an all-American smile has made the sports world believe that the bastard child of the AL East can compete with the big boys.
So sure, Joba Rules, and Evan Longoria helped bring a pennant to (smirk) Tampa Bay.
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