The World Series of the have-nots is here. But baseball’s money problem isn’t going away | Tom Dart

Baseball’s two best regular-season teams are also among its lowest spenders. But their unlikely World Series comes with a warning about the sport’s future The best pitcher in baseball led the best team to victory over the second-best team? Weird. A World Series that makes the logical feel novel began on Friday as the Milwaukee Brewers beat the Tampa Bay Rays 3-2 in Game 1. Of course the Brewers, with their MLB-topping 103 regular-season victories, should be facing the 98-win Rays on the grandest stage.

But of course, since these are two of the smallest and lowest-budget franchises in the sport, they shouldn’t. That this best-of-seven title decider is at once a shocking cold shower and a comforting warm bath is largely explained by the absence of the two-time defending champions, the Los Angeles Dodgers, who were swept 4-0 by the Brewers in the National League Championship Series. In the US, all World Series games