It's Baseball Season! Yay!

Dear Jake,

     I loved the poem "What Teachers Make" and I was going to rant about the sorry state of our public school system.  Working with a bunch of high school students I can honestly say that most of them are incredibly smart and get good grades, but they have no idea how to think.  We stopped teaching kids how to think somewhere along the lines.
     Lucky for you I'm not in the mood to rant.  Instead, I want to talk baseball.  Just a little bit.  I freaking love baseball.  The layers that go into winning championships in baseball are almost too many to count.  I love the Giants.  I love them because they have built a system and a culture that churns out winning teams.  I've noticed something about baseball.  If you collect all the very best players and talent it won't be enough to win it all.  I've sort of gotten into the NBA as of late but I've noticed something.  These teams go out and get 2-3 stars and then they get themselves into the playoffs and the team with the best 2-3 stars win.
     I think you understand.  You are a fan of the Cardinals who also have an amazing culture of winning.  People don't like the Yankees and since they are AL I don't really count them as a real team, but you have to admit, there is an idea among their entire system that if you wear the pinstripes you will win.  And they do.
     There are so many intangibles that go into creating that environment.  I love it.  I mean, I really love it.
     I listen to ESPN radio and it's all doom and gloom from them on baseball.  They are talking about how the game needs to change and speed up the pace or it's going to die.  What do you think?  Personally I don't mind the long games.  On the other hand I only really watch in spurts.  Usually I have the game on in the background while I'm doing something else.  Maybe I'd watch more if the game was sped up.  I'm afraid it'd lose something sacred if you messed too much with speeding it up unnaturally.
     What are your thoughts on the speeding up of baseball games debate?  If you had a bajillion dollars would you buy a baseball franchise?  What would you do to try to create that winning culture?

Sincerely,
Joel