Commissioner Bud Selig believes that Major League Baseball has enjoyed competitive balance in recent years. He cited the Tampa Bay Rays' amazing 2008 run to the World Series. "It's a remarkable story and a wonderful story, almost a breathtaking story," Selig said. "When you think back to where we were in the '90s, how small-market clubs never won and the few playoff games they won were like 4 percent or 5 percent, there was all this despair about disparity. On Jan. 19 of 2000, the owners gave me unprecedented power to solve the competitive balance problem. The vote was 30-0. There was genuine, deep and abiding concern. There's no question that it existed. Competitive balance was a real problem. The sport felt it in every way. So Tampa Bay winning was a manifestation of all the changes."