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View Full Version : legitimacy of MLB in general


01-09-2002, 03:19 PM
More games per year

Overlapping schedules of overlapping sports

More teams with less talent available

More $$$ in revenue

More owners crying "losses"

More players demanding multimillions

Agents making millions while fans pay exhorbant prices at gates and for endorsed products

Soon World Series will be indoors exclusively in November and Spring training will begin in late winter

Aren't you tired of this crap?

Funny thing is that MLB is probebly better than the other sports and probably a better bargin.

Parking for a football game has reached $20; Hockey is $15

well you get the picture. The sport has to be legitimate before we worry about records

01-09-2002, 04:25 PM
Ratso,


If you're ever in the RI area, you'd enjoy seeing the Pawtucket Red Sox at McCoy Stadium. Great owner, nice park, parking--free if you can find it, cheap seats, and good crowds. And, last year they outdrew the Montreal Expos.


One story: a few years ago when the kids were young--eight and six--we went to Bat Day at McCoy.

One guy, wearing a leather vest, grimy jeans, complete with hair in a long ponytail and more tattoos than I've ever seen on one person came to me and said, "Can I borrow your children?" One of his kids was sick, so they couldn't go to the game, but he promised to try to get the bats. "Sure," I said. So he walked in with Brian and Kristin, picked up the bats, came back out and gave me his box seat tickets. We went in, the kids got their bats, and we sat in the front row. Ah, minor league baseball.


John

01-09-2002, 04:33 PM
I don't think the factors you listed make baseball illegitimate. The schedule is about the same length, but there are more playoffs. Baseball is a business. Always has been, always will be. Owners have always been asses in some respects. The only thing which I would say is illegitimate is the anti-trust exemption and public funding of ball parks. The current situation in Minneapolis is a great example of socialists fighting socialists while claiming it is a free country. The people in Minnesota claim some right to a team which they do not have. Baseball wants its anti-trust exemption and revenue sharing and taxpayer funded parks. My modest proposal is to get rid of all that and make it a real free market. You can tamper with the other guys' players to buy them away, sign 14 year old Dominicans, can't draft anyone, and can't share revenue. The Yankees would win a lot. The Twins would fold. The Cubs would survive but be losers. No difference. But nobody's tax dollars would go to the thing. My league would be cool. :-) But I guess the T.V. ratings and stadium leases would doom it.

01-09-2002, 04:45 PM
We discourage the loaning of children here in L.A. for fear of, well, all sorts of things. Life sounds much sweeter in Rhode Island.

01-09-2002, 04:56 PM
The obscenity of Mayor Giuliani proposing to spend the taxpayers' money to build a new ballpark for George Steinbrenner is simply astonishing. In New York City, after September 11. Unbelievable.


The owners of the Yankees in the Babe Ruth era were certainly asses, but they never even imagined that the city should pay for their ballpark.


Revenue sharing doesn't work to create parity because the owners are not required to use their revenue sharing dollars on the team. They can buy a new yacht with the money if they want to.


My proposals:


1) Do away with MLB's antitrust exemption. No territories allowed. Someone wants to move to New York, fine.


2) Media revenue should be shared. The Yankees get lots of money from TV and radio broadcasts but there wouldn't be any if they didn't have any other teams to play. If they play the Twins and the game is broadcast, the Yankees get 50%, the Twins get 50%.


3) If a team wants a stadium, they can rent one that exists or build their own; no public money, period.


I'm with you on this one. A genuine free market would be great for the game. I don't think point 2 above violates this principal.

01-09-2002, 04:58 PM
"More teams with less talent available"


Agree with all your points except this one. There is more talent available. I think there could easily be up to ten times as many teams as there currently are with the same or greater talent pool than there was in baseball as it was played 75 years ago.

01-09-2002, 06:01 PM
You make a good point here. Sharing local broadcast money makes some sense. The teams used to (and still might, I don't know) give the visiting team a cut of the gate. This makes sense as the team has to travel there and play. I would not agree to give a full share of local broadcast fees to other teams if I were a big market team, but I would agree to some cut. The solution for the small market teams - move tobigger markets if you can find one and get better ratings. If there are five teams in New York that's fine. there's no limit on how many burger joints can open in a city. Baseball's the same.

01-09-2002, 07:01 PM
As I understand it, it's the antitrust exemption that allows teams to stake out a "territory." Yeah, maybe a 50/50 split ain't quite right on broadcast revenue, but some split seems correct.


The owners are pathological liars and nothing they say should be believed. When O'Malley built Dodger Stadium, he didn't put in any water fountains, reasoning he would sell more beer that way. The city made him put in water fountains. The owner's concern for the fan seems to me to be the same today.


I love baseball. Every time I get riled up about the money/stadium/antitrust issues, I think of Jeter's shovel play last year, or Willie Mays or Ozzie Smith or El Tiante and I smile. But any group of people that thinks Bud Selig can solve their problems (after all, he did a bang-up job with the Brewers) can't be working on all cylinders.

01-10-2002, 05:38 PM
My dad was from Pawtuckett (born in Manville). In AC we have the Surf. Five bucks to get in; free parking; good food and cheap; $3 beer (BIG ones too). After the game, the players sign autographs and talk to the kids. Same is true of th eTrenton Thunder and Camden minor league team.


MLB Phillies-underachievers (but we love'em); $20 admission; $12 parking; $6 beer and $5 nachos. Players are pissed off and many just walk on by.

01-10-2002, 05:41 PM
My dad was from Pawtuckett (born in Manville). In AC we have the Surf. Five bucks to get in; free parking; good food and cheap; $3 beer (BIG ones too). After the game, the players sign autographs and talk to the kids. Same is true of th eTrenton Thunder and Camden minor league team.


MLB Phillies-underachievers (but we love'em); $20 admission; $12 parking; $6 beer and $5 nachos. Players are pissed off and many just walk on by.

01-11-2002, 12:31 AM
today a player signed a deal which will pay him nine million per year for each of the next three years!!!


never cease to be amazed at # of John Does who say that's great!!


owners get the $$ from TV, which gets it from advertisers, which gets it from John Doe.


How can that be great??

01-11-2002, 01:41 PM
Last summer my son's camp took him to a minor league Class A baseball game here in CA. $3 admission, they sat on the field in the outfield grass! He absolutely loved it. Hot dogs were $1, cokes fifty cents, every player ran as hard as he could when he hit a grounder to the second baseman, he got a ton of autographs, and one player gave him a ball. Just like the major leagues, right?