Baseball-Page 4

August 2002

I think the casuation is wrong anyway.  I don't think the Yankees derive a revenue stream from its association with MLB, but MLB by its association with the Yankees. Think about this.  When the Yankees play in a city with a lousy baseball team, will that game attract more or less customers than when the Colorado Rockies, or Seattle Mariners or Florida Marlins come to town?  So who is benefitting from whom?  (Did I get that right?  is it who from who? whom from who? whom from whom?  Where is my Strunk & White when I need it?)

When Michael Jordan was winning championships for the Bulls, stadiums would sell out when the Bulls came to town.  Now when the Bulls come to town the stadium is empty.  And it wasn't the NBA association that created the value.  Look at the Olympics when the US fielded a team of pituitary cases against the world and big dollars were spent to see our giants.

I am amused by this because it seems to me George Will et al are stretching for reasons to turn baseball into a socialist enterprise, where from each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs.  Let's give money to the hapless owner of the Cincinnati Reds because she was unlucky enough to own a small-market team.

Now I don't mean to pick on George Will (too much), but he's just  not making much sense to me.  Baseball is run like he wants the economy to be run.  Businessman making rational decisions to maximize their investment.  Some are richer and have bigger markets.  Some are poorer and have smaller markets.  But that's the way it is and each person/business needs to do the best he can in that environment.  When was the last time you heard George Will ask IBM to share some of its revenue with smaller rival for "the good of the game."

I guess if I sympathize with anyone it is the players.  Their careers don't last too long, they are trying to maximize their earnings power over that short period and they are honest about it. The owners are also trying to maximize their cut of the revenues also but dishonestly hide behind the rhetoric of "the good of the game."

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