Because You Never Asked

 MUDVILLE REVISITED, PART III

            I like baseball. I'm a fan. I played at a fairly sophisticated level (University). I know the game.
            For those of you who are not "jocks" and are laymen with regard to what I'm about to say, I ask you to bear with me. These essays are not about baseball. I am not a sports writer. Baseball is only a vehicle to more universal truths. This essay is meant for "jock" and "non-jock" alike.
            If we examine the competitive balance in pro baseball today, we see that the crybaby failures are overstating their inability to compete. As I write, two of the best teams in the game are the Oakland A's and the Minnesota Twins, with two of the smaller payrolls around. Neither team has much luck attracting the high priced, free agent stars of the game. The A's lost their prize player, Jason Giambi, to those evil Yankees and, lo and behold, only got better. A similar story exists in Seattle, where for three consecutive years they lost a big star to free agency --- Randy Johnson, Ken Griffey, and Alex Rodriguez --- and only got better. They did so by spending the money they saved on these big salaries very wisely, including the cheaper signings of the Japanese stars Ichiro and Sasaki, two great players who sneaked inconspicuously through the back door of Major League entry.
 Both the A's and Twins have developed their talent the "old fashioned way", through their farm systems. I recently heard an announcer say that 20 of the 25 man Minnesota roster has never played for any other Major League team. Although it will be more difficult for these smaller market teams to keep this blossoming talent when the richer clubs begin offering more money, it is far from impossible. When players spend their formative years in the same organization --- progressing together, struggling together, arriving to the Big Leagues together, triumphing together --- a camaraderie develops that is more difficult to break. But such romantic notions alone, especially in the noticeably unromantic money culture of the global economy, are usually not enough to save the day. What can save the day is that you now have a pretty good team. The A's and Twins are drawing more fans. They are going to the playoffs. There is now more revenue --- not L.A.-N.Y. kind of money --- but perhaps enough to maintain the nucleus of excellence that has been developed.            There are other smallish market teams that have developed a tradition of excellence because they consistently make excellent decisions. The St. Louis Cardinals are the epitome of this syndrome. They've built a solid fan base over a long history of success, from Rogers Hornsby to Dizzy Dean to Stan Musial and up into the more contemporary days of Bob Gibson and Mark McGwire. Due to the class of their operation, they have never lost this following. This standard is not just reflected in the quality of the players, but in such things as their stadium (now an older one, but more beautiful than ever) and the fashion runway style of their trademark uniforms. There's something about a Cardinal dressed to play ball, with those traditional redbirds sitting on the bat, which seems to glow whiter than any other uniform in the league.
 All this conspires to provide a healthy baseball environment. The fans are rabid and knowledgeable and won't stand for a poor effort, something that rarely happens in St. Louis because management does not bring in insincere athletes. In short, the basic rule is "no assholes allowed" and the quality of the baseball experience has made this smallish Mississippi River city a place where good players want to play, even if it means a bit less money. They like the fans and the fans like them . but this is something that did not happen by accident. It is something that has been nurtured, fertilized, weeded and carefully grown over a healthy history of solid evolution. The Cardinals are like a beautiful old growth forest that is now teeming with life. If it can avoid being clear-cut for short term, impatient interests, its future is secure.  
            Another smallish city of similar size is Atlanta, Ga., home base for the truly brilliant businessman, Ted Turner. Turner has constructed one of the greatest sports dynasties of all time with his Atlanta Braves. As I write, the Braves have just clinched their eleventh straight Division title, a feat accomplished with the usual turn over of players such a time span engenders. But the one thing that remains constant here, as in St. Louis, is the aforementioned "no asshole" policy. It is rare for any Braves player to not be satisfied playing for the home team and it is not hard for this team to attract the interest of free agent players. The Braves almost never err in both choosing those available and developing their own players through a well cared for farm system.
            But the Braves, although they play in a smallish market, are a team with money to spend. Ted Turner is the media mogul creator of CNN. He is not panhandling for his next meal. He has serious financial resources and knows how to spend it. The people he's put in charge of his baseball operation --- most notably the General Manager, John Schuerholz, and the Manager on the field, Bobby Cox --- know what kind of player they want and how to mold it, from the lowest rung of their farm system, to the free agent stars they acquire. But even more important than his instincts for hiring good help is Turner's ability to recognize a good investment. When he bought the Braves back in the 80's, they were hardly an attractive entity. They were chronic losers playing before a morgue-like sprinkling of apathetic fans in a stadium without character. But Turner understood how a Major League baseball team could be a good fit in his media empire. He knew it would take some patience, but with the baseball team making money for his outlets on cable TV, he was eventually able to put more money back into the team's operation. The result is the juggernaut that has won 11 straight Division titles, numerous National League championships and a World Series, an operation swimming deeply in black ink. Atlanta might not be New York or L.A., but when someone with the foresight and intelligence to make something work got hold of their baseball team, he carried it all the way to the top. (For the sake of brevity, I'll simply say that a similar thing has happened in Cleveland.)
            If one is trying to weaken the "parity" argument, it's easier to point to the big market teams that have failed than the small market teams that have triumphed. Perhaps the most egregious example of this is the Detroit Tigers. The "Motor City" is a wonderful baseball town with a rich history (Ty Cobb, Hank Greenberg, Al Kaline, Kirk Gibson, etc.) and a strong, devoted fan base. Over the last quarter century, they've been mismanaged into a synonym for "loser", with the predictable loss of revenue such incompetence leads to. In varying degrees, Philadelphia and Chicago can also be put in this category. And then there are the once proud franchises in Los Angeles and Baltimore:
            Both the Dodgers and Orioles represent teams with deep pockets, the former owned by Rupert Murdoch's Fox Empire, the latter by jillionaire lawyer Peter DeAngelos. The glory of the Dodger franchise, both in Brooklyn and now in L.A., is well known to baseball fans. The numerous championship caliber teams they've had in "Tinseltown" were developed primarily through one of the best minor league systems in all of baseball. Their players were reared the "Dodger way" and it was often said that Dodger personnel "bled Dodger blue". When the O'Malley family, which owned the team for generations, sold it to the Murdoch group, this more patient philosophy was sent to the showers. The team began spending mega-bucks on free agent stars. Many of their acquisitions proved that money is no guarantee for happiness. Although the team still competes with dignity, the glory of the O'Malley days has eroded toward mediocrity and still not been recaptured.                     
            The Orioles offer an almost mirror image tale of decay . only worse.  When DeAngelos bought the team, a properly nurtured farm system was forsaken for the usual glitz of the less than hungry high priced prima donnas of the game. This turned out to be an exercise in throwing money into a bonfire. As a result, a once proud tradition sunk to the bottom like a cargo ship ripped by a U-boat torpedo.
            But when it comes to capitalistic hypocrisy and crybaby whimpering and excuse making, nothing compares to the Texas Rangers and its principle mouthpiece, Thomas Hicks. If Bud Selig, Commissioner of Baseball and owner of the Milwaukee Brewers, is the ring leader-spokesman for the crybabies, Hicks is his right hand man. He has been the most radical proponent of the crybaby position. Of all the owners and their representatives, he is the most ready to lock out the players and close down the game if some kind of socialism-welfare plan is not put into effect. And yet:
            The Dallas-Ft. Worth area, home to the Rangers, is not only a large market; it is a prosperous area dripping in ostentatious, pinky ring oil money. Hicks, in spite of his ranting; in spite of his calls to do something about the commercial structuring of baseball so as to control salaries, has recently authored the richest salary in the history of all sports, its recipient being arguably the game's best player, Alex Rodriguez. To his credit, Rodriguez has been everything he was cracked up to be. He is not only one of the best hitters in the game, with both power and consistency, he is one of the best fielders at the sport's most athletically demanding position, shortstop. He is a poetic blend of big cat speed and strength. There is almost nothing he can't do on a baseball field. Almost .
            Rodriguez makes 25 million dollars a year to play for Thomas Hicks. He is contracted at this price for ten years. If the reader has successfully completed grade school, he or she now knows that ¼ billion dollars is tied up in this player. But the one thing Alex Rodriguez can't do is pitch. The Texas Rangers have had bad pitching for so long, that they now go together like Bogie and Bacall. Even the casual baseball fan knows that good pitching and good teams are synonymous. For the same money being paid to Rodriguez, three outstanding pitchers could have been brought in. This situation is further compounded when one considers that the Rangers were an already good hitting team before the acquisition of the "¼ Billion Dollar Man". For the two years that Rodriguez has now performed admirably for Thomas Hicks, the Rangers have finished in last place.
            "We can't compete!"
            Having now said all of the above in this set of baseball trilogy essays, the following must be said as well: although the difficulties of the situation are not nearly as pronounced as the crybabies would have us believe, there is not a level playing field in professional baseball. But this is normal. Since when is Milwaukee or Kansas City the same as New York? This should not stop shrewd people, in any of life's endeavors, from triumphing from weaker positions. It happens all the time in the business world, and the baseball business is no different.
            The baseball owners are acting like bull-crapping business people everywhere. They are what I call "fair weather capitalists". When their system works for them, they are devoted to it: the market, competition, the individual, etc. When it doesn't work for them, they will cast aside their own Holy Grail and do anything they can to maintain their privilege: government subsidies, tax breaks, monopolies, etc. (For more, see essays "Denial American Style", "Adventures in Capitalism I" and "II"). I don't believe in millionaire athletes, but it is insincere, ten-gallon hat business people like Thomas Hicks and his Bush-Cheney cronies, that have created this environment of greed and consumption. These same people have weakened the nation's social contract to such an extent, that a bogus, corporate health system has been imposed upon its people, along with a poorly funded public education system. This, in the richest nation the world has ever known. These same people have imposed a massive military budget (when it comes to this aspect of revenue accrual, they are devoted Socialists) that sucks the life out of our government's ability to do something positive, while it physically protects their interests.
            This is my advice to Thomas Hicks and the rest of the crybabies: if you are unhappy with the baseball business, put your team up for sale. If you can't get the price you want, lower it. If you have to take a loss (oh sure) that's business. I'm sure there is somebody with half a brain out there who could turn around the Texas Rangers. Quit crying. Don't look for handouts. You get what you deserve. Shut up. Be a man!       

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Email: JerryG@postcman.info