August 30, 2002

Strike aversion

No baseball strike. Good. But let's not forget why it came to pass, and whose ineptitude got it to this point in the first place. The owners apparently survived with their greed intact: "However, there is no requirement that the teams spend their shared revenue on payroll." That is a recipe for contraction, and I'm astonished that the players agreed to it.

It means that owners of franchises like the Twins (whose owner has already proven his stupidity many times) are free to fund their other ventures with no incentive to put their windfall into improving their product on the field. I hope the details of this agreement are made public (unlike the teams' books, which the owners have forever held are private and can't be disclosed, particularly to the employees). That way there can be some accountability if the "Lords of Baseball," as they were once called in a memorable book of the same title, simply pocket the extra cash.

Posted by Linkmeister at August 30, 2002 10:27 AM
Comments

seems like greed is the american pastime now. kind of ruins it. i think the only reason they settled is the prevailing opinion that this would be the last, and the fans would not be back. sad, really.

oh, last night chris told me he saw these kids at a ballgame wearing hats made of celery with signs, 'what do you mean, celery caps?'.

Posted by: kd at August 30, 2002 04:10 PM

Oh my goodness, kd, that's priceless!

Posted by: Linkmeister at August 30, 2002 04:53 PM

all this and my A's on pushing for a record-setting winning streak today. Business sucks.

Posted by: hoopty at September 2, 2002 07:27 AM