MLB Lords and Serfs: Hogs at a Trough

After years of riding the high tide of burgeoning revenues, the feudal lords of baseball find themselves at loggerheads with the serfs, their grandee ball playing field hands.   After Covid, internal political turmoil and now inflation and the war in Ukraine, their timing could not be worse.   Major League Baseball’s battle over the Game’s immense revenues seems like two hogs fighting over the spillover of a trough overstuffed with cash.    

Indeed, the increases in MLB’s revenues, franchise values and player salaries have been staggering.   Twenty-five years ago, William DeWitt purchased the St. Louis Cardinals for $150 Million; Forbes currently values the team at an estimated $ 2.25 Billion.   The New York Yankees estimated value doubles that figure.  Until now, it seemed that even Providence protected the aristocrats when George Steinbrenner fortuitously died during the one year when there was no estate tax; the Yankees’ royal family inherited the club—purchased for $ 10 Million in 1973—‘tax free’.

In recent times, most clubs have moved into new, more profitable stadiums, their values enhanced by tax breaks and subsidies leveraged by club owners’ veiled threats to take their ball and leave the cities that bear their names.    Hotel and car rental taxes oft help finance stadium construction costs so locals need not tender directly—unless of course they travel where they help pay for the opposition’s stadium.   Houston ‘Tax Us” provides a good example:  Car rental taxes, amongst the highest in the country, defray the costs of the Astros’ so-called Minute Maid Field.

In St. Louis, the Cardinals have “saved” an estimated $706,000 per year through real estate tax abatements on their new stadium, as well as  $5 million yearly in ticket tax waivers that the organization obtained from pliant City politicians.  Taxpayers footed the bill for the millions in infrastructure costs required to accommodate Busch Stadium III.   Somehow, Cardinal Care, the club’s non-profit entity that invites fans to contribute, sounds like a tinny form of nobles oblige window dressing.

But even the fabulously wealthy Lords have their nemeses.   The ball players have come a long way from the time Curt Flood—a so-called well-paid slave—stood alone to challenge the reserve clause and his sale to Philadelphia. The Cardinals sent him packing because Flood had the temerity to ask for a $ 10,000 raise, an amount that would not now pay a utility infielder for a week in the big leagues.

Today, the players stand united behind their union labor leaders, which includes pitcher Max Scherzer, who after his own autumn of discontent signed a three-year deal with the New York Mets for $129 Million.  Mega-millions Max stands to lose $233,000 per day in salary beginning March 31, 2022, for everyday the lockout continues.

That measures tough money math for Scherzer who earned $ 140 Million in salary (post season income not included) prior to his most recent contract.    Undeterred, the selfless Scherzer stated:  “It’s not about me; it’s about everybody else.  And I’ve seen what happens to the other guys, and I’m willing to fight for those guys, and willing to sacrifice my salary to make sure that they can make the most that they can.” 

Laudable, but Scherzer is no Cesar Chavez, a man who risked his hide rather than his wallet fighting for a living wage for workers who likewise labored in fields—albeit farm fields—under the same hot sun.  In MLB, there’s a lot of green produce to pick with players’ gross salaries totaling nearly $ 4 Billion annually.

Some scribes ask who can blame the players for wanting to make as much as possible from Sports franchises that seemingly print their own money?   Local and national TV contracts guarantee every team a minimum of $100 Million annually, on top of ticket sales, concessions and trademark revenue.  

Others contend that the owners rightfully seek to protect their investment.  Yet, rare the day when the press box scribes advocate for the teams’ fans and cities.  The Lords of Baseball and their serfs do not.   Instead, the two sides keep score of the quantity of money, while quality remains shutout.

More is Less.

MLB’s most obvious problem centers on the change in its basics, which now emphasizes strikeouts, walks and home runs, and other numbers reviewed during player arbitration and free agent negotiations.   Games that once took 2.5 hours now average 45 minutes longer, thanks in part to numerous pitching changes and longer commercial time between innings.  

But for the warring sides, the above issues remain in the cellar while the parties act like bartenders who water their whiskey to increase profits.    Their foremost issue centers on increasing the number of teams in the playoffs from 12 teams—triple the number some 25 years ago.   Regular season pennant races will become as lifeless as a baseball from the dead ball era.   With two or three weeks more of playoffs, the World Series will play out in November.   

Elongating the playoffs also dilutes the post season.  Perhaps Oscar Wilde put it best about those who want to extend a love affair. “They always want a sixth act, and as soon as the interest of the play is entirely over, they propose to continue it. If they were allowed their own way, every comedy would have a tragic ending, and every tragedy would culminate in a farce. They are charmingly artificial, but they have no sense of art.”

Gambling.

The current avaricious negotiations include projected new revenues from gambling.  Even the conservative god-fearing legislators in the State of Missouri desire a cut of the action. It’s win/win for both MLB and politicians; the only losers are inconsequential gambling addicts, their families and the businesses from which they embezzle to support their habit.  Polite society calls legalized gambling the “Gaming Industry”.  However, a Pete Rose-type gambling addict by any other name smells just as bad.

Ad naseum.    

Stadiums now bear corporate sponsored names on the outside and garish billboards inside affixed on outfield walls.  Worst of all, the obnoxious glow-in-the dark billboards behind home plate destroy any semblance of the so-called pastoral game.  Can we watch a pitch without staring at a neon orange Home Depot sign?  As an added bonus, a technological device planted in the mound sends a signal to the camera that illuminates a corporate logo to view directly behind the pitcher.

Current discussion issues on the table include pasting corporate logos on batting helmets, and shoulder sleeves.  For now, the bases remain uselessly white and empty. 

Game spectators are consumers too.  Jumbrotrons broadcast commercials—oft times in support of some inane fan contestant—to fill the dead time between innings, a once quiet time for chatting with friends.

Quality pays nothing. Despite all its revenue and tax breaks, MLB seems intent on putting up everything for sale.   Can re-naming the team for a corporate sponsor be next?

Pigs get fed; hogs get slaughtered.

The twin hogs, Baseball’s Lords and Field Serfs, are both bores and boars who scarcely have enough for themselves.   Neither side can lay claim to being an ally to the fans or for the cities where they play.   Let us hope that the warring parties lock snouts well into the summer so we might enjoy a Schadenfruede pig roast.  The only thing better than watching one hog get slaughtered, is watching two.