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Are You Ready?.
Originally uploaded by DownTown Pictures

As is tradition every spring, March has come to an end. April has begun and baseball is abound. Roster decisions are being argued upon for virtually every team and the gates open Monday for the start of the 2009 Major League Baseball season.

This offseason has been one of economics for many as free agents found it the most “interesting” offseasons to find themselves a job. Many players held out looking for higher paying offers, and many took paycuts entering the season. Organizations are aware of the economic recession, and ticket prices have largely remained the same from last season. Regardless of the financial climate the world has found itself in, baseball has always offered fans an escape from the world’s problems and offered a form of entertainment, relaxation, and thrills.

Baseball is back for the start of a new season. 162 games of successes, of more failures, and of a common competition to the holy grail of baseball, the World Series. It is only April, and still a day ’til gates open for Opening Day at ballparks across the country (and Canada), but the race has begun for October baseball.

Are you ready?

It was only 11 years ago that family became corporate in Los Angeles. The O’Malley family, who had long-stood as the owners of the Dodgers baseball organization, both in Brooklyn and in Los Angeles, had sold the team to Rupert Murdoch and the media moguls at Fox News Corp.

Family became corporate.

The attitude of doing it right was lost for doing it for dollars. And the first move Murdoch and Co. made while at the helm – trading Mike Piazza towards the end of his contract to the Florida Marlins, along with two other Dodgers, for, get this, broadcasting rights. Yes, Murdoch scored his company, Fox, broadcasting rights to the Florida Marlins.

And so began business as a corporation.

Gone are the days when Peter O’Malley took over for his father, Walter. Gone are the days when the O’Malleys would serve ice cream to the office staff at 2 o’clock in the afternoon, everyday that the Dodgers were in first place. In are ratings, merchandising, branding, and cash cow advertising machines.

I remember going to Dodger games and seeing a beautifully illustrated outfield fence, silhouetted with images of Dodger greats and team accomplishments. Today, I count thirty-six, yes, thirty-six individual ads on and around the outfield fence, not including two video screens that change every so often to add more companies into the mix. This was opening day 2008.

The team has returned to a family ownership, run by the McCourts, real estate gurus from the Boston area as I recall. But the game still has a business smell to it.

Players are demanding absurd contracts worth tens of millions of dollars. Their egos continue to rise. And it is all to play this great game of baseball – a game that many only dream of playing. And it is agents like Scott Boras – the scum of professional sports agency – that have fed these egos with above-market value contracts and salaries.

Scott Boras, of Scott Boras Corporation, runs his agency out of, of all places, Newport Beach, California. He has a client list of over 50 baseball players and has an ego himself just as big as his clientele combined. He is what the New Yorker has called an extortionist.  He represents all that is wrong with baseball today. The business atmosphere. The cash-cow, money producing organizations that demand year-over-year increases in returns like a publicly-trading company would to appease its stockholders.

But there are no stock-holders in baseball. There are investors. And there are fans. Sadly, the investors have taken precedence over the fans, and what used to be an enjoyable event out to the ballpark with friends and family has become an advertisement with $10 beers, $5 hot dogs, $6 water bottles, and $20 parking. This, of course, is all after you buy your ever-rising costly tickets.

But what can I do, what can anybody do about it? Change has to come from the top – and currently, the top just got paid $17 million last year, even given the current weak economic times. The NFL Commissioner has taken a 20% pay cut. The NHL has instituted salary caps. The MLB – has done nothing. There are several players demanding pay over the $20 million mark per season. And Bud Selig, the Major League Baseball Commissioner seems fine with that.

Success is unfortunately defined by money, and lots of it, in todays game of baseball. The commissioner likes to see that he gets a substantial amount of monetary return from his work. Meanwhile, fans pay more year after year for tickets, concessions, and parking. Where does it all end?

Steve Jobs has an annual salary of $1. One dollar. And that is to stay on the payroll. That is how executives used to run businesses. If their company prospered, they succeeded. Today, that is far from the case. Executives at oil-giants like Exxon-Mobile, Shell, Chevron, to name a few, bring in over $50 million a year in pay, plus bonuses. The big three CEO’s in Detroit have recently taken pay-cuts in wake of stark criticism over corporate luxury while their auto manufacturing companies face filing for bankruptcy – one of them reducing their salary to $1.

Gone with the family, in with the corporate. This is baseball today, and unfortunately, there is no end in sight. With scum like Scott Boras demanding outrageous amounts of money to perform in a game that used to be a childhood dream is only the beginning of the problem.

Forget your financial advisers, and forget your lavish expenditures. Why can’t athletes return to a modest salary, bring the game back to the family atmosphere of the 80′s and before. If the game continues on its current path, it will suffer, and it will falter.

[photo by 7D7 Studio, Unsportsmanlike comment]

Business as usual, right? Unfortunately, it is. Sports today are not the sports of yesterday. Teams are run like Fortune 500 Organizations rather than, well, sports teams. The majority of the 20th Century brought sports teams that were the face of communities. Today, our professional athletes change team colors more than some players use to in an entire career.

The likes of Garrett Anderson, Tim Salmon, Sandy Koufax, among others, spent their entire careers with their respective teams. What players used to call families, fans call organizations now. Salaries are through the roof, and performance has suffered. The face that represented the sport of baseball in its untainted form, Alex Rodriguez, just admitted to using performance-enhancing drugs. So in an era of tainted performances, what reason do we have to stay loyal to our teams, to our players, and to our sport.

These feelings extend beyond just baseball. Athletes in all sports have become figures above the law. NFL and NBA athletes have been convicted of drug use, possession, of illegal firearm possession and use. And yet, their salaries continue to rise. Yet, their performance continues to decrease; along with it goes their work ethic and dedication to the “team.”

These superhuman attitudes have raised the athletes’ egos and their asking price. Take Manny Ramirez. An undisputed great baseball player, with an undisputed horrible attitude. He has faked injuries, spoken out against his team, talked down teammates, and thrown around his paychecks like they were chump change. Arguably one of the highest paid players in the sport, Ramirez is asking for a career- ending contract that lasts at least four or five years, at Alex Rodriguez pay – the equivalent of between $25-30 million a year.

His performance speaks for itself – when he is on, he is on. In the roughly two months he spent last season with the Los Angeles Dodgers, he exceeded his teammates in most categories, matching their season- long performances. But Ramirez was motivated. He was out of Boston, in a new town where fans and citizens not only gave their respect, they left him alone. But he was playing for a contract the next season, a free agent at the end of the season. His parting words as he ascended the players’ elevator for perhaps the final time at Dodger Stadium in Dodger Blue – “May the highest bidder win.”

The Dodgers organization has been more than willing to pony up the money. The team has placed three generous offers on the table – all of which Ramirez’s representatives quickly turned down. It is worth mentioning that Ramirez is represented by the infamous Scott Boras Enterprises. All emotions aside, this sports agency represents the scum of the scum. Boras is known for his ability to squeeze every last penny out of teams when negotiating the contracts of his clientele (and when I say penny, I am speaking on a scale of millions).

The point I am trying to make is that sports have become outrageously defined by money, salaries that rival those of some CEO’s. In such tough economic times, why should players be given so much money? It inflates their ego, and often times degrades their performance. With the comfort of a long-term, multi-million dollar contract, players lose the incentive to perform to their highest ability. And sports teams are no different – they try to run themselves like efficient, profit producing machines.

Salary negotiations are still ongoing with Ramirez, as talks between the two parties continue. Spring Training has already begun, Ramirez remains unsigned, and teams are looking for closure. Given the state of the economy, the financial burdens teams are facing currently will more than likely prevent Ramirez from getting the length of contract he desires. But, the money has been thrown out there by the Dodgers organization. We will see what happens. But for baseball’s sake, something needs to happen. And it needs to happen from the top. The Office of the Commissioner needs to make changes, and they need to be made soon. Whether it is a salary cap or tighter rules and restrictions on contracts, Bug Selig needs to take steps to bring baseball back to what it used to be – a sport, not a business.

[photo by Zkonedog]