It's a Swing and a Miss

Check out my in-depth look at what the leaked financials of several MLB teams has taught us about how the current collective bargaining agreement is working on The Hardball Times!

First, if you haven’t read it before, please read this post: click here.  It contains my thoughts on why MLB fans are always in search of more competitive balance and why mechanisms like a salary cap or hard slotting are not the answer.  It makes a number of the points that the Pirates have now helped me prove….

Today’s post is where I get to say, “I told you so!”  Thank you Pittsburgh Pirates.  Put simply, just because a team is in a smaller market and not winning does NOT mean that Major League Baseball needs a cap or hard slotting in the draft or anything else to improve competitive balance.  The current system is actually pretty great (see here for how MLB compares with the other pro sports in terms of competitive balance), and MLB as a whole is doing exceedingly well.  In fact, as it turns out, at least one of the “poorer” clubs isn’t doing so poorly after all.

The real thanks goes to the Associated Press, who obtained financial data for the Pirates from 2007, 2008 and 2009.  Not surpringly (at least not to me), it shows the Pirates have turned a profit.  While losing.

The Pirates eighteen-season losing streak is the longest in professional sports history.  In the years covered by the financial statements, the Pirates received just slightly less than half its income from MLB in the form of revenue sharing, national television revenue, MLB.com and MLB merchandise sales.  Meanwhile, their payroll lingered at the bottom in the Majors.  In fact, their 2010 payroll is only $2 million more than their 1992 payroll.   

Nevertheless, MLB officials say the Pirates are complying with revenue sharing rules.  I’m sure they probably are.  So, what’s wrong with the Pirates making money at being a perennial loser?

I’ve said it quite a few times…baseball is a business.  Owners face decisions about where best to allocate their resources, and the answer is not always club payroll.  Sometimes they have to placate investors.  Other times they have another business venture that produces a greater return for their dollar.  There are hundreds of reasons an owner might not choose to pour money into payroll, or into the club in general.  It’s his/her/its prerogative as the owner of a business. 

Perhaps the problem isn’t with the Pirates or even with baseball.  Maybe it’s simply a paradox created by the relationship between teams and fans.  Here’s what I’ve said before on this (and still whole-heartedly believe):

I’ve thought about it, and here’s an analogy that illustrates the problem.  If your favorite grocery store in town wasn’t giving you what you wanted in terms of stocking your favorite items or keeping the prices competitive, you would simply start shopping in another grocery store.  You could abandon the one you originally preferred with little thought or remorse.  You can’t do that in baseball though. 

I’ll use myself as an example.  I’m a Braves fan.  If the Braves were a club who spent less on payroll than they received in revenue sharing, I would be irritated.  But would I stop going to games or stop being a Braves fan?  Probably not.  See, there’s not another team in town, so I can’t just go watch another MLB team play on Saturday.  And even if there was, I have an emotional attachment to the Braves.  I remember going to games in the late 80s with my dad when the Braves were bottom-dwellers and no one was in the stands.  Then I remember the worst-to-first miracle and all of the postseason games I went to for 14 straight years.  I’ve lived all over the country, and I’ve rooted for several teams, but I’ve never felt about a team like I do about the Braves, because I don’t have the history with the others.  So, even if the Braves owners were spending less on payroll than they received in revenue sharing, I’d probably still be a Braves fan.  That’s why clubs like the Royals still have fans and can still increase in value every year.

I don’t think there is an answer, there’s only a problem we can’t solve as fans.  Baseball is a business, but it’s one we approach with emotion and history.  That’s why there are so many books and blogs and analysts.  Fans want a salary cap even though MLB players make a smaller percentage of league revenue than players in leagues with a salary cap.  Why?  It’s because you want your team to be competitive, because you’re not willing to switch allegiances to another team.  You want a payroll floor for the same reason. 

The problem isn’t with baseball, it’s with fans.  Baseball has seen eight different World Series champions in the last ten years, with fourteen different teams playing in the series.  So, almost half of all teams have made a World Series appearance just in the past decade.  By comparison, the NBA has only had five different champions in the past decade, and only eleven different teams played in the championship.  The NFL has had seven different Super Bowl champions, with fourteen different teams playing in the series.  Yet, MLB fans cry out about competitive imbalance far more than fans of the other leagues. 

The bottom line is that MLB players share less in the league revenue than the other leagues (without a salary cap) and the championship series has seen just as many, or more, teams compete in the last decade as the other leagues.  I think revenue sharing and the luxury tax have been a part of improving competitive balance over the past decade, as has the Wild Card.  Remember that competitive balance is not perfect balance. 

So, what do you think about the information that has come to light with regards to the Pirates?  Are you mad?  Do you think MLB should find a way to keep owners of losing teams from making money?  Is revenue sharing a mistake?

As happens every year following the draft, the airwaves, newspapers and blogs have been filled today with demands for a hard slotting system in Major League Baseball.

If you’ve read my work for any appreciable amount of time (thank you), you know that I’m not in favor of most restraints on player salaries.  Accordingly, I’ve spent all day leaving comments on blogs and yelling at the radio voicing my disapproval of hard slotting in the MLB draft.

You can read my thoughts on why hard slotting is unnecessary here.  I don’t have much new to say, just want to bring it to the forefront of the blog.

I will say that it was interesting to see seventeen first-round picks unsigned yesterday morning.  In fact, thirteen of those guys were still unsigned thirty minutes before the deadline. 

One suggestion I’ve heard today is to move the signing deadline up.  One disadvantage of signing late is in missing playing time over the summer.  It hurts the player and the organization.  In that respect, I could support a deadline that falls earlier in the summer.  That being said, it won’t solve the last-minute-signee problem.  Whenever the deadline is, some players will hold out until the bitter end.

Does that mean we need hard slotting?  No.  To me, that is not a legitimate reason to restrain a person’s ability to earn money.  Why is the owners’ interest more important than the player’s?

What I’ve heard a lot today is that the system should be like the NBA.  That’s like comparing apples to oranges.  The NBA’s slotting system applies to first-year salary, not a signing bonus (which is the issue in MLB).  A first-round NBA pick will be playing on the pro team immediately.  The same is not true for a first-round MLB pick.  In fact, many first-round picks never make it to the Majors.  Some of them don’t get guaranteed contracts either, they only get that signing bonus.  You can’t simply take the NBA model and move it to MLB.

You can read the rest of my thoughts on my old post – from why the biggest myth surrounding hard slotting is that the MLBPA should support it to how the Pirates paid out the sixth highest amount in signing bonuses in 2009, despite being the “poorest” team in MLB according to Forbes.

**UPDATE: I’ve been following the debate on another blog, and I spotted this comment from Mike Darcy (who granted me permission to republish) that touches on a couple of points I hadn’t previously discussed:

Not only will MLB lose access to legitimate two-sports stars who will smartly decide to take more money from the other sports, but it will have a longer-range impact. There is already a great concern in MLB about the loss of black athletes to other sports. These kids already see the guaranteed money that top players get in other sports, as well as the endorsement contracts many sign before they even play a game, so this will further the perception (and it’s more than a perception) that if they want to make money they should stay away from baseball. This will cause a further drain, because at a much younger age these kids will elect simply not to play baseball in even more numbers than they are already. (And, yes, I know that MLB is more lucrative once a player makes the majors, but this means nothing to a twelve-year-old deciding on what sport he’ll play.)

Last, and probably of greater concern than what I’ve mentioned above, it will also remove the flexibility MLB teams have in luring talented players on the bubble. I’m not talking about legitimate two-sports stars (those will be lost since MLB teams won’t be able to compete with the other professional sports), I’m talking about other exceptional athletes debating what to do. One example is Austin Jackson, who the Yankees drafted in the 8th round. They gave a record-signing bonus to Jackson for an 8th-round pick (800K), because Jackson was going to Georgia Tech on a scholarship to play basketball, which is his favorite sport. I’m guessing by his height (6’3″) that Jackson wouldn’t have been good enough for the NBA, but he was heading off to college to dedicate a lot of his time playing basketball. Even if he eventually signed to play baseball (an unknown), he’d still be in the minors, as opposed to being a MLB player. And while, in this case, some people used to question if the Yankees had an advantage in signing Jackson because they have more money, in reality the Yankees overall don’t spend that much more money on their draft picks than any team. And in Jackson, it was Yankee money, but it’s the Detroit Tigers who are benefiting, since not only do they get Jackson without spending the upfront 800K, they also unloaded Granderson’s contract on the Yankees. The Tigers benefit. The Yankees benefit. MLB benefits here. Jackson benefits.

I’m very excited to share my new website: www.kristidosh.com! 

Finally, I have one place that organizes and links to everything I do online: this blog, my Forbes SportsMoney blog, my Comcast Sports Southeast blog, my fiction blog, etc.  There’s a live feed on the home page that shows my latest posts from SportsMoney on Forbes.com and from here.  My SportsNite segments, radio interviews and media kit are up, information on my book and other publications, and much more to come! 

A huge thanks goes out to Mara Lubell of Works Progress Design for my tastefully and beautifully designed website!  I spoke with a number of web designers, and I knew when I hung up the phone with Mara that she was the one I wanted to work with.  I couldn’t be happier with my website!

Watch soon for a new design here that will compliment the new www.kristidosh.com design!

What do you expect out of an athlete?  Just that he play well?  That he’s loyal to the team?  That he doesn’t get mixed up with steroids? 

I read an interview by an athlete (who will go unnamed, as will his sport) yesterday, and it made me question what I expect out of an athlete.  The athlete has had some measure of success.  He hasn’t been accused of using steroids.  He doesn’t get in trouble for his actions off the playing surface.  Until I read the interview, he was doing all the right things. 

Yet, one sentence changed my opinion of him.  A sentence that was nothing short of 100% honesty.  Which is why I am now questioning the expectations I have for athletes. 

The sentence involved an admission that he would rather be playing a different sport than the one he’s playing. 

At first, I was shocked and angry.  He’s playing a sport thousands of guys would love to be playing.  How dare he admit that he doesn’t love it as much as another sport?!

Then I realized that what he’d really done was something so few people who were asked the question would do – he told the honest truth.  Not the truth we all wanted to hear, but the reality he lives with every day.  Although he’s living the life hundreds of thousands of guys before him have only dreamed about, it’s not his dream. 

I spent some time really thinking about my reaction.  Why did I want him to say what we all expect him to say, that he’s playing the game he loves the most?  Shouldn’t he get some credit for being honest?

I would equate it with how I felt when I met people who got into top law schools and told me they weren’t really sure they wanted to go to law school.  I had wanted to go since I was a kid, and I was furious that they were taking a spot that could be mine when they seemingly could care less about becoming a lawyer.  Similarly, I was a little offended by this athlete’s statement, because I know thousands of other guys would choose his sport as their first choice and would give anything to be playing it.

Having had twenty-four hours to chew on it, I’ve decided I should admire this athlete for his honesty.  I’m sure that he  feels blessed to be where he’s at, even if it wasn’t his first choice.  We all say we hate politically correct, overly polished or rehearsed answers, so I should applaud this guy for telling the truth, admitting his heart lies elsewhere. 

What do you all think?  If you’re lucky enough to get to play a professional sport, should you always have to say that you love it?  Should you be banned from complaining about anything job-related just because you have a career so many others want?

I’m not posting the athlete’s name or sport, because I don’t think it’s important and it’s not the point of this post.  If you’re able to figure it out, please keep it to yourself.

I have been so blessed to have a number of opportunities to discuss sports…literally all over the place.  I’ve got a new post  going up here in the next day or two, but when I’m not posting here, it’s because I’m doing blogging elsewhere, appearing on tv, being interviewed on the radio or even for a magazine!  First, thanks to everyone who has presented me with these opportunities.  Second, here’s where you can check it all out:

• You can watch my segments on SportsNite on Comcast SportsSoutheast under the Videos page above, or click here.
• You can listen to my radio interviews with Leading Off and What’s on Second under the Audio page above, or click here.
• You can see the feature on me in Lifestyles Magazine under the Media page above, or click here.
• You can check out two blogs I did on my Miss SportsBiz blog on Comcast Sports Southeast’s website here and here.  Both expand upon topics I discussed on my last SportsNite appearance.
• Last, but not least, don’t forget to check my latest posts on SportsMoney on Forbes.com.  Yesterday, I wrote about Ilya Kovalchuk’s historic 17-year contract with the Devils here.

I have a whole stream of random thoughts bouncing around in my little blonde head, so I’ll just cover all of them in one really random post….

For starters, thanks to all of you who watched me on SportsNite on Comcast Sports Southeast earlier this week! I got some great tweets and emails from you guys. If you missed it, you can see my segment under the Videos page above.

My segment is never long enough for me to get in everything I want to say, so I blogged about all the same topics on the Miss SportsBiz blog on CSS this week. The first post went up Wednesday, and the second one should go up today. You can see the first one here.

On yet another of my blogs, Blue Jeans and Pearls, I’ve had some interesting insight from the guys out there.  I would LOVE more male input, so please head over there and read this post and the two stories that are referenced. 

Basically, there’s been some support for me writing one of my fiction novels from a male point of view.  The idea is gaining some steam, but I want some more feedback from the guys.  Would you read a novel that was based on a male-female relationship.  Not a romance novel, just fiction about a relationship, with all its flaws.  If you would read such a novel (which would probably be based on Jackson, the character referenced in the post), please leave a comment on that post and express your interest. 

Last, but not least, I bid farewell to Yunel Escobar.  I genuinely hope he is able to succeed elsewhere, because he has a ton of God-given talent.  Unfortunately, his attitude left fans and teammates alike with little disappointment over his departure.  If you’ve been watching the games the past month or so, you’ve probably noticed various Braves players rolling their eyes or shaking their head when Escobar flubbed up.  I want to applaud the players, however, for not publicly blasting him.  I think Bobby is a tremendous influence on the team, because they generally follow his lead in not speaking negatively about players to the media.  These guys are class acts.  I feel lucky to be a Braves fan – this season and every season!

Speaking of the Braves…I’ll be at the Braves game tomorrow night tailgating with L.E.A.D. (a revolutionary inner-city baseball league) if you want to stop by!

Hope everybody has a safe and fun Friday night!  Happy weekend!!