On Human Growth & Those Hormones

Commissioner Bud Selig told a New York Times columnist. “I’m concerned about the pace of the game.

Hypocrisy is a charge leveled when someone fails to live up to the virtuous standards being expounded.

On spectating. On the theatrics of spectating. I attended sports events to watch. More and more there are these spectating participants. Who stood up and blocked my view. And they looked for others in the crowd to do as they did. As if they were participating in what was gonna happen on the next pitch. Orchestrated. Over-managed ritualized standing, watching the Joe Girardis and the Ron Gardenhires over manage. Baseball 2009. Embracing the language of the age, and ritualistic noisemaking. On Fox Television.

Fox Sports. The prior owner of the Dodgers. Bigger than life Fox Sports that gave me week in and week out on their local affiliated cable station broadcasters that stole enjoyment from the game. It was like that Mr. Potter in It’s A Wonderful Life who owned everything in town. When the Mr. Potters controlled the broadcast rights. With an FTC that just allowed the media to drain credibility with sponsors who equally sponsored politicians through lobby groups. When baseball was just a small part of the problem, only reflecting all off society’s ills. Drugs. Steroid use. Sexual harassment, with the Mets, at ESPN. Those Stanford grads managing the Diamondback to a last place finish. Bud Selig’s New Age Baseball.

Bud Selig and dermatology. His thin Wisconsin skin that was bothered if he spent any time in October in New York. About criticism of umpires versus instant replays. Bud Selig making TV more important each October. What now happened each year with all post season baseball. Making the audience at home more important than the ticket buyer. With a disregard of playing conditions once a game began. Like the scheduling of baseball in November. Bud Selig New Age Baseball.

Fox Sports. During the regular season. Making television so important until no one was watching televised baseball during the regular season. Without regard to the clocks. And those 4 hours games. As if this was the NFL. Fox Sports and their good drones who cover the games, and don’t ask any uncomfortable questions.

TBS. And Chip Caray, never mentioning the incident of Miguel Caberra in the playoff game, of the circumstances of his drinking until 6 a.m. Too inconvenient for everyone. Those MLB partners. The Tigers. And Caberra’s wife. Not explaining how there might not have been a playoff in Minnesota.

TBS. And Chip Caray, making more errors than the umpires. Let’s share the performance enhancement drugs with the broadcaster. And Joe Buck. Whatever happened to likable broadcasters? Honest broadcasters who were not some shills of MLB, TBS, or Fox Sports. People who knew something and were worth listening to discuss baseball. Likable guys. Like Skip Caray. Or Jack Buck? Men not born with silver microphones in their mouths. People who reached the national stage not on their pedigree. But based on talent.

Joe Buck. Where there was melodrama everywhere. And “good at-bats.” Melodrama everywhere, created by your broadcasters. And Joe Buck encouraging those spectating participants in the crowd. To stand and block my view. While he sat in his pressbox. Elevated above it all.

I was a spectator. I knew my role. I had paid to watch. As ticket prices escalated. Thanks to collusion. When the commissioner was now colluding with the Major League Players Association. Every 4 or 5 year. In the basic agreement. When Bud Selig gets his $15 million cut each year. He was good at colluding, as an arbiter had once ruled. And so was Donald Fehr who was just given an $11 million severance package with his retirement. Collusion to increase revenue from the working stiffs who bought baseball tickets. While those artificial drones in the broadcast booths, and journalist still cheerleading the expenditures of dollars on free agents. In publicly financed stadiums. Thirty three years later after free agency began. New stadiums were needed to pay for this system.

Free agency. Because players would talked to the Peter Gammons s and the Murray Chase s who fed Marvin Miller’s New Age Music. All this artificial participation. By stand up guys everywhere. In the stands and in the dugouts. Guys like Scott Boras and all the other stand up cheerleaders in L.A. With the Yankees playing the Angels in the American League Championship Series in Anaheim, did Scott Boras, visible in virtually every center-field camera shot conspicuously standing in the home plate suite, ever sit down? And in Chavez Ravine. But not just in L.A. Give Scott Boras a visible location and maybe more of his clients will sign with the Dodgers, the Angels, or the Yankees. All this endorsed artificiality by Boras and all those stand up cheerleaders in Dodger Stadium.

According to Joe Buck, there should not have been a focus in the attention given in an 10-1 game on umpires and the bad calls. Not in the newspapers. Joe Buck who thought about it, and five minutes later, in an intro of “not to beat a dead horse” umpire discussion, talking about the threat of baseball’s credibility, about replays. Instant replay.

About the threat of the loss of credibility. Joe. Get a mirror. Or listen to yourself tells us what wonderful baseball we were watching in New York, in spite of the rain and cold temperatures. And all these good at-bats that contributed to the perversions of length of game. The game was supposed to be about hits, not walks. When the purpose of the bat was to swing. And not have to listen to Joe Buck drone on and on. Get out of your heated booth and feel the conspicuous rain for 210 minutes. Then tell us of the wonders of a good at-bat. Umpires used to postpone such games because of rain and cold. Maybe you can tell the writers what to write about in those wonderful games 10-1 games when the games take 210 minutes, however hard it was to be consistent in the spotlight so much on one microphone.

As ticket prices escalated. The threat of baseball’s credibility. When Commissioner Bud Selig told a New York Times columnist. “I’m concerned about the pace of the game.” With instant replays which would add to the length of game. Other than making TV and Fox Sports even more important. Those fans at home more important than anyone in the park. People in the park who paid to conspicuously watch everything except the instant replays. Or what those spectating participants did not obstruct.

Bud Selig’s New Age Baseball. And Selig’s concern about “the pace of the game.” Hey Bud, what about the length of the season?

Taste Great, Less Habs

The Texas Rangers approach the All-Star break in first place. But a lot has been brewing behind the scenes.

In 2007 Tom Hicks partnered with George Gillett, Jr., to buy the Liverpool team of the English Premier League. In 3 weeks they face a July 24th deadline to refinance the $574 million debt for their Kop Football (Holdings) Ltd. There was a time not long ago when the commissioner of baseball did not allow an owner to have an interest in other professional sports franchises.

It is fairly common for such ownership to extend beyond just a baseball team. Jerry Reinsdorf owns the Chicago Bulls and the Chicago White Sox (with Eddie Einhorn), and is trying to buy the Phoenix Coyotes in the NHL. Mark Cuban has attempted to add the Chicago Cubs to his holdings along with the Dallas Mavericks. There was quite an appetite in Texas for ownership in teams beyond just the winter sports seasons, as if these winter sports did not extend the season long enough. In this case, the leaders at the forefront of the British banking crisis, the Royal Bank of Scotland and Wachovia, had provided the financing to Hicks and Gillett for the 2007 purchase.

How does a league like the NHL allow competing owners to go into partnership to acquire an English soccer team? The conflict of interest extends beyond the financial operation but offers a lack of transparency in any potential trades between organizations. As a consequence of the partnership to buy the Liverpool team, 2 NHL teams had been on the path to financial ruin when neither owner apparently was able to secure soccer re-financing in the current environment. On June 20th, Gillett agreed to sell the Montreal Canadiens, the Gillett Entertainment Centre and the Bell Centre back to Molson Brewery, the entity which he had staked his majority purchase. Gillett made his fortune through sports franchises, developing Colorado real estate for skii resorts, and in meat packing companies.

Tom Hicks sale of his NHL hockey and MLB baseball franchises is now widely anticipated. Tom Hicks was the guy who re-invented baseball by giving Alex Rodriguez $260 million to play baseball. Tom Hicks is the guy who hired some twenty-something kid to run his major league team who in June drafted 2 pitchers whose agents’ demands far exceed the slotting system that has developed following the June free agent draft. Tom Hicks was the guy who never really paid attention to pay slots.

Earlier this year according to the Wall Street Journal, Hicks Sports Group missed a $10 million quarterly interest payment on March 31st, triggering the default notice on a $525 million loan. There were layoffs of several front office personnel 2 weeks ago with his MLB team. As the owners of the Texas Rangers and the Dallas Stars, Hicks looks as financially secure as the state of California. Hicks recently sold his rodeo. He now reportedly wants to sell a majority share in his Texas Rangers which he acquired in 1998.

Last night I attended a Northern League game in St. Paul, Minnesota. The owner of the franchise owns more than one team in the same league, making a mockery of competition, turning baseball into a version of the American Wrestling Association, a la Vern Gagne. There was a bit of a house of card beyond the playing field with this type of ownership.

The sale of the Montreal Canadians will not be the first sports franchise to occur due to the crash of 2008. In the next 12 months, a financial storm will come faster than the last Atlantic hurricane to professional sports, causing havoc throughout the sporting globe.

Game of Shadows

 

Trends.  Business trends are so evident.  About the dollar’s movement in currency markets.  About falling index averages.

 

“Today indirect bidders, a class of investors that includes foreign central banks, bought 44.8% of the sale, the highest proportion since 2004, indicating strong demand from investors.  Treasury Department sold a record $32 billion in three-year notes today to yield 1.419%, the first tranche of the biggest quarterly sales of notes and bonds on record,” reports Marketwatch.

 

This is a financial system crisis, not a sub prime mortgage crisis. It was not just the derivative market. It was the entire system. It was everybody.  Here.  In England.  The crisis is not going to go away.

 

The U.S. dollar strengthened against all but five of the 16 most actively traded currencies today.   If you wondered why, in the UK, Brown and Treasury Minister and Chancellor of the Exchequer, Alistair Darling, on Monday filed a second rescue plan. Willem H. Buiter wrote on January 25, 2009, its impact has been virtually nil in the market, which has continued to punish the banks in the stock market, and among the public, which has failed to find a clear message. And above all, because the market’s reaction suggests that perhaps even the government is able to guarantee the future of British banks. “In the UK there is no bank is solvent. And if there is, I do not know,” also said Rogers.  The crisis in the banking system has been accompanied by the collapse of the pound sterling, which traded at two U.S. dollars a year ago and on Friday paid $ 1350, the lowest change in nearly one quarter of a century. The pound has been paid for years to 1.5 euros and is now on the verge of parity with the European currency.  Its weakness is a combination of several factors: interest rates are on the floor and is expected to fall further, the housing market remains in crisis, the current account deficit is through the roof, economic prospects are very bad, it was have triggered the red in the public accounts and banking turmoil of recent days have come to weaken the currency.” 

 

Saved banks….but banks not fixed.  As a result of big banks in too many businesses, this republic is threatened.  The scale of the problem.  Bloomberg has reported the total bailout and loan guarantees, the stimulus, total $9.7 trillion now – enough to pay 90% of all US home mortgages.   This was not just sub-prime crisis.  A calamity was a lot like fire.  People cannot buy homes and cars from a banking system where half of the banks are on the brink.  And the rest of us cannot sell. 

 

Trends. Business trends are so evident.  Deflation was seen in the price of oil.  Deflation was in the news from China this week.  In China, consumer prices were expected to decline further in coming months, Marketwatch wrote yesterday.   Did they edit “deflation” in the headline?  “Merrill Lynch’s Ting Lu said there were few risks of sustained deflation in China this year.  Prices would be supported against a backdrop of loose monetary policy, the removal of some price controls, ramped up government spending, and commodity prices that appear set to rally off lows. The broker defined deflation as a persistent decrease in the general price level of goods and services lasting for a prolonged period.”  China suffered deflation for two years ending in 1999 following the Asian economic crisis and for about a year ending in 2003. 

 

The down side.  Government and banks feared deflation.  For banks, holding cheaper assets, in default.  Government taxing faliing properties.  Banks, not liquid.  With no value.  A little more than half the banks.  The big banks.  

            

So act.  About commercial paper.  Paying off all debt.  Before the next calamity.  This week. 

 

The Great Gatsby was THE great American novel.  Wealth polarizes.  You learned that traveling in a poor 3^rd country.  The rich are afraid of the poor.  It has nothing to do with race, color, or creed.  That September 11^th event.  It was all based on wealth.  Striking at Wall Street.  Striking the Pentagon. 

 

We had lived through times when banks quit playing for the community.  When Citibank arrived.  And put that local banker out of business.  And then put their name on that new stadium replacing Shea Stadium. 

 

We were gettting nothing these days but stories about the economy.  They were cheap stories to cover.  And the rich, because they were worried, were tuning in.  The message was always directed at the rich. People treated those with money differently. 

 

The image of baseball was tarnished again this week.  By the same atmosphere that had tarnished Wall Street.  Executive pay.  And super stars.  Giving limited access to the press,

everyone survived.  People treated those with money differently

 

Saved banks….but banks not fixed.  The scale of the problem.  Bloomberg has reported the total bailout and loan guarantees, the stimulus, total $9.7 trillion now – enough to pay 90% of all US home mortgages.   This was not just sub-prime crisis.  A calamity was when people cannot buy homes and cars with a banking system where half of the banks are on the brink.  And the rest of us cannot sell homes. 

 

As a result of big banks in too many businesses, this republic is threatened.  Our existence.  The system was non-viable when the majority number of banks are insolvent.  The nation’s capital.  It was now about the taxing power in Washington, and not the city. 

 

Behavior modification was to come, in tax policy.  

Give Me An All Star Break

Today there is an article by a one-time writer of Baseball America in the New York Times on a brewing scandal in baseball about the signing of Latin American ballplayers. In reading the article it struck me of the problem I had always had with this writer and his own conflicts of interest. In this piece he discusses scouting, the cost of signing free agents, the politics in the game between what spin doctors call “small market” teams competing with big market teams. But one paragraph really struck me in the piece:

“In the aftermath of September 11, 2001, with greater scrutiny of visa information, falsified documents lessened and the need for greater oversight of the ages of a player in a system where ages were lied about, falsified so they could appear younger and more promising,” had diminished.

The Allan Schwartzs of the world go about their business with a blind eye to the morality off modern baseball. I think it is safe to conclude he actually believes that baseball players are worth the average $3 million they earn in 2008. It was not just the pay scale that had changed over the years. The culture, the environment had changed. Those who had grown up in the players’ association, the Joe Torres, the Ted Simmons, the Paul Molitors, those who had been led by Donald Fehr and his predecessor, were given jobs in management. Little wonder that front office people looked the other way in the era of steroid use. Not many general managers took their players to arbitration any more.

The Allan Schwartzs of the world do not tell you Andy MacPhail’s track record on arbitrations in Chicago. The Allan Schwartzs of the world do not tell under the current owner how many times the Baltimore Orioles had gone to arbitration. Those national writers never offered criticism of the local sports hero. That was why they now could break the big news story. Players had a way of snuggling up with those who never were critical.
The Allan Schwartzs of the world who were not true journalists. The Allan Schwartzs of the world who were manipulated by the Donald Fehrs, the Bud Seligs.

MacPhail’s reward was to work on the most recent basic agreement, achieved with peace. I have not done the research but from what I have read I think MacPhail never has been to arbitration since he left Minnesota more than once. If even that. Which makes him a perfect fit with the Orioles.

And it was not just MacPhail. He was just emblematic of the age. Where sports teams now are owned by conglomerates, the culture had changed. Cost containment does not apply to baseball operations. The passions seem to have burned out in the owners’ boxes. So what does this change in culture all mean? How baseball really changed was the acceptance that these guys really were superstars, who could do anything. Ticket prices kept escalating because the environment had changed, some executive well were eligible for benefits from the players’ association, and everyone deserved what they got. Ballplayers were no longer like the neighbor kid next door. A-Rod and his wife cavorted with the gods of music. Ticket prices kept escalating because no one challenged the superstars.

In this environment, the ball players were not punished for the use of steroids. What exactly had changed with the Mitchell Report in 2009? And those reporters who had been around clubhouses during the days of the Roger Maris chase, those Allan Schwartzs, where were their breaking stories?

And by the way, that spotlight sure has burned out in Congress since the Mitchell Report. Since no one was doing anything about steroid, including punishment, it was time for Congress to provide oversight on the issue, and remove it permanently as an issue from labor negotiations.