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Posted By	Discussion Topic: Great article on baseball "contraction"
Sir Okonkwo	posted on 11-11-2001 @ 7:29 AM
Psychopath Registered: Jun. 01	Baseball's Bud Selig and his gang in high-stakes bluff By Hal McCoy e-mail address: hal_mccoy@coxohio.com Dayton Daily News They hadn't even had the parade in Phoenix when Bud Selig and his Gang of 30 met in Chicago on Tuesday to rub their palms together and make plans to eliminate two of their brethren and divvy up the road kill. Just two days after one of baseball's best World Series, an event that drew the largest television audience in more than 10 years, Selig and the boys not only rained on Arizona's parade, they hung a black cloud over the game. Instead of celebrating baseball's good fortune, they once again made it clear who they consider the game's most important people. And all they had to do was look in the mirror. Selig, hiding the bull whip behind his back, announced that baseball's owners decided unanimously to eliminate two major league teams from the face of earth. Which ones? He didn't say. And that says it all. What it says is blackmail is alive and well. Montreal, Minnesota and Florida want new stadiums and they want the public to pay for them, but those municipalities say no. So Bud and the Boys hang the sword over their heads and say, "OK, folks, no new stadium, no team." And by killing two of their own, the division of the $2.5 billion television contract is 1/28th instead of 1/30th, plus the rich no longer have to feed the poor with revenue-sharing. The meek shall not inherit the baseball earth. By not naming the damned two, baseball gives some threatened cities time to line up their ducks, even if they are lame ducks. Selig says contraction could happen before next season, but that's doubtful. Schedules are made for all 30 teams and they would have to be re-done quickly. Selig said all 30 teams have approval to sell tickets for next season, and won't those ticket windows in Montreal and Minnesota be lonely places. There is the matter of player dispersal, too. What happens to the 40 players on each team's roster, plus more than 200 minor-league players? Selig said the owners have the right to close shop in two cities, but acknowledges that the players union must be dealt with in the matter of dispersing players. Ah, the players union? There's the rub. Is this talk of contracting two teams a negotiating ploy? Is it a threat to the players? Is it a command to bow down to us or we'll take the bats and balls and go home in two cities? Baseball's basic agreement expired after the World Series and Selig made a noteworthy remark during his press conference Tuesday. "There will be no lockout," he said. Nobody asked. He tossed that in as an, "Oh, by the way . . ." By threatening to dispose of two teams, Selig and the boys are telling players who’s in charge here and, by the way, if you want to fight us and go on strike, go ahead. Ownership knows that after events on Sept. 11 that anybody who stops the game is the baddest of the bad guys. Baseball averaged more than 30,000 fans this year, and that's with Montreal dallying along at 7,000. It was Bud and the Boys who pulled the plug on the 1994 season in mid-August, locking out the players when a contract agreement couldn't be reached. At the time, Montreal led the National League East and was drawing more fans than the New York Mets. Can anybody blame Montreal fans for feeling cheated when there was no World Series in 1994, when their Expos had a chance to be there? Yes, Olympic Stadium is concrete wasteland situated in a bad location — i.e., not downtown — where ownership wants a stadium. The city of Montreal is in a financial mess and can't afford to underwrite a stadium, so baseball wants to murder its franchise. Minnesota was baseball's darlings this year, making a run for the American League Central championship before fading in the second half. The Metrodome is not a baseball stadium, it is the world's largest pool hall. Nevertheless, back in 1991 the place was filled nearly every game during the team's implausible run to the World Series. Now they want a new stadium and can't get it. So owner Carl Pohlad wants out and Selig is going to help his friend by giving him $250 million to go away and take his team with him, more money than Pohlad could get by selling to somebody else. Anybody wonder why Milwaukee isn't in the contraction picture? Hey, the Brewers haven't had a winning season in nine years and don't have the financial wherewithal to compete, but isn't that the team Bud used to own and is now run by his daughter? If baseball really is concerned with the fans and not numbers in bank accounts, here is an idea. Why not contract the Chicago Cubs and the Boston Red Sox and put fans out of their miseries? "My political opinions lean more towards anarchy....The most improper job of any man, even saints, is bossing other men."-J.R.R. Tolkien, The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien, 1981 "Shit, Piss, Fuck, Cunt, Cocksucker, Motherfucker and Tits"-George Carlin "Now you listen here to me, you horrible little creature"-William Regal to X-Pac

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