How to get a better baseball

Part 5 of "Toward a Better Baseball"

During MLB’s 2023-24 offseason, I am posting a series of essays titled “Toward a Better Baseball.” The goal of the series is to articulate a vision for the sport for when MLB loses its monopoly power. This is the fifth and final part. Read the preceding installments here.

The blinding 1921 Taft Court that in 1922 awarded MLB its antitrust exemption. (Library of Congress)

The Angelos family that owns the Baltimore Orioles told Maryland governor Wes Moore late last year that they were not selling the team, a pledge that secured them a lease renewal to Camden Yards and $600 million in taxpayer dollars to renovate the ballpark. Weeks later, the Angelos sold the Orioles to private equity vultures in a manner that avoids capital gains taxes on the $1.7 billion transaction. Moore called the sale “disappointing,” which is another way of saying “I’m the elected leader of a whole ass state and I can’t do anything about being lied to and my coffers being raided.” MLB owners get what they want beca…