The Out in Left Weekly: February 13, 2024
Power rankings, the "Las Vegas" Athletics, and more
This is my first weekly post. It’ll include quick hits on things Out in Lefties should know, as well as some recommendations because I am a tastemaker. The Weekly will evolve. Monitor this space.
I’m beginning to post weekly because the internet says that’s how often writers need to post to make friends with algorithms and find readers. I will continue publishing monthly long-form essays. I will send The Weekly on Sundays, but I made an exception for Super Bowl Sunday and Hangover Monday. If you could be so kind, please recommend Out in Left to someone in your life who enjoys sports, politics, and good writing.
MLB
Out in Left’s 2024 Power Rankings
A new baseball season is upon us. The San Diego Padres and Los Angeles Dodgers will be among the first to report to training camp this week, as they start the regular season early on March 20 in South Korea. To get my head in the game, I ranked all 30 teams.
I don’t actually think the Philadelphia Phillies are the second-best team in baseball, but it’s the hope that matters, and I hope that the Phils don’t take two months to decide to be good for the third season in a row.
Las Vegas mayor says no to the Las Vegas A’s
“I personally think [the A’s have] got to figure out a way to stay in Oakland to make their dream come true,” Las Vegas mayor Carolyn Goodman said on the Front Office Sports Today podcast. It's an astonishing comment from someone whose responsibilities include civic boosterism.
Much of the ensuing discourse around Goodman’s comments centered on how they undermine John Fisher’s efforts to move the A’s to Las Vegas—Molly Knight at The Long Game has a great piece on this—but I am fascinated by the political power dynamics. What allowed the mayor to feel comfortable enough to tell a billionaire and his sports team to go away from the city she runs?
Goodman reportedly preferred a ballpark location in Las Vegas proper, whereas the chosen site is on the Strip, outside of city limits and governed by the Clark County Commission. Maybe there’s tension between Las Vegas and Clark County?
A teachers’ union is suing to reverse the $380 million in stadium subsidies that the Nevada legislature approved for a new A’s ballpark. Maybe Goodman is placating a political ally, with an eye on higher office?
Nevadans also subsidized Allegiant Stadium, home of the Raiders and site of this year’s Super Bowl, to the tune of $750 million. Maybe Goodman’s constituents are tired of giving public funds to billionaires and she’s representing public opinion?
Goodman is termed out, and the Goodman mayoral dynasty started by her husband Oscar in 1999 is about to end. Maybe she’s on a good old fashioned revenge tour?
In any case, there is much going on under the surface with the A’s prospective move to Las Vegas. I am sure baseball fans in Oakland would like to know what that is.
Streaming
MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred said last week that, beginning in 2025, he wants the league to offer a streaming option for in-market baseball games, eliminating TV blackouts for the teams included in the package. I credit him for that. As I wrote in the “Toward a Better Baseball” series, blackouts are maddening and represent a business not caring about its customers. The regional sports network model is collapsing, and as the broadcasters for the Twins and other small market teams go bankrupt, it’s a good thing that MLB is stepping in to ensure 1) fans can watch their teams, and 2) product quality doesn’t suffer because of a loss of revenue.
But Manfred’s announcement danced around the elephant in the room: the biggest teams—the Dodgers, Yankees, and so on—will never relinquish their exclusive broadcast deals. Owning a monopoly in a large media market is a lucrative racket, and the league office can’t force the teams to do anything. The owners are Manfred’s bosses, and the owners of the richest clubs have the most sway. If the idea of a streaming package for small market teams moves forward, then MLB would create a bizarre, bifurcated television product. For rich teams, a balkanized landscape of regional broadcasters will remain, and so will TV blackouts. A blackout-free channel will broadcast a bunch of poorer teams. It’ll be yet another thing for baseball fans to pay for, and we’ll be expected to thank the league for making us pay to watch the 2025 White Sox six different ways.
On top of that, Disney, Fox Sports, and Warner Bros. announced they’re working together to offer a sports-only streaming channel. This all means it’s getting more complicated and expensive to be a sports fan. One day, our billionaire overlords will realize they can make even more money by making their product more affordable and accessible.
Other news
St. John’s coach Rick Pitino’s calls for a salary cap
The National Labor Relations Board ruled last week that Dartmouth basketball players are employees, which entitles them to compensation and other worker protections. It also allows them to unionize, which they seem intent on doing. In response, St. John’s head basketball coach Rick Pitino called for a $2 million salary cap in college sports.
Salary caps are virulently anti-worker, and it was the main issue of the cataclysmic 1994-5 MLB players strike. A salary cap is still a nonstarter to MLB players. That’s because they want to get paid what they’re worth. A coach reflexively calling for the salary cap is indicative of how the managerial class believes it is entitled to people’s labor and the value it creates. And there’s a rich irony to Pitino calling for this.
He himself is an employee—closer in status to Dartmouth’s backup point guard than Warren Buffett or whatever business titan he probably quotes in huddles—and as Deadspin pointed out, Pitino made $1.5 million in 2016 through something called a “personal services agreement.” By 2018, he was the highest-paid coach in the country at $7.8 million a year. I don’t know how much Pitino makes at St. John’s, since the announcement of his hiring didn’t include financial terms, but I do know how much that contract would be worth without the labor of players: $0.
Recommendations
Because I love when The New Yorker covers sports: “How Nikola Jokić Became the World’s Best Basketball Player” by Louisa Thomas for The New Yorker. (link)
Because author Chester Himes is underrated and overlooked: “The Crime Novelist Who Was Also a Great American Novelist” by S.A. Crosby for The New York Times. (link)
Yes! Excited to see more of your writing in my inbox.
As you say it’s always the hope that matters. And hope springs eternal when pitchers and catchers report this week! It’s ok to rank your Phillies #2 as they are undoubtedly in the premier league. My only complaint is how you can rank Oakland as high as #30. Can MLB relegate them to Triple A?