The Out in Left Weekly: February 25, 2024
Padres' season is over, W Gold Cup, and more
MLB news
San Diego Padres season = over (tentatively)
The Padres’ struggles last season were portended by pitcher Joe Musgrove dropping a kettlebell on his foot in spring training, forcing him to miss a month of action. In the very first game of MLB’s 2024 season, Musgrove got the start against the Los Angeles Dodgers. He allowed four earned runs, walked a batter, and hit another. His ERA is incalculable because he didn’t record an out. The Dodgers went on to win 14-1.
Spring training games don’t mean anything, and Musgrove was excellent last season when healthy. But if I were a Padres fan I would have very much not wanted my team to kick off a redemption campaign by immediately getting stuffed into a locker by its biggest rival on national TV.
MLB owners fuel expansion and relocation rumors
Expansion and relocation rumors rattled the baseball world this week. To summarize:
Chicago White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf wants billions in public funds for a new stadium, or else he may move the team out of Chicago.
Arizona Diamondbacks owner Ken Kendrick is seeking subsidies to renovate Chase Field. He hinted at relocation if the funding doesn’t come through.
In every possible way, Oakland Athletics owner John Fisher is botching his team’s impending move to Las Vegas.
ESPN’s Jeff Passan took a deep dive into MLB expansion opportunities, after MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred recently broached the topic. “However long the list of potential expansion candidates—Charlotte, North Carolina; Portland; San Jose, California; Austin, Texas; Vancouver, British Columbia; and Mexico City,” Passan wrote, it is Nashville and Salt Lake City at the front of the line.
As I wrote in November, the key to MLB’s monopoly is where baseball is played. The league unilaterally controls where major and minor league teams go, which allows it to play cities off one another, which allows the billionaire owners to have taxpayers subsidize their teams. MLB constraining the supply of professional baseball also drives up demand for its product, no matter how bad many of its teams are. As Cincinnati Reds co-owner Phil Castellini said to his team’s fans, “Where are ya gonna go?”
Regardless of whether governments are willing to give Reinsdorf the $1.7 billion he’s asking for, that’s the number out in the public, the number that another city will have to approach to have a chance at poaching the White Sox from Chicago. (Why any city would want Reinsdorf and the White Sox is beyond my comprehension.) Even if another city merely kicks the tires on an offer, it would give Reinsdorf more leverage than he already has.
In this way, MLB treats baseball like fine wine, letting demand skyrocket as it matures in the cellar, when it should be like domestic beer: cheap and available to the masses.
Boston Red Sox exist
I wrote in my season preview that the Red Sox most significant move this offseason was authorizing a Netflix documentary and that isn’t much of a joke. “Everybody knows what we need. You know what we need. They know what we need,” star third baseman Rafael Devers said this week. “There’s some things I can’t say out loud. Everybody that knows the organization and knows the game knows what we need.”
The remarkable run the Red Sox started with their improbable World Series win in 2004 ended in 2020 when they traded away Mookie Betts. Since then, the Red Sox have been content with mediocrity, which is perplexing considering their owner’s wealth ($5 billion), the Boston media market (8th largest in the U.S.), and their ballpark (Fenway Park is a cash cow).
At the same time, their not investing in the roster isn’t perplexing at all. The closed league structure ensures owners turn profits no matter how their teams perform, which is one of the most maddening aspects of American sports. Whatever the team’s motivation, Devers is right. It’s dumb and frustrating when one of baseball’s blueblood franchises doesn’t try.
Other news
NCAA fails again at trying to maintain its model of exploitation
A federal judge blocked rules that restricted name, image, and likeness (NIL) deals for college athletes, dealing another blow to the NCAA’s efforts to maintain the amateurism model. ESPN analyst and NCAA critic Jay Bilas sums up my feelings. “...Why are there no spending controls on pay for coaches and administrators? Only athletes?” he tweeted. “Stop violating federal antitrust law.”
The news follows the National Labor Relations Board recognizing Dartmouth basketball players as employees. This grants the players minimum wage, unemployment, and other workers rights. It’s a model endorsed by Silas. “The NCAA needs to allow athletes full economic rights, without restriction. Sign athletes to contracts, and bargain at arms length. The rest of our society does it… the NCAA can do it, too.”
The schools and conferences will go down kicking and screaming, but we’ll get there. The sports world will be better and more just for it.
Recommendations
Because I wrote it: “SD is Hosting a Major Soccer Tournament—Will the Fans Follow?” for San Diego Magazine. (link)
Because it’s a great sports documentary (and not because I’m a Boston sports fan, barf): “The Dynasty: New England Patriots” on Apple TV+.
Three cheers for the judge who set aside the NCAA’s illegal rules on NIL. Now on to MLB’s antitrust exemption.