Well stated- except for my one game a year to hang out with friends, it has lost me for the most part. The biggest turn off is tax payer funded stadiums for billionaire owners. We have too many societal needs to pay for without giving out tax money to rich people. We can’t even afford healthcare or schools for crying out loud .
Also, saying "it's a business" takes away from the absolute pleasure of owning a piece of history. These owners have more money than they will EVER spend in a lifetime. Take some fucking pride in something tangible instead of thinking about abstract numbers in a bank. It really is a sickness.
Greed has always been a sickness that has plagued baseball. Comiskey was a Dickens villain. Frazee sold Ruth to finance a fucking play. But those men were reviled not revered like the ‘smart businessmen’ that run so many teams nowadays. When did the average person begin to side with billionaire owners to whom fans are only a line in a ledger? And I don’t want to hear how millionaire players should just shut up and play. Be grateful that they get paid millions to play a kids game. I can tell you right now: when the owners secure a larger slice of the revenue pie in the next CBA, ticket prices won’t get any cheaper.
Another solid post. I’ve dealt with the false “run government like a business” trope for years professionally. It is a service, created to protect and serve its citizens. That is lost on too many.
Well stated. I think about guys like my coworker who'll be in Milwaukee in a few hours with his buddies for their 20th opening day in a row. Sure, you can talk about line items and ticket revenue, but their tradition is one small part of what makes this game great...and it'll never show up on a P/L statement.
This really hit for me, especially the distinction you draw between baseball as a business and baseball as a structure protected from being a true business. That’s the part people gloss over.
When ownership says “it’s a business,” it’s not just descriptive, it’s rhetorical. It shuts down debate while ignoring the antitrust exemption, controlled entry, and lack of real competition.
For Buddha, you know, I agree with you on everything here. But I am not sure anything has changed. The history of the owners monetizing the game in a greedy shortsighted manner is as old as the game. None of us are old enough to remember Connie Mack selling virtually every star he had in 1914 and then again in 1932. We ARE old enough to remember the New York Mets selling Tom Seaver. The Dodgers are going to the White House this year.
I am not sure anything going on today is that different than anything that has been going on throughout the history of the game.
For better or worse, we must hold onto the parts of the game we love and which matter.
That is a little different for each of us. For some, it is the loyalty to a team. For others it is the history and the connection to the people who brought us to the game when we were children. For others, it is the romance and the poetry and all the things that I can’t describe here.
Like much of what we love in a capitalist, corporate society, we must hold onto the things we love in spite of everything that tries to demean it.
Keep writing the truth. I love this series and will read every single post in it. But let’s hold onto what we love, in spite of all.
Well said Keith. Human greed, ultimately, is timeless. BB - I always enjoy your thoughtful posts. On a side note, I went to the Denver Summit inaugural home game yesterday at the Broncos NFL stadium. On the way, my friends and I were trying to predict how much a beer would be. It was $17 for a 24 oz not including the tip screen.
I go to my first baseball game here in Denver next Sunday. Predictions on beer prices?
I have a more nuanced view on this. I am a Padres fan. It was ONLY because the Padres were run like a business that they stayed in San Diego. They had multiple periods where they had brief years of success followed by decades as a doormat. Now, Tony Gwynn is to be applauded for playing his whole career for alot less than he would have gotten signing with New York, Chicago, LA teams. But Dave Winfield left. Ozzie Smith left. Any player we got who was any good took the money and ran. Because from the players side, its totally a business too. Hating on the owners but not recognizing that saw cuts both ways is common but flawed logic, imo.
Amazingly, as we sit here on the day they announced the Padres are being sold for $3.9B (the current owners paid $800M a decade ago) the Padres outdraw the New York Mets. They outdraw the New York Yankees, and every other top team in a top market except the Los Angeles Dodgers. They were valued at $2B just two years ago. What happened? They had an owner who signed players to contracts, one after the other, that everyone said were “crazy” and that the Padres would go bust. They took their payroll far higher, double what it had been a few years before, even though they are at the bottom of MLB in TV revenue. It made NO BUSINESS SENSE. But, the ownership wanted to win no matter what, because the head of the ownership group was dying of cancer and money didnt matter as much as beating LA. So, when you evaluate “the owners”, those people are part of that group too. Our teams new owners also own CHELSEA the team running the biggest financial deficits in the Premier League because this guy wants to win and he is paying his players more than anyone else will. The other owners in MLB have no idea what is gonna happen yet. This guy and his group have deeeeppp pockets. He is going to rock alot of boats in MLB, imo, because he is determined to win, period.
Back to the Padres vs LA. San Diego
is not even a top ten market. LA dwarfs it. But teams have lots of fans that are true loyal baseball fans. Both teams sell out weeknights with no giveaways all the time. The Padres success helps both teams because LA fans come to the SD games and vice versa. Its a true rivalry. But remember how they got there - the LA Dodgers ONLY EXIST BECAUSE BRANCH RICKEY RAN THE BROOKLYN DODGERS LIKE A BUSINESS. He moved them to Los Angeles to make more money, period, end of story.
The Padres only exist because MLB wanted to make more money by expanding, because its a business. And they only stayed in San Diego because the city partnered with them BUILT THEM A STADIUM. Which, by the way, is responsible for the mountains of revenue the city is benefitting from today. I think the comment about the billionaire owners being greedy getting cities taxpayers to build them stadiums is really off base if you look at San Diego. They turned the worst neighborhoods off downtown into The Gaslamp District. People come from all over the world to enjoy Padres games and spend lots of $$ in San Diego because its city leaders were smart enough to build something that draws 40,000 folks 81X a year
Regarding the players being assets - imo its no different than the movie business. Players are entertainers now. The stars make a ton of money outside their contracts from endorsement deals. In the movie business star actors hire agents to negotiate busness deals with the studios BECAUSE ITS A BUSINESS.
Lucas Giolito is an MLB starting pitcher who had 10 wins and a 3.24 ERA last year. He is not pitching in 2026 because he wants a minimum of $19M to pitch and he isnt signing a contract to play, BECAUSE ITS A BUSINESS. Does he “lack integrity”? No, he’s doing whats best, in his AGENTS opinion, the guy who does his BUSINESS DEALS. And in the sales announcement for the Padres was a detail that pertains to this - The San Diego Padres, with the second highest attendance in MLB, had an operating profit in 2025 of $20M, which is what one single slightly better than average starting pitcher is demanding to pitch in 2026. The team takes mountains of financial obligations on, and they extend out for decades. That absolutely requires that you run it like a business, imo.
Well stated- except for my one game a year to hang out with friends, it has lost me for the most part. The biggest turn off is tax payer funded stadiums for billionaire owners. We have too many societal needs to pay for without giving out tax money to rich people. We can’t even afford healthcare or schools for crying out loud .
Also, saying "it's a business" takes away from the absolute pleasure of owning a piece of history. These owners have more money than they will EVER spend in a lifetime. Take some fucking pride in something tangible instead of thinking about abstract numbers in a bank. It really is a sickness.
Greed has always been a sickness that has plagued baseball. Comiskey was a Dickens villain. Frazee sold Ruth to finance a fucking play. But those men were reviled not revered like the ‘smart businessmen’ that run so many teams nowadays. When did the average person begin to side with billionaire owners to whom fans are only a line in a ledger? And I don’t want to hear how millionaire players should just shut up and play. Be grateful that they get paid millions to play a kids game. I can tell you right now: when the owners secure a larger slice of the revenue pie in the next CBA, ticket prices won’t get any cheaper.
Love it, you are on point.
Jeez. Reading baseball is a bizniss reminded me how I love baseball. It’s almost opening day. All the teams have the same record. Pretty cool.
Another solid post. I’ve dealt with the false “run government like a business” trope for years professionally. It is a service, created to protect and serve its citizens. That is lost on too many.
Thanks Christopher, I hear you!
Chris, you know I’m with you. But look at my comment below as well.
Well stated. I think about guys like my coworker who'll be in Milwaukee in a few hours with his buddies for their 20th opening day in a row. Sure, you can talk about line items and ticket revenue, but their tradition is one small part of what makes this game great...and it'll never show up on a P/L statement.
Spot on Kevin
We can always trust humanity to enshittify a good thing, especially when money is involved.
(But happy Opening Day! I know it's hopeless but Go Twins!!)
lol! But that is what it is about to be a fan and to care, yes Go Twins, I say that lightly since I have at real good with my Dodgers…
This really hit for me, especially the distinction you draw between baseball as a business and baseball as a structure protected from being a true business. That’s the part people gloss over.
When ownership says “it’s a business,” it’s not just descriptive, it’s rhetorical. It shuts down debate while ignoring the antitrust exemption, controlled entry, and lack of real competition.
For Buddha, you know, I agree with you on everything here. But I am not sure anything has changed. The history of the owners monetizing the game in a greedy shortsighted manner is as old as the game. None of us are old enough to remember Connie Mack selling virtually every star he had in 1914 and then again in 1932. We ARE old enough to remember the New York Mets selling Tom Seaver. The Dodgers are going to the White House this year.
I am not sure anything going on today is that different than anything that has been going on throughout the history of the game.
For better or worse, we must hold onto the parts of the game we love and which matter.
That is a little different for each of us. For some, it is the loyalty to a team. For others it is the history and the connection to the people who brought us to the game when we were children. For others, it is the romance and the poetry and all the things that I can’t describe here.
Like much of what we love in a capitalist, corporate society, we must hold onto the things we love in spite of everything that tries to demean it.
Keep writing the truth. I love this series and will read every single post in it. But let’s hold onto what we love, in spite of all.
Thank you for this thoughtful response, still love the game, it is my escape.
Well said Keith. Human greed, ultimately, is timeless. BB - I always enjoy your thoughtful posts. On a side note, I went to the Denver Summit inaugural home game yesterday at the Broncos NFL stadium. On the way, my friends and I were trying to predict how much a beer would be. It was $17 for a 24 oz not including the tip screen.
I go to my first baseball game here in Denver next Sunday. Predictions on beer prices?
$21
Excellent article.
I have a more nuanced view on this. I am a Padres fan. It was ONLY because the Padres were run like a business that they stayed in San Diego. They had multiple periods where they had brief years of success followed by decades as a doormat. Now, Tony Gwynn is to be applauded for playing his whole career for alot less than he would have gotten signing with New York, Chicago, LA teams. But Dave Winfield left. Ozzie Smith left. Any player we got who was any good took the money and ran. Because from the players side, its totally a business too. Hating on the owners but not recognizing that saw cuts both ways is common but flawed logic, imo.
Amazingly, as we sit here on the day they announced the Padres are being sold for $3.9B (the current owners paid $800M a decade ago) the Padres outdraw the New York Mets. They outdraw the New York Yankees, and every other top team in a top market except the Los Angeles Dodgers. They were valued at $2B just two years ago. What happened? They had an owner who signed players to contracts, one after the other, that everyone said were “crazy” and that the Padres would go bust. They took their payroll far higher, double what it had been a few years before, even though they are at the bottom of MLB in TV revenue. It made NO BUSINESS SENSE. But, the ownership wanted to win no matter what, because the head of the ownership group was dying of cancer and money didnt matter as much as beating LA. So, when you evaluate “the owners”, those people are part of that group too. Our teams new owners also own CHELSEA the team running the biggest financial deficits in the Premier League because this guy wants to win and he is paying his players more than anyone else will. The other owners in MLB have no idea what is gonna happen yet. This guy and his group have deeeeppp pockets. He is going to rock alot of boats in MLB, imo, because he is determined to win, period.
Back to the Padres vs LA. San Diego
is not even a top ten market. LA dwarfs it. But teams have lots of fans that are true loyal baseball fans. Both teams sell out weeknights with no giveaways all the time. The Padres success helps both teams because LA fans come to the SD games and vice versa. Its a true rivalry. But remember how they got there - the LA Dodgers ONLY EXIST BECAUSE BRANCH RICKEY RAN THE BROOKLYN DODGERS LIKE A BUSINESS. He moved them to Los Angeles to make more money, period, end of story.
The Padres only exist because MLB wanted to make more money by expanding, because its a business. And they only stayed in San Diego because the city partnered with them BUILT THEM A STADIUM. Which, by the way, is responsible for the mountains of revenue the city is benefitting from today. I think the comment about the billionaire owners being greedy getting cities taxpayers to build them stadiums is really off base if you look at San Diego. They turned the worst neighborhoods off downtown into The Gaslamp District. People come from all over the world to enjoy Padres games and spend lots of $$ in San Diego because its city leaders were smart enough to build something that draws 40,000 folks 81X a year
Regarding the players being assets - imo its no different than the movie business. Players are entertainers now. The stars make a ton of money outside their contracts from endorsement deals. In the movie business star actors hire agents to negotiate busness deals with the studios BECAUSE ITS A BUSINESS.
Lucas Giolito is an MLB starting pitcher who had 10 wins and a 3.24 ERA last year. He is not pitching in 2026 because he wants a minimum of $19M to pitch and he isnt signing a contract to play, BECAUSE ITS A BUSINESS. Does he “lack integrity”? No, he’s doing whats best, in his AGENTS opinion, the guy who does his BUSINESS DEALS. And in the sales announcement for the Padres was a detail that pertains to this - The San Diego Padres, with the second highest attendance in MLB, had an operating profit in 2025 of $20M, which is what one single slightly better than average starting pitcher is demanding to pitch in 2026. The team takes mountains of financial obligations on, and they extend out for decades. That absolutely requires that you run it like a business, imo.