WHAT DO ZIMBABWE AND WALLIS AND FUTUNA HAVE IN COMMON WITH MLB?

WHAT DO ZIMBABWE AND WALLIS AND FUTUNA HAVE IN COMMON WITH MLB?

 (USA TODAY, This is the Planned Consolidated Budget)

(Melanie Hicken, Associated Press, Baseball Almanac)

(Cleveland Indians, MLB Report, Barry Petchesky)

(Casey Kelly, Tommy Layne, Frazer Chronicle)

 

The answer to the above poser is absolutely nothing, how could there be, the New York Yankees, Los Angeles Dodgers, the Philadelphia Phillies and the Boston Red Sox each has larger operating budget then either country. And both countries, (Wallis and Futuna are French islands in the South Pacific) with populations of  (Zimbabwe) 12,521,000, and Wallis-Futuna, 15,507 more than 16 times the number of Major League rostered players at the big league level.

 

What’s my point…..easy, yesterday in the USA TODAY sports section on the front page was an article by Bob Nightengale which detailed to some extent the plight of Cleveland, Oakland, and Tampa Bay’s battle to attract paying fans through their turnstiles in greater numbers. All three are in contention to either make the baseball playoffs, or win a division title outright.

 

In his article, Nightengale alluded to the fact that Monday night’s game, (9-16) Tampa Bay Rays and the Texas Rangers, (tied for the American League’s wild-card lead) drew a crowd of 10,724 paying fans at Tropicana Field in Tampa Bay.

 

In Oakland, California, the A’s, fresh off a three game sweep of their closest rival, the Texas Rangers, drew 14,629 for the beginning of a series with the Los Angeles, Angles. Although the Angles have a losing record, they do have an exciting ball club, and several players who can knock the cover off the ball.

 

Although the Cleveland Indians are currently on the road in Kansas City, they are bottom feeders with regards to home attendance this year. Houston which has the worst won-lost record in Major League Baseball at 51-101, is drawing more than Tampa Bay, or Cleveland, and is drawing about three thousand less than Oakland.

 

Conversely the Milwaukee Brewers with a 69-83 record…..and completely out of any post season play is drawing more than 31,000 per home date. What’s wrong with Oakland, Cleveland and Tampa Bay, well maybe first one should check out where these teams play…..and maybe each city’s demographics. Also possibly in the equation might be the attitudes of ownership, personnel in the front office, and the players as well.

 

Marketing a baseball club at the Major League level is a tricky tap dance, probably addressing the perceived salaries that major league players get for their services might be upper-most on their list of things to explain. Player salaries really put both players and team management in a ham-string position; first and foremost the huge figure that team owners pay a player instantly comes into play. The pressure to perform at an elite level is a huge burden that a player with a bunch of zeros behind his name in a contract sometimes simply can’t handle.

 

THE BURDEN OF THE ZERO

The minimum major league salary, (usually paid to a rookie) is $480,000, (3 zeros,) and the average salary on a major league team is $3,330,240, (although not zeros) there are a bunch of numbers that add up to a tidy amount of pay for playing a kids game while wearing pajamas and having all kinds of people granting almost your every wish.

 

This pay grade is by far the most misunderstood part of what I think does contribute to some people staying away from the ball park. There isn’t a single player playing baseball today, or in the last twenty years or so that one can point to and unequivocally say “that guy is the reason for the high salaries.”

 

The disparity in player’s wages goes way back to the turn of the century when ball club owners needed what their ball clubs brought in, in revenue, to live on, and to keep their ball clubs solvent, and on the field of play. Of course those days are gone forever, Charles Comiskey, Clark Griffith, and Connie Mack, all former players as well as owners had as much to do with player’s salaries as the players themselves.

 

Comiskey, Griffith, and Mack were notorious for being penny pinchers, and moving players to other ball clubs if they complained about the money that they were being paid, usually to ball teams that were mired in last place, and were hopelessly outclassed on the field as well as off.

 

Of course free agency helped to re-write all sorts of issues with regards to player’s salaries, and some of the benefits that finally came to pass in major league ball. On December 23, 1975, arbitrator Pete Seitz declared the two pitchers free agents. In his 64 page ruling, Seitz sided with their interpretation of Section 10A of the standard player contract.

 

For the sake of space, time, and keeping readers focused, Major League Baseball thought so little of players rights, and probably their intellect, that they would send contracts at all different times of the year. Player’s attorney, Marvin Miller saw a fatal flaw in the wording of the player’s contract and took advantage, changing forever how players were treated and thought of by owners.

 

In 1970, forty three years ago, the minimum salary for a player was $12,000, while the average major leaguer’s was $29,303. In 1975 the minimum salary was $16,000, while the average was $44,676, after the 1976 mistake in contractual verbiage, the minimum by 1980 was $30,000, and the average big leaguer was making $143,756…..a whooping raise of $114,453 in just five years!

 

People for the most part can’t fathom a hundred and fourteen thousand dollar raise in just five years, and to tell you the truth, I can’t blame people for their attitude. However that said, people not coming out to the ball parks to watch these millionaires goes deeper than a perceived unequal salary distribution between the nine to five working crowd, and sports figures.

 

The burdens of those people making a bunch of zero’s in their yearly contracts work and live in a completely different world. They work twelve months a year, hire personal trainers, nutrition experts, accountants, money managers, and have a staff of people who do all sorts of things for the ball player. Most of us can’t comprehend their lifestyle, and wouldn’t want it no matter the paycheck.

 

HERE’S THE SKINNY MY FRIENDS

Explaining the trials and tribulations of the modern day baseball player won’t give the reason why people aren’t showing up in Oakland, Cleveland, and Tampa Bay. Their attendance malady is shared also by Miami Marlins, Kansas City Royals, Seattle Mariners, and the Chicago White Sox.

 

All a person has to do is to check the demographics of these communities to catch a clue as to why attendance is a tough sled. All of these cities carry an accompanying metropolitan area that these ball clubs depend on for attendance support.

 

Winning can cure a whole bunch of ills, but also masks potential problems that will crop up whenever a losing season or a sub-par performance is encountered. Philadelphia Phillies, Milwaukee Brewers, the Minnesota Twins, and the Colorado Rockies are prime examples of what I’m talking about. Each is drawing sustainable crowds, and are losing ball clubs…..some with several seasons of rebuilding ahead of them.

 

And finally the reason that people shun some teams are the prices…..stupid, how about a seafood lovers bread bowl of clam chowder for $8.75, or a $16.50 crab sandwich on sourdough bread. For the sweet-tooth, (that would be me,) a $10.00 Ghirardelli hot fudge sundae.

 

In another facility, try a 16 ounce can of beer for (God help me) $8.00, or a soda pop for $6.25, a $7.00 deep-fried red hot sausage on a stick, or a small bag of deep-fried peanuts for only $5.00 (I did not know you deep fried peanuts). They say everything is big in Texas and that would include the Texas Rangers broomstick, a 2’ foot-long beef hot dog, smothered in chili, nacho cheese, jalapenos and caramelized onions on a potato bun….the price, $26.00 for the monster!

 

I could go on, but I gotta get to some of the ticket prices to close this edition out, they range from $10.00 for upper bleacher seats during week-day games at Cleveland, to $50.24 for a front row seat at Boston’s Fenway Park.

 

Surely they jest, really people don’t show up to drink an overpriced can of beer and munch on stale popcorn and chomp on hotdogs made out of hog snouts and chicken lips…..gee can you imagine that. Tropicana Field in Tampa Bay is in a rough part of town, and has had a hard time attracting fans to their ball park…..like three years running, and twelve of their sixteen year history.

 

Oakland has also had trouble corralling financially supportive numbers at their McAfee Coliseum, or as it used to be called, Networks Association Coliseum, or the Oakland-Alameda Coliseum. No matter the name, the stadium resembles a concrete mausoleum, and is located in a demilitarized zone near downtown Oakland.

 

Cleveland has a new ball park in…..if it can be said about Cleveland, a decent part of town, however that said, the entire working force of the community, and surround area is in a prolonged financial slump with no good news in sight.

 

Well there you have it, my view of why professional baseball is alive and well in America, even though there are several teams that need to clean up their act…..construct themselves new facilities, become more fan friendly, and hold the line on their prices.

 

Oh yeah players throw baseball into the bleachers, they show up to help certain benefits, and they sign autographs in a more polite way than ever before. Sadly there will always be a section of people who will take issue with salaries.

 

HAVE A NICE DAY!