Let Baseball Be Baseball
In 1954 Peter J. McGovern first president of Little League Baseball penned what is now known as the Little League Pledge. He learned that some groups were reciting the Pledge of Allegiance prior to the start of a game. Knowing that youth all over the world would be playing Little League Baseball, he wanted something that was more universal to every player in every country. It was first printed in February 1955 in the Little Leaguer magazine with a copy of the Pledge being sent to the White House for then President Dwight D. Eisenhower, to which the President was very impressed. It read,
I trust in God
I love my country
And will respect its laws
I will play fair
And strive to win
But win or lose
I will always do my best
That Pledge written in 1954 is still recited prior to every game some 71 years later. In the efforts to make all players at that level compete as well as be safe, many other rules were established; like you can’t lead off prior to the ball crossing Homeplate and each player on the team must play 3 innings on defense and get at least 1 at bat. This allowed each youth to feel as though they weren’t just there because, but they were a part of a team. Teamwork taught to youth will help them later in life including their career regardless if it’s in baseball or not.
Over the last several of years the MLB have made a number of changes to the game. Here are just a few
You must slide at the plate
A Pitcher can only disengage twice the next time the runner is awarded the base
The Pitch Clock
Time between Pitching Changes
A Pitcher must face 3 batters or complete the inning
The Ghost Runner on 2nd in extra innings
All of these rule changes are there apparently to make the game more exciting and to speed it up. Most recently the MLB toyed with the idea of a ‘Golden Bat’ rule, which states in the 9th inning if the home team is down they can have one player bat even if it’s not their spot in the line up. So imagine you are playing the Dodgers and they are down by 1 in the 9th, but in the 8th you got Shohei, Mookie and Freddie all out. In the 9th there’s 2 outs and 2 on, then the Dodgers say we want Shohei to bat again…crazy. This makes ZERO sense to me in more than one way. First of all, how does that make the batter who was replaced feel, second imagine having to face one of the best players on the planet again even though he’s not due up.
I get the fact the MLB is trying to come up with more ways to make the game exciting, but here’s my quick take on it…LEAVE THE GAME ALONE. If you think it’s too long, don’t watch. If you think it’s boring, learn the rules or don’t watch. All of these additional rules are killing the game and in my opinion taking away from the original form of the game. It’s taking what was fun about the game and turning it into something I think it was never intended for it to be. The baseball ‘purest’ in me is going crazy over all of these changes, I want to shout at the top of my lungs STOP IT! Let the boys play, let’s have fun, and of course let’s PLAY BALL!!!
Fandom v Business v Contracts
Every one dreams of having an All Star in each position, even having a five man All Star rotation, but that is simply not possible in the game as we know it. There is truly a difference between the fandom of baseball and the business of baseball, and more often than not these two do not see eye to eye, leaving the fan disappointed.
Fandom v Business
The fan is what makes the game great, let’s face it— the players were once fans, some still are, even though they play— without the fans the game just isn’t the game. Remember in 2020 when fans were not allowed in the stadium and the funny, yet sad, cardboard cutouts you could buy of yourself filled the seats. Yeah… it just wasn’t the same. I guess on the bright side though, you could hear EVERYTHING—even the stuff that would normally be delayed and blocked because of language.
What the casual fan may or may not understand is baseball at it’s core is a game, yes, but it is ultimately a business. Without the ability to make a profit the team and/or league would not exist. The fan wants the see EVERY free agent signed by their favorite team, playing out in their mind the reason why that free agent wants to sign, or what they think the player should agree to. The struggle with this is the fan is not signing the front of the paycheck and has little at risk for themselves, except for a little bit of heartache if their teams misses the playoffs. At the end of the day ownership needs to be able to make payroll but also needs to put a team on the field that will draw in the fans and compete for a World Series Championship.
Understanding the Structure of a Contract
This tends to sit on the more boring side of the game, but with social media, everyone wanting to be the first to break a story and with a camera/computer in their pockets now, more needs to be understood in this area. When a contract is offered to a player there can be several ‘moving parts’ to it. For example a player can have a no trade clause in the contract thus giving the player the right to reject a trade the club is trying to do. The contract can have options to it on either the player side or the club side. In this case, after the period of the guaranteed portion of the contract the side that owns the option can excuse it or not, making the player a free agent or staying with the club. Let’s use Cody Bellinger’s contract for an example. He is on a one year with two player options; in 2024 he was paid $5 million, then if he exercised the 2025 option (which he did) he would get $27.5 million, if he choose not to exercise the option then the Cubs would pay him $2.5 million as a buyout. Another way to structure a contract is to either offer a bonus at signing or for performance. An example would be the recent contract signed by Blake Snell for $131 million over 5 years with the signing bonus of $52 million. Finally the now infamous way the Dodgers used deferred payments to structure the Shohei Ohtani contract. Ohtani takes $2 million a year for 10 years and defers just over $26 million a year for starting in year 11 going for the next 10 years.
Deferring the Contract— Big Versus Small Market
The deferred compensation idea is not something new to the MLB world, it’s just a very risky idea. For the most part a player agrees to a contract and to get paid a dollar amount for a certain period of years, deferring the remainder of the balance starting years later. This is a simple and easy solution for the big market teams like the Dodgers, Angels, Cubs, White Sox, Yankees, Mets, and Red Sox. These teams in the bigger markets can afford to pay this way, knowing they will make the money over time, or can even put in escrow accounts over the years to pay in the future. The small market teams with less income, drawing less of the free agency market will struggle to compete at this level. This is why you may have heard fans getting frustrated with the Dodgers on how the Ohtani or Snell contract is laid out.
The smaller market teams may not have as large of a TV contract, the fan base attending the games, or the ‘Super Star’ player to draw the team into the post season . You can easily make a case for the smaller markets being at a disadvantage here, but the flip side to this coin is saying run the risk and see what you can get. If you are the Rockies, Royals, Marlins, Rangers, or Brewers (to name a few), make the play for the players, make the playoffs, then see who you will attract.
The key overall is the post season. Once there, going deeper into the post season will come. The fans will come back, the sponsorships will get bigger and eventually the TV deals will get larger, because the fans will want more from their team. Simply put the bigger markets don’t always have the advantage just because they are a big market team, remember the White Sox lost 121 games this season. The key is winning and the ownership’s willingness to gamble on the players needed regardless of the price. There’s so much to discuss when it comes to the topic of the Fandom of the game verses the Business of the game.
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