Major League Baseball
Sportswriters perennially
complain that Major League Baseball's greedy owners are corrupting the game.
The owners gripe that players are destroying it from within by demanding too
much money. Recent developments have escalated the doomsaying. MLB's top
executive proposed two weeks ago that the century-old distinction between the
National League and American League be erased, and that the teams in the
leagues realign. Last week, the Atlanta Braves superstar pitcher Greg Maddux
accepted a five-year contract worth $57.5 million, the biggest ever. Is MLB in
decline or, as some claim, in the midst of a golden era? How are the economics
of baseball changing? Are fans tuning out the televised game? How is the game
itself changing? And is the current crop of players as good as those who played
in the halcyon days of the '30s, '50s, and '60s?
Baseball
hasn't reigned as the "national pastime " for decades. It was displaced
long ago by a combination of other leisure activities, including TV, computer
games, and the more telegenic games of basketball and football. Although
attendance was damaged by the strike-shortened seasons of 1994 and 1995,
attendance is now approaching pre-strike levels . Overall attendance is
strong: MLB attracted 60 million fans in 1996 with 28 teams, compared to 24.3
million fans in the golden year of 1967, when there were only 20 teams.
The perception of declining fan interest causes owners to
tinker with baseball traditions from time to time, mostly in the hopes
of attracting more fans. In 1969, each league was cleaved into two divisions,
creating four ticket-selling pennant races instead of just two. Division
winners were pitted against one another in post-season play, with the victors
advancing to the World Series. In 1973, the American League added the
designated hitter , a player who bats in place of the pitcher but does
not play in the field. The DH increased scoring, which pleases fans. In 1995,
each league was further divided into three divisions, creating six pennant
races, and post-season play was expanded to involve eight clubs, as two "wild
card" teams joined the pennant winners in the playoffs. This year, MLB
instituted interleague play , scheduling National League and American
League teams against one another in regular-season contests for the first time.
Of course, pandering to fans is in the baseball tradition. Examples: night
games, fireworks displays, giveaways, ladies' nights, mascots, etc.
Soaring
attendance for interleague games prompted MLB's top executive, Bud Selig, to
propose the realignment of the two leagues. Under his plan, baseball's
six divisions would be reduced to four divisions in two different leagues. The
teams would be grouped geographically, with 15 teams switching leagues.
Proponents of realignment argue that it exploits natural regional rivalries and
decreases travel time for players. Opponents complain that it upends tradition.
Owners will likely vote on the plan in September. One negative ballot will be
enough to veto it.
MLB hasn't promoted itself as successfully as
pro football and pro basketball (it collects about half as much from the sale
of hats, shirts, and other paraphernalia as does either the NBA or NFL), but
baseball has aggressively expanded into new markets. In 1960, MLB had 16
teams. With the addition of the Arizona Diamondbacks and the Tampa Bay Devil
Rays next year, the count will reach 30. The game has also gone global, with
teams aggressively recruiting stars from reliable talent pools south of the
border ( Sandy and Roberto Alomar ) and, more recently, in Asia ( Hideo
Nomo ).
Baseball
has always been about money, but even more so since the 1975 repeal of the
"reserve clause ." The reserve clause bound players to teams (or the
teams they were traded to) for life. Today, players can shop their talents to
the highest bidder one year after their contract expires. Salaries have
escalated since the repeal of the reserve clause. In 1975, the average
player made $35,000. In 1989, he earned $512,000. This year, the average player
salary is $1.37 million.
MLB owners blame their red ink (an estimated total
of $185 million last year) on big payrolls . MLB's wealthiest team, the
world-champion New York Yankees, spent $66 million on payroll in 1996. The
Montreal Expos spent the least, $19 million. But high-priced free agent
salaries don't necessarily correlate to competitiveness. Drawing on their
excellent minor-league affiliates for cheap new talent, the Expos finished
second in the National League East last year.
Even so,
big-market teams like the Orioles, Braves, and Yankees stay in contention by
purchasing free agents, so two years ago MLB assuaged complaints about the
rich/poor gap with a moderate revenue-sharing scheme. Wealthy teams like
the Yankees pay a "tax" on every payroll dollar above $51 million. The tax is
distributed to teams who spend less, usually teams in smaller markets like
Milwaukee and Pittsburgh. Last year, the Yankees paid around $6 million in
revenue sharing.
The NFL and NBA decreased the disparities
between large- and small-market teams with salary caps that limit player
salaries. MLB has no salary cap, and attempts to impose one sparked the
1994-1995 strike by the players union, resulting in the first cancellation
of a World Series in 90 years. In 1995, the owners retreated from the
salary-cap issue, eventually signing a contract that expires in 2000.
Like its
football cousin, baseball depends heavily on television money . But MLB
complains that it's not getting enough. The NFL's current four-year contract
for national TV broadcasts pays it about $2.5 billion, while MLB's contract
over a similar period earns about $1 billion. But the comparison isn't relevant
because MLB teams also sell nonnational games to local broadcasters and cable
channels, pocketing millions more. (The Yankees have a 12-year, $486-million
cable deal.) Once again, it's the teams playing in small markets that suffer,
because they can't command an audience big enough to attract big TV
contracts.
Because baseball is an entertainment industry, media
conglomerates have purchased teams, potentially complicating future TV-rights
negotiations. Time-Warner obtained the Atlanta Braves this year when it bought
Turner Broadcasting Inc., Walt Disney Co. holds an interest in the Anaheim
Angels, and the Tribune Corp. owns the Chicago Cubs. And Rupert Murdoch
( of Fox TV ) recently bid an estimated $350 million for the Los
Angeles Dodgers and their stadium. Because it is in the interest of the
media moguls to pay as little as possible for broadcast rights, some critics
worry that small-market teams will get the shaft when the media-mogul owners
use their inside-the-clubhouse influence to drive down the size of national-TV
contracts.
Although
owners complain about annual losses, there is no shortage of bidders willing to
pay record sums for existing teams or new franchises. One reason for the high
value of MLB teams is the prospect of new, publicly financed ballparks .
Owners in Baltimore, Cleveland, Chicago, Denver, and Texas have all reaped
major profits from these new facilities, built at little or no cost to the
teams. (New parks are scheduled for Detroit, Seattle, and Phoenix.) The most
lucrative amenity at the new parks are the sky boxes, luxury suites rented to
corporations at exorbitant prices. Also filling team coffers are fancy food
courts and merchandise concession areas. Team owners have also boosted ticket
prices at the new parks, charging about 35 percent more than they did at the
old parks.
While it's true that expansion temporarily
diluted the talent pool, the DH artificially increased offense, and players
have gained the economic upper hand, there is a widespread consensus that the
quality of the game itself is as good as or better than ever .
Improvements in hitting have been matched by craftier pitching (by such hurlers
as Atlanta's Greg Maddux and Baltimore's Mike Mussina). The rise in the number
of home runs (a record of 4,962 last year) has been paralleled by increased
strikeouts in every year of this decade. The exorbitant salaries have inspired
modern players to train year-round, building strength and stamina with their
new regimens.
Baseball is certainly more
competitive today than it was in the dynasty decades of the New York
Yankees. Many small-market teams (Oakland, Minnesota, Pittsburgh, Montreal,
Seattle) and expansion teams have cobbled together contenders in the '90s to do
battle with the dynastic clubs from the big markets. Only the Atlanta Braves
have had consistent success in this decade, making them the first team since
the New York Yankees of 1960-1964 to appear in four out of five consecutive
World Series. Other teams have gone from world champions to cellar-dwellers
within five years.
