Bud trying to level the playing field

From the Seats, February 11, 2005

MINNEAPOLIS - Bud Selig seems to be waking up, or at least coming to the realization that contrition was never the answer, that it was the bad attempt at a quick escape goat. To level the playing field mean to penalize the teams such as Yankees, Red Sox and Angles that like to over spend beyond some teams wildest dreams.

 

The Yankees have about 3 times the payroll that the Twins do. The Yankees will be able to continue this, but other teams will get more money yet, in attempts to give the teams that don’t receive money from other places to have some of it, to make them more of a contender.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Is economic parity possible?
Commissioner's plan working to level the playing field

Baseball's economy has changed dramatically in recent years and it is still changing. But even diligent observers of this change might be forgiven if they believed that it was headed simultaneously in two different directions.

On one hand, Major League Baseball is reaching the point at which it will redistribute more than $300 million of the wealth among its franchises. This is, in the context of baseball's free-market, survival-of-the-fittest economic history, a revolutionary development.

And on the other hand? Well, there are the New York Yankees.

The Yankees, barring a truly unexpected bout of cost-cutting, will have a 2005 player payroll in excess of $200 million. It is one thing to understand that baseball has been moving steadily, albeit incrementally, toward a more level economic playing field. It is another thing to understand how the Yankees' payroll fits into that model, or anything resembling that model.

How will this play out? Will the increases in revenue sharing and the luxury tax -- or more politely, the competitive balance tax -- lead to more equitable economic circumstances for the 30 franchises? Or are the Yankees, with their depth or revenues that other clubs can only envy, simply above the economic law?

We asked the Commissioner of baseball, Bud Selig, about this. Economic reform has been the cornerstone of Selig's efforts as commissioner, in a much more fundamental way than any of his much more publicized initiatives, such as Interleague Play or the expanded playoff system. Coming from a background as an owner of the Milwaukee Brewers, the ultimate small-market franchise, Selig has been in the forefront of the attempts to reform the game's economy and allow merit, rather than money, to be the deciding factor in determining success on the field.

The Commissioner remains confident that greater competitive balance will be achieved. "Look," he said in a recent interview, "we're done with two more years of our labor agreement. We have two more years to go. Things get tighter and tougher. I think we've made enormous progress. I think we've changed the economic landscape of the sport.

"Let me go back to what my father used to say to me with great regularity: 'Nothing's ever good or bad, except by comparison.' We're going to have over $300 million of revenue sharing. We had none in 1992. We have a tax that's considerable. We now have debt service rules. We have other mechanisms. But, yes, we have work to do. There has been tremendous progress made, but there are still examples of how we need to continue to achieve more parity and bring clubs closer together."

The Commissioner's use of the term "tighter and tougher" refers in part to the fact that, under the existing Collective Bargaining Agreement, the percentage applied to the luxury tax increases for those clubs which have previously exceeded the tax threshold.

This means that even more of the Yankees' money will be redistributed elsewhere next season. For 2004, between revenue sharing and the luxury tax, the Yankees paid out more than $80 million. At their expected level of spending, they will pay more than $200 million in 2005.

These circumstances have not stopped the Yankees so far. Or have they? There is a widely held theory in baseball circles that, after signing Randy Johnson, even the Yankees could not quite afford to sign this winter's premier free agent, Carlos Beltran, in part because of the luxury tax ramifications.

The other 29 franchises can take some solace from that, but it's not $200 million worth of solace.

Elsewhere, the Commissioner notes, the Anaheim Angels won the World Series in 2002, at a time when they had a middle-class payroll. In the best example of what possibilities baseball's economic reforms held, the Florida Marlins won the Series in 2003 with a payroll that was basically lower-middle class at the time. And even in 2004, when the Boston Red Sox won with baseball's second-highest player payroll, their second was a truly distant second.

"There is work yet to be done, there is no question about that," Selig says. "But I think the changes are beginning to work better than people are giving us credit for.

"At least we've got a system that's working. Let's give the last two years of this agreement a chance, because things do get tighter. I'm very confident that we will achieve what we set out to achieve."

And that would be something including the concept "parity." There is no question that, using the standard of measuring baseball relative to what is used to be, major strides have been taken in changing the economic structure of the game. But there is also no question that vast disparities among the revenues of the various franchises still exist, particularly in any comparison that includes the franchise in the Bronx.

This is not said to vilify the Yankees, but merely to point out a fact of baseball economic life. The Yankees are the revenue kings and they don't stint on plowing the money back into the ball club. They are the gold standard, while many other franchises are operating on a standard much more like copper.

Baseball's economic reforms are aimed in part at making every other club more like the Yankees, or making the Yankees less like the Yankees. So far, the results of this effort constitute a split decision. Considerable money has been redistributed, but the Yankees haven't stopped acting like the Yankees.

Change in baseball is generally evolutionary rather than revolutionary, and this process likely will progress at the same rate. The Commissioner's goal of having a baseball economy that will spread pennant hopes to 30 franchises is a worthy aim. Steps, commendable steps, are being taken in that direction. Those wishing for fundamental change in baseball's economic structure can now hope for patience, rather than a miracle.