Last Wednesday, I went ankle-deep in the quicksand of “scare” headlines, choosing a front-page Wall Street Journal article that would have readers believe that Americans are moving to foreign destinations en masse. Emerging intact, although soiled in a minor way, I shifted to the switch-and-bait headlines of a couple of New York Times come-ons (“click-bait” applies, although it’s up to some “influencer,” not Malcolm Gladwell, to popularize a new term) and it was just as bad. Granted, it’s a tricky business in this decade for the remaining big newspapers to entice consumers, but the following is shameful.
The entire front page of the March 2nd Times “Sports” section is given over to the possible MLB lockout next year (a story that’ll occupy those men and women who identify as sportswriters every week until, as I—with no expertise other than following baseball labor disputes for decades—believe, it fizzles out. The headline is “Broken Sport? A Blueprint For Change Goes Beyond A Pay Ceiling,” but upon flipping to the jump there’s a different headline to The Athletic’s Evan Drellich’s nothing-new analysis, “A Salary Cap’s Wide-Ranging, Game-Changing Effects.” That’s milder, but what annoyed me is that Drellich’s jumble of possibilities was first published online on February 12th. That’s some deceptive recycling; the Times wouldn’t dare repeat a Wordle or “Spinach Meatballs With Pasta” recipe.
You’d think—at least if you’re old or naive—that a very long article about MLB’s labor dispute, especially one with such lavish graphic treatment on the “Sports” front page would contain more than a re-hash of the numerous sticking points between MLB’s management and the players’ union (MLBPA), but that’s not the case. Drellich presents a dozen or so examples that might lead to a “broken sport,” such as a payroll cap (the only argument that really matters), corresponding with a payroll minimum, television broadcast confusion, the perennial “revenue sharing” percentages, a raise in a player’s minimum salary, altering the arbitration rules and misleading evaluations of a team’s revenue (the union wants an owner’s real estate holdings included).
Drellich: “The optics are poor when the Dodgers have a payroll more than four times as large as teams like the Miami Marlins and Tampa Bay Rays. The league says payroll disparity has never been greater, while the union’s numbers show otherwise.” Not mentioned is the fact that the Rays, who almost always field a competitive team, draw almost no fans, which may or may not be the reason that former owner Stuart Sternberg kept his salaries low. (The Rays were sold last September for $1.7 billion to a group led by billionaire Patrick Zalupski.) So why have the Rays remained in Tampa Bay, instead of moving the franchise to a locale that craves a local team and would immediately cause attendance and merchandise sales to boom? I’ve thought for years that the Rays moving to New Jersey or Brooklyn would make it a financial powerhouse, although it’s certain the Yankees and Mets owners would fight such a relocation. But there’s Nashville at the ready and maybe Portland or Montreal.
Gene Orza, a retired players union lawyer, made a lot sense about the League’s proposal of “leveling the playing field.” “It’s nonsense. That’s just a ruse, that’s propaganda, that’s not real. The Yankees won three times in a row… now the Yankees haven’t won in 17 years. Why has the value of every franchise gone up, every single one of them?”
The gap between Drellich’s Feb. 12 online article and the printed March 2nd version led to a significant mistake that could’ve been corrected. He quotes Bruce Meyer’s boilerplate talking points, but refers to him as MLBPA’s “deputy director.” In fact, Meyer was elevated to “executive director” after former head Tony Clark resigned on Feb. 18th, after a personal scandal. Is that a picayune complaint? Not for an unedited Substack, but the Times has 2800 editorial employees, most of whom apparently are just collecting paychecks.
The picture above was taken at the “old” Yankee Stadium (although post-refurbishment) in fairly crummy seats. Why my son Nicky is wearing a Yankees cap (he’s a Red Sox fan) is beyond me; my wife Melissa (center), unencumbered by baseball fanaticism, picked up the Orioles cap on a trip to Baltimore because she liked the bird.
Take a look at the clues to figure out the year: Barry Larkin won the Roberto Clemente Humanitarian Award; Randy Meyers was the National League’s Rolaids Relief Man; Tim Salmon was the A.L.’s Rookie of the Year; Barry Bonds won a Gold Glove award; the Red Sox finished at 80-82; the Colorado Rockies (67 wins) led MLB in attendance with 4.4 million; Tom Foley is Speaker of the House; Jurassic Park is released; Mighty Morphin Power Rangers debuts on FOX Kids; Jack Schlossberg is born and Pat Nixon dies; Sen. Alan Cranston is censured by the upper chamber’s Ethics Committee for association with Charles Keating; Annie Proulx wins the National Book Award for The Shipping News; Smashing Pumpkins release Siamese Dream; John le Carre’s The Night Manager is published; Tony Kushner wins the Drama Pulitzer; and Roddy Doyle takes the Booker Prize.
—Follow Russ Smith on Twitter: @MUGGER2023