Bud Selig, commissioner of Major League Baseball, took over the day-to-day operations of the LA Dodgers. No more shocking than the siezure is the team that is being taken over; one of the most storied franchise in the history of baseball! If this were the Mariners, or the Nats, who knows if Bud would have had them taken over. Nepotism...
6 comments:
In other news, baseball stopped mattering 45 years ago.
Hey Dylan, you wanna talk about soccer instead? Does that get you fired up?
If GM was too big to fail, shouldn't the federal government bail out the Dodgers?
Same concept TJE, if I were the little guys here I would be upset. The Dodgers have fans at every game and actually win games. They SHOULD be able to make a profit. And the Fed wont bail them out, but don't be surprised if they commission a grand jury to "investigate" baseball stuff again.
If this were the Mariners, or the Nats, who knows if Bud would have had them taken over.
I know it's a different sport, but it's worth pointing out that the NBA took over the New Orleans Hornets, so I wouldn't necessarily say that it's a question of bigger market teams getting special treatment. The Dodgers owners succeeded in turning debt into more debt while attracting all sorts of bad press by dragging their franchise through the mud of their divorce proceedings.
Sports leagues are run as undemocratic cartels anyways, so when you have a situation like this where you're the czar looking out for the overall product and trying not to alienate your de facto shareholders, the fans, like Selig is, I guess there are points where you do step in and excercise your authority.
Ryan,
The NBA bought the Hornets, as in now they are financially in full control of operations. Bud Selig “hired” someone to handle operations of the Dodgers because the owner was inadequate. That being said, I agree that that all of the major sports leagues (MLB, NFL, NHL, and NBA, MLS not included because of its total irrelevancy) are run undemocratically. However, in most situations, the Commissioner intervenes when the overall product is being threatened ie Steroids, Criminal activity, safety. When it comes to franchises being poorly run, I would argue this is not something new as there are many teams in all of the leagues facing dire financial straights. I don’t see Selig trying to handle the Mets, who are also a large contributor to baseball and also facing major financial problems. The Dodgers similarly should be the last team to threaten the product of baseball as they have consistently shown they can attract fans and be among the best teams in the league. I think there is something else going on here that, if unveiled, would be a major hit to the credibility of MLB operations, not the “product” of on field play. In this scenario, I disagree with you because I think Bud Selig is over-stepping his jurisdiction as Commissioner. His focus should be to make sure the game on the field, that the fans see, is worth the price of admission. He shouldn’t interfere when an owner runs a team into the ground. The idea that any team can be competitive should be a valued commodity that transcends protecting big-market teams.
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