Category: Baseball

How to win friends alienate fans and influence people

If there ever existed proof that government-imposed monopolies harm customers, the current cage match between Comcast, Peter Angelos, the Washington Nationals, and MASN is the shining example. (It also touches on a stupid business practice by Major League Baseball.) Comcast refuses to carry MASN, which has television broadcast rights to the Washington Nationals. I have no problem with the business decision by Comcast, though I despise it as a customer. Not because I want to watch the Nationals. I don’t, except when they’re playing the Phillies. The Nationals are currently in Philadelphia for a three-game series, of which all three games will be blacked out for all non-MASN outlets.

Last night, for example, Major League Baseball would not allow INHD to broadcast the game to my cable system, nor did it allow MLB Extra Innings to broadcast the game to me. It’s important to note that I’ve paid MLB for the games, yet they funnel me to MASN. This is where the problem culminates. Without MASN, I missed the game.

This could be easily resolved by Comcast or Major League Baseball putting customers first, but I’ve come to expect little from either. I tolerate Major League Baseball’s policy with my business only because I love the Phillies and watching the majority of their games not blacked out. I do write a letter every year, however. With Comcast, I only have the option to switch to satellite. That’s a fine form of competition, but it’s not feasible for my house and needs. The solution is simple, of course, but government won’t get out of the regulation business. Instead, I’m presented with idiotic symbolism:

Mayor Anthony A. Williams (D) [last week] signed into law a bill requiring Comcast, which is the District’s main cable provider, to begin broadcasting Washington Nationals games or face the possibility of losing its license to operate in the city.

The bill, which was passed unanimously by the D.C. Council earlier this month, says that unless the games are on the air beginning [last week], the District and Comcast must enter into negotiations to discuss the franchise agreement and explore ways of getting the games on the air.

So, rather than open the city to competition and allow the invisible hand to do the work of providing MASN, the City Council and mayor would prefer city residents (theoretically) be without cable television service completely. This is reasonable how, other than to prove that politicians want to be central planners masquerading as heroes? Remove legal barriers to entry and let the market decide; instead of just voicing an opinion, customers could then vote with their most powerful weapon possible. If the City Council and Mayor Williams did that, MASN would be on Comcast tonight.

And I’d get to watch the Phillies.

Winning a championship isn’t enough

I don’t care for conformity, and one of the greatest daily annoyances for me is the idea of dress codes for adults. I understand the need to be presentable according to specific audiences in a professional setting, and I’m always willing to accommodate in my work. But a push for excessive accommodation and conformity often bulldoze into the workplace. There’s no reason for employees in back-office operations, an area that sees no clients, to dress in business attire, unless that’s what the employee wants. It’s absurd. I’ve been there and I hated it. However, I’ve looked for other employment in the past when I’ve encountered such situations. Idiotic dress codes are often emblematic of other problems within a professional setting. I’m willing to react according to free-market principles.

But what happens when the workplace isn’t free-market, or even in an office? What do the employees do then?

[A.J.] Pierzynski and [Joe] Crede got the word from [White Sox] owner Jerry Reinsdorf — relayed to them by [GM Ken] Williams — that he’d like a neater appearance. Both have long blond hair sticking out from their caps, a style Crede started last season when the team was winning or he was hitting well.

“Jerry Reinsdorf asked me to tell them to get a haircut and look more presentable. So I asked them to get a haircut and look more presentable,” Williams said.

“Rules are rules and you got to follow them,” Crede said, adding he’d never had a haircut in Chicago. “If you got to cut it, you got to cut it.”

That’s ridiculous. They’re professional athletes. I can accept the notion that athletes from all sports should be presentable when the team is traveling. They’re representing the business when the fans/customers are most likely to come into normal contact with them. The team wants to set a good example. But on the field? They’re athletes.

They’re wearing caps that contain their hair. They’re going to sweat and get dirty. Should they change their uniforms after every inning if they slide, picking up a dirt or grass stain? Of course not. And has Mr. Reinsdorf looked through the average sports crowd at his [hideously ugly] ballpark lately, beyond the view from his skybox? He’s not dealing with the metropolitan opera.

Look at the 2005 Chicago White Sox, the 2004 Boston Red Sox, the 1993 Philadelphia Phillies, or almost any other team that’s won a championship in the last decade and you’ll find a team. Not a collection of players, but a team. A team is a group of players that have bonded over the season, almost like a military unit. The players on a team experience all the frustrations and joys of a long season as a team. Killing that spirit to look more professional often ends in disaster at the first sign of trouble. The team may lose its common bond with forced conformity. Moves like this are short-sighted.

I’m just glad it’s the White Sox and not the Phillies. The Phillies need all the team mojo we can muster. If that means long hair and mullets (circa 1993), then I’m all for it. As a fan who pays for the games.

Like a President Bush veto threat, only more ridiculous

If Rep. Tom Davis wants to be involved in baseball so badly, he should retire from Congress and apply for a job with Major League Baseball or one of its teams. Instead, we’re stuck with more meddling in affairs that have nothing to do with him or his supposed authority to conduct hearings anywhere on any topic he wants.

The Virginia Republican, the chairman of the House Government Reform Committee, spoke to a crowd in front of RFK Stadium, where elected officials from across the region gathered to denounce Comcast’s refusal to carry the Mid-Atlantic Sports Network, the regional network created by Baltimore Orioles owner Peter Angelos and Major League Baseball.
…

Comcast, which currently carries Orioles games on Comcast SportsNet, sued [Orioles owner Peter] Angelos, contending that he improperly terminated the Orioles’ contract with Comcast. A Montgomery County, Md., judge dismissed the lawsuit, but Comcast is appealing.

Davis said his staff would meet with officials from Comcast, Major League Baseball and the Orioles in the coming days to try to resolve the problem. But he warned that congressional hearings might be necessary if informal talks fail.

Why might they be necessary? Explain to me why the House Government Reform Committee feels that a dispute between two television networks and a baseball team falls under its jurisdiction. Show me how this isn’t a power grab or indulging in a fetish. I’m waiting.

I was kidnapped to Disney World, too

I’ve been away for a few days, making my annual pilgrimage to the promised land that is Clearwater, Florida. Of course, if the promised land of Clearwater didn’t happen to be the Spring Training home of the Phillies, it would just be the degenerate capital of the Western Hemisphere. As it is, it gets both distinctions. In my sixth consecutive March visit, the Phillies didn’t disappoint, winning two games and making the third interesting by losing in the tenth after a dramatic comeback in the late innings. Good times.

Pictures will follow in the next week or so, as I figure out how to intellectually process the nearly 1,200 pictures I took over the course of three games. I know 1,200 pictures qualifies as A Lot&#153, but now that I’ve discovered the continuous shooting mode on my camera, endless pictures of the same pitcher throws to the catcher/batter swings at pitch sequence will be the norm when I attend baseball games. And it only took me two years to read the directions to learn of this wonderful feature.

I won’t regale anyone with countless stories about wild pitches, successful small ball, or thrilling home runs. I suspect I’m the only one who’d find that sufficiently compelling and I have the photographic evidence to remind me of every pitch of the game most at-bats. Instead, I’ll just tell you that I can now confirm that a foul ball will travel over two sections of seats in a minor league stadium AFTER it’s caromed off a man’s forehead. Thankfully, it wasn’t my forehead, but I did witness the laser beam in all its ricocheting weirdness. Just so you know.

And I met John Kruk!

Today isn’t a national holiday?

No long explanation needed. Today, in Clearwater, Florida, pitchers and catchers for the Phillies report to Spring Training. It’s going to be a balmy 64 degrees today. Short of winning the lottery, I’m not sure how this day could be better.

That’s not to say that all will still be good as September turns to October. Last season replicated 2001 for me, as I now have two sets of souvenirs of what might have been. 2001:

And 2005:

This year I’d like the opportunity to purchase playoffs tickets AND to use them. And the same for World Series tickets would be appreciated. Spring Training is proof that dreams never die.

It’s that time again

Today, in just a few minutes, the Baseball Hall of Fame will announce its inductees for 2006. Some speculation surrounds this year’s list of eligibles because there are no slam-dunk first ballot inductees. Where next year will be a no-brainer with the likes of Tony Gwynn and Cal Ripken, this year’s class will not include first-timers Will Clark, Orel Hershiser, Dwight Gooden, or Albert Belle. I’d make a case for Clark, and I believe Belle’s numbers are good enough, but his behavior will forever block his path into the Hall. But all of that is marginally important to me, mostly because I like baseball. I don’t get excited because this will be little more than another year for Hall of Fame voters to show their selective, short-term memory in excluding Dale Murphy.

Because I respect Jayson Stark, allow me to excerpt his support for Murph’s qualifications:

Here’s another guy whose candidacy, in theory, ought to be reexamined in the wake of steroid-mania. There was, after all, no one cleaner than Dale Murphy. So shouldn’t it carry some weight that back in the ancient ’80s, Murphy led all National Leaguers in runs and hits, tied Mike Schmidt for most RBI and was second only to Schmidt in home runs?

Oh, and did we mention those back-to-back MVP awards? Or five Gold Gloves? Or that the Murph Man was a 30-30 clubber, a leading vote-getter in the All-Star balloting and a guy so classy that any congressman would be proud to interview him? But at this point, the only Hall of Fame drama involving this man is whether he can just stay on the ballot. As recently as 2000, Murphy was getting more votes than Bert Blyleven. Last year, Blyleven outpolled him, 211-54. We get the message. But we’re still voting for him.

I get the message, too, although it makes me respect the writers less, not Murph. As Mr. Stark points out, every nonsensical argument against Murphy (and most other ’80s greats) should be reconsidered given what we now know about the new standards. Anyone who leads a league for an entire decade should at least get more than 54 votes. So, while I know it won’t happen this year, still I believe. Maybe it won’t be until the Veterans Committee considers him, but I’m convinced Dale Murphy will receive his place in the Baseball Hall of Fame someday.

Previous Murphy Hall of Fame entry: Awwwwwwww, skunked again

Update: Murphy received 56 votes this year.

The potholes will lead to the sinkhole

Major League Baseball’s return to D.C. in 2005 made me happy. I saw the Phillies live seven times at RFK Stadium this year and couldn’t have been happier. (I could’ve been if we’d won one of the two we lost when I saw them, because then we could’ve played the Astros for the Wild Card, but such is life for a Phillies phan.) Area residents rallied behind the Nationals, showing an exuberance for the team many suspected would develop more slowly over the next few seasons. Major League Baseball made the correct decision, but it was the inevitable decision. D.C. could not be logically excluded over Las Vegas or Portland, and everyone but the D.C. City Council knew it. They were the group that Major League Baseball held hostage negotiated with, though, which is why the District now faces this mess:

The District government filed court papers yesterday to seize $84 million worth of property from 16 owners in Southeast, giving them 90 days to leave and make way for a baseball stadium.

By invoking eminent domain, city officials said last week, they hope to keep construction of the Washington Nationals’ ballpark on schedule to open in March 2008. The city exercised its “quick take” authority, in which it takes immediate control of the titles to the properties.

Under law, the property owners and their tenants must vacate the land within three months unless a judge declares the seizure unconstitutional.

In papers filed in D.C. Superior Court, city attorneys said: “The Properties subject of this action . . . are taken for an authorized municipal use, namely the construction and operation of a publicly owned baseball stadium complex.”

This is crap, of course, because authorized doesn’t mean legitimate, but when was the last time that stopped a government from invoking eminent domain? I hope the property owners have good negotiators to achieve a reasonable price. And attorneys when this ends up in court because the city won’t pay a reasonable price. That’s just me thinking government should serve the public. I could be wrong.

I’m not, naturally, so I’ll move on to this:

Some activists have argued that the stadium is a private project for Major League Baseball, but District leaders say the $535 million project will create significant tax revenue [sic]. Developers have snatched up land just outside the stadium plot in anticipation of a waterfront revival, and the city is planning to create a “ballpark district” featuring restaurants and retail.

Their goal as a Major League Baseball franchise is to win baseball games, but that’s only one goal. The Nationals are a business. Their most important goal is to make a profit. (The owners of the Phillies ran the team for years to not lose money. Big difference. But I digress.)

One way they do earn a profit is by enticing fans to pay money to come to the ballpark. As a business the team controls its expenses for wages, overhead, maintenance, and whatever other expenses a baseball team encounters. How is acquiring use of a ballpark not inherent in their business? What makes the local government better at managing the ballpark than the team that plays there (or a separate private entity)?

It’s inappropriate for the city government to build a stadium solely to generate tax receipts. That isn’t the government’s purpose. It’s not why citizens entrust the government to issue debt, which is what D.C. will do to finance the stadium. Government’s purpose in this case is to provide functioning infrastructure, law enforcement, and tax policies. The team should take care of the rest. Until the city gets the revenue from the stadium, it shouldn’t pay the costs.

This should be obvious to the city, but its eyes are too glued to the golden calf of tax receipts. But how golden is it? Tax receipts generated by the Nationals arrival in D.C. fell short of expectations this year.

The District government appears likely to fall short of its goal of earning $10.5 million in tax revenue [sic] from sales at Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium for Washington Nationals games, even as the team is on pace to earn larger profits than estimated just four months ago.

The city’s potential tax shortfall from revenue generated by sales of tickets, parking, concessions and merchandise could be more than $500,000, according to financial officials, who expect to have final numbers at the end of the month.

Meanwhile, the Nationals, still owned by Major League Baseball, exceeded expectations by selling 2.7 million tickets in their inaugural season and will earn a $25 million profit, about $5 million more than the team projected at midseason, team officials said.

Why should anyone who pays taxes to the D.C. government believe the District’s projected tax receipts for the new ballpark district?

I’ll ignore that the Congress should deal with bigger issues

Now that I’ve moved a considerable distance from my previous residence, I’d assumed that I’d be free of the insufferable disgrace that is Congressman Loose Cannon&#153. When I checked a few days ago, just out of curiosity, I couldn’t believe the gerrymandered nonsense that enabled me to remain within his representation. Thus, I preface this entry with an acknowledgement that I will continue to write about him as a matter of constituency rather than spite. The spite is there, but it wouldn’t be enough to sustain me. Regardless, I’ll be very busy during next year’s Congressional campaign season.

Everyone has by now heard that Rafael Palmeiro tested positive for steroids. It’s a bit shocking and a disgrace for Major League Baseball. Hopefully it’s nothing more than a sign that testing is serious and will not be blind to the bigger names of the game. It’s all wonderful.

The amusing aspect of the story is this:

“As a practical matter, perjury referrals are uncommon. Prosecutions are rare,” House Government Reform Committee chairman Rep. Tom Davis, R-Va., said Wednesday in a telephone interview with The Associated Press.

“But this is a high-profile case, so I think it will get an honest look-see. I don’t think anyone can avoid it.”

I’m not going to attack Congressman Loose Cannon for this. As much as it pains me to say it, his basic point is right. Mr. Palmeiro represented himself one way and the facts, after his testimony, may discredit his original testimony. His innocence is still assumed, but any rational person would question his truthfulness. So, despite Congressman Loose Cannon’s obvious posturing and the complete idiocy of the original hearings, I can’t fault him for shoveling deeper in the hole he’s dug for the House.

I can, however, point out his additional comment on the matter.

And then Davis added: “If we did nothing, I think we’d look like idiots. Don’t you?”

Sometimes it’s so easy that it’s not even fun.

Respect my Authoritaahhhh or I will kick you in the Nats

Congressman Loose Cannon is at it again. He and a fellow Congressional imbecile sparked a controversy yesterday with regard to the eventual sale of the Washington Nationals by Major League Baseball. Consider:

Major League Baseball hasn’t narrowed the list of the eight bidders seeking to buy the Washington Nationals and some Republicans on Capitol Hill already are hinting at revoking the league’s antitrust exemption if billionaire financier George Soros , an ardent critic of President Bush and supporter of liberal causes, buys the team [in a group headed by Washington entrepreneur Jonathan Ledecky].

“It’s not necessarily smart business sense to have anybody who is so polarizing in the political world,” Rep. John E. Sweeney (R-N.Y.) said. “That goes for anybody, but especially as it relates to Major League Baseball because it’s one of the few businesses that get incredibly special treatment from Congress and the federal government.”

Rep. Tom M. Davis III (R-Va.), who was a strong supporter of bringing a baseball team to Virginia, told Roll Call yesterday that “Major League Baseball understands the stakes” if Soros buys the team. “I don’t think they want to get involved in a political fight.”

For fuck’s sake, what is wrong with him? We all know that no one in Congress will pull Major League Baseball’s antitrust exemption because then they’d have no tool with which to threaten Bud Selig. (Representatives Davis and Sweeney make Bud Selig appear to be a statesman in this debate, which is especially pathetic for the Congressmen because Mr. Selig has said nothing.) So why the idiocy? Could it be a growing, insatiable hunger for power and nanny-statism? Consider:

Democrats weren’t about to let the broadsides go unanswered.

“Why should politics have anything to do with who owns the team,” Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.) asked. “So Congress is going to get involved in every baseball ownership decision? Are they next going to worry about a manager they don’t like? I’ve never seen anything as impotent as a congressman threatening the baseball exemption. It gets threatened half a dozen times a year, and our batting average threatening the exemption is zero.”

It’s not just Democrats who are commenting on the stupidity. Consider Michelle Malkin, Instapundit and Andrew Sullivan. Representatives Davis and Sweeney should know that when Michelle Malkin and I share an opinion 100%, they’ve slammed through the wall of questionable judgment into an unambiguous zone worthy of constant mockery.

The Washington Post followed up with Rep. Davis and received this response:

Davis didn’t return calls to his office, but spokesman Robert White said, “The point [Davis] was making was how it would look if Major League Baseball sells the hottest team in the market to a guy who spent more money than the gross domestic product of Colombia to legitimize drugs.”

After all of the Republican conservative hysterical blathering about Senator Durbin’s recent comments, I’m amused that Rep. Davis wants it both ways. His party believes that every public comment should be scrutinized before it’s delivered to be sure it’s not “traitorous”, but he has permission to pretend like we’re taking his words out of context? Nope, sorry, Congressman, you don’t get a free pass on that. You said what you said and meant it. You didn’t misspeak, nor did we impose meaning where it wasn’t. You threatened Major League Baseball to harm a political enemy’s bid for the Nationals. You attempt political blackmail and expect us to accept that as reasonable? That’s a slimy leadership governance failure and you should be removed as chairman from the House Committee on Government Reform.

(Source: The Agitator)

P.S. The gross domestic product of Columbia was projected at $83.01 billion for 2004. I can’t find reliable numbers for how much Mr. Soros spent in his effort to legalize certain drugs, but his estimated net worth, as of 2004, is $7.2 billion, nearly $75 billion less than Colombia’s gross domestic product. Off-the-cuff hyperbole or deflecting heat from a political retribution by Rep. Davis? You decide.

Photo Phlogging – Phillies vs. Nationals

I had good seats for Wednesday’s Phillies-Nationals game so I took lots of pictures. Despite my claims to the contrary that RollingDoughnut.com isn’t going to become a sports blog, I’m going to post a representative group of them here. Ah, the power of editorial control…

I’m presenting two ways to view these pictures. First, click this link for a photo gallery layout. This is easier to follow because there is only one window. It will take a moment to load, though, because about 5 megabytes of pictures must load.

To follow the individual links, just follow along in this list.

  • Brett Myers throws an early pitch. The shadow played a large role in the game, holding the teams to a combined six hits through eight innings.
  • Chase Utley’s swing approaches the ball. It was an out, but contact is contact in a game with twenty-one strikeouts.
  • The shadow creeps further across the infield. I wonder if the shadow hindered Wilkerson’s return to first base when Myers picked him off in the first inning?
  • Charlie Manuel argues with the umpire about Myers’ balk. This was the second time Myers balked this season. I’d be happy to see that trend cease.
  • Mike Lieberthal swings and makes contact. Again, not a strikeout.
  • Bobby Abreu backs away from a called third strike. He was displeased.
  • A check swing by Jim Thome angers Nationals fans. Maybe instead of the lame Fans Code of Conduct card the Nationals handed out at the gates yesterday they could’ve offered a more helpful Rules of Baseball card that explains the concept of a check swing.
  • Chase Utley grounding out to second. Ditto on the contact.
  • Esteban Loaiza attempts to sacrifice Juan Guzman to second. Myers made a diving catch moments later, stranding Guzman at first.
  • Nationals fans seem to lack courtesy and baseball ettiquette. How do they not know that walking in front of people during the pitch is rude? It happened so often that this picture is one of many like it. If the game matters that little to you, sit in your office playing with your Blackberry. And considering how often it happened early in the game, here’s a little tip for Nationals fans. When the starting time is listed as 4:35 p.m., it’s not really a suggestion.
  • Chase Utley backs away from a called third strike. Half the strikeouts yesterday happened on called strike three. I don’t know if the shadow fooled the umpire more than it fooled the batters. It seems obvious when looking at this picture and the picture of Abreu. Utley was displeased, too.
  • Jason Michaels bloops the Phillies’ second hit of the day in the 8th inning. Michaels had the first hit, too.
  • Lieberthal walked, so we had an actual runner in scoring position for the first time! I took this picture in the 8th inning. Jose Offerman whiffed to end the inning.
  • Jimmy Rollins goes deep, driving Loaiza’s pitch into the Phillies’ bullpen. Billy Wagner raced to the bullpen mound to get ready for the bottom of the 9th. I didn’t see whether or not he snagged the homer and used the ball to warm up. I hope he did.
  • Thome grounds to first, which could’ve (should’ve?) been a double play. Instead of touching first, Brad Wilkerson looked Kenny Lofton back to third before rifling the ball to Vinny Castilla in time to tag the sliding Lofton. The inning lasted longer because of that mistake judgement call by Wilkerson. Thanks, Brad.
  • Jason Michaels smacks a screamer into centerfield for out number two. Bloops for hits and line d
    rives for outs, it was that kind of day.
  • Frank Robinson argues balls and strikes in the middle of the 9th. The umpire debated his calls with Robinson, but before Billy Wagner threw his next warm-up pitch, the umpire moved the conversation further up the third base line. Can you blame him with 95 m.p.h. of nastiness blowing from the mound? Yet, notice that Pratt’s out there with no gear. Tank is a Badass.
  • Wagner’s slider baffled the Nats in the 9th, leading to the easy save.

I love winning. It’s, like, better than losing.