 |
 |
 |
|
You turned off your television last year and did it again this year, and baseball got the message. Fear not: Owners and players have conspired to keep another World Series like the last two from happening again.
That's the dirty secret behind the labor agreement being celebrated by baseball leaders and baseball writers. With Detroit and St. Louis playing some of the lowest-rated World Series games ever -- challenging last year's Foul Classic between Chicago and Houston -- baseball rigged the new labor deal to give its richest teams a bigger advantage than ever.
|
|
| George Steinbrenner's Yanks won't be penalized as harshly for going over the cap. (Getty Images) |
So get the story here, but beware. It's ugly. It's the kind of story that should outrage fans in at least 20 major league cities, because baseball's owners and players just kicked your favorite team in the crotch.
It starts with the timing of baseball's new labor deal. The old deal wasn't expiring for two months, and baseball never reaches a labor agreement before the old one expires. Never. Neither side wants to blink, and there are other things to focus on. Like the World Series.
But this year, baseball announced FIVE MORE YEARS OF LABOR PEACE before Game 3 of the World Series. They took the game's most important off-field story and shoe-horned it into the game's most important on-field story.
Do you know why that is? Because you turned off your television last year and you kept it off this year, and nobody in baseball wants that to happen next year. So after months of quiet negotiations, and with 2006 World Series ratings skidding toward 2005 levels, both sides hurriedly made the peace.
Baseball revenue and salaries are hopelessly tied to television ratings, which drive the value of baseball's TV deals and filter down to player salaries. Fox and TBS just bought broadcast rights through 2013 for a record $3 billion, but the next deal won't be as rich if ratings continue to slide.
So with their TV contract at an all-time high and their TV ratings at an all-time low, the Hatfields and McCoys of organized sports -- baseball's owners and the players union -- hopped into bed and fornicated.
And you got screwed.
Have you looked at the new labor agreement? Really looked at it?
Baseball already was broken into 15 pieces, and the new labor deal took those 15 pieces and smashed them with a hammer. It's better for big-spending teams like the Yankees, Mets and Red Sox ... and worse for everyone else. But everyone else signed off, because everyone else knows a continued run of World Series without the Yankees, Red Sox or Mets would be bad for business.
Under the old deal, baseball teams could spend up to $136.5 million without financial repercussions. After that, a luxury tax kicked in. The Yankees were the only team to begin this season over that limit, and their tax bill was said to be roughly $30 million.