Saturday, January 14, 2012

Montero's New Beat Writer Slams Vulture Capitalism

I clicked over to the Seattle Times looking for Montero/Pineda reaction from Mariners beat writer Geoff Baker--the hard-blogging Peter Abraham of the Northwest--but he has yet to weigh in on the weekend deal. Colleague Larry Stone says, "I've got a lot of reporting to do, but snap judgment is I like this trade. A lot."  But, to me, it's Baker's opinion that matters more; he studies his subject hard, and he doesn't write like a columnist.

I'm glad I clicked over because right now, instead of the scoop of the moment, this magnificent think post leads Baker's blog.  It's about the foolishness of post-Moneyball fans who root for their teams' billionaire, government-subsidized owners to make cost-effective deals:
The next time somebody tells you your team can't afford a certain player, ask them why they believe that. And if they tell you a team shouldn't have to spend more than the revenues they are taking in, ask them why that is since many of those revenues came off the backs of taxpayers and not owner risk.
Go read the whole thing.
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1 comment:

  1. el duqueJanuary 14, 2012 at 2:07 PM

    GAHHHHHH! I LOVE THIS GUY:

    "Don't take my word for it. Look around. Show me team owners in financial trouble because of their ballclubs. I see one team that played footsie with Bernie Madoff a bit too much, another whose owner had a terrible divorce. Oh yeah, you think former Texas Rangers owner Tom Hicks was taken down because of A-Rod? Do some research, folks. He went out and bought one of the biggest soccer teams in the world long after that deal and leveraged himself to the hilt in other dealings outside of baseball. A-Rod makes for a great scapegoat, but not this time. Any entry-level business student could tell you that.

    "Folks, baseball owners are not in any danger of going broke because they don't spend their own money. They spend the money new stadiums built by taxpayers bring them, or new money their TV deals on top of those ballparks bring in. And if they don't have them, they spend as little as they have to in order to break even and keep franchise value steady until some politician gives them what they want.

    "Sorry to be cynical, but the truth hurts."

    ReplyDelete

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