POLITICS MARCH 31, 2012
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Since the 1960s, professional football has supplanted baseball as our nation’s favorite sport—generating higher revenue and better television ratings. And, as the past few weeks have demonstrated, college basketball has captured the attention and diminished the productivity of the American workforce in ways baseball does not. But let’s not confuse popularity with superiority.
Major League Baseball (MLB), the oldest spectator team sport in the nation, has become the most affordable and least exploitative one—and its labor relations are remarkably harmonious, too. Compared to the dysfunction, scandal, and discontent commonplace in other professional sport, baseball is looking better than ever.
Let’s start with cost: A family with a middle-class income can attend a baseball game without straining its budget but has to think hard before splurging for an afternoon or evening spent inside an NFL stadium or an NBA or NHL arena. In 2011, the average price of an MLB ticket was about $27, compared to over $48 for a pro basketball game, $57 for a hockey match, and a whopping $113 for one ticket to a gridiron bruise-a-thon.
Of course, it’s a lot more expensive to buy your way into Yankee Stadium than into, say, PNC Park, home of the Pittsburgh Pirates, who have not had a winning season in 20 years. But victory doesn’t always lead to overcharging the customers. After capturing the World Series in 2010, the following year, the San Francisco Giants raised the average price of a ticket to just $25. This bought you a seat in perhaps the most beautiful stadium in North America, where, from the upper-deck, you look out on San Francisco Bay and the Oakland hills beyond. Next fall, that same amount will buy you just a beer and a serving of nachos at MetLife Stadium, the home of the New York Giants, located in the featureless flatland adjoining the New Jersey Turnpike. Alas, even the worst seat to watch the 2012 Super Bowl winners there will run you over $100.
In addition, pro baseball, which sold more than 73 million tickets last year, has also become more internally competitive, despite wide spending disparities between rich teams like the Yankees and the relatively impoverished Pirates. Pittsburgh actually led their division halfway through the summer, before the young squad endured an epic collapse. And last year, the Tampa Bay Rays, one of the poorest teams in the Majors, squeezed into the playoffs with a stunning, almost unprecedented comeback on the very last day of the season. The scrappy Rays rallied from seven runs behind in the eighth inning to defeat the mighty Yanks, whose annual payroll is five times larger than theirs.
MLB players, compared to athletes in the other major sports, are also a fairly contented bunch. The 1994 strike, which wiped out the World Series that year, is all but forgotten. The collective bargaining agreement the powerful players union signed last fall runs until 2016 and raises the minimum salary to $500,000 per year. Neither pro basketball nor pro football owners write checks so large to first-year players. The new baseball contract also instituted a strict drug-testing program, which the players accepted in order to avoid any repetition of the steroids scandal which badly tarnished their image.
Unlike their counterparts in football and basketball, the baseball authorities actually pay a salary to most of the young men they think have a serious chance of making a MLB roster. Even the best college baseball players usually serve an apprenticeship in the minor leagues before they are ready for the big time. Of course, no one gets rich toiling in the minors: First-year players receive a minimum of $850 a month in the lowest or rookie league and $2150 a month in AAA, the highest. Yet few perform before large crowds or have their names inscribed on t-shirts or hoodies. Compare their lot with that of the famous “student-athletes” in basketball and football who make millions in profits for big-name universities like Ohio State, Alabama, and Kentucky, yet are prohibited by NCAA rules from receiving so much as a free plane ticket back home.
In pro basketball, even handsome salaries don’t guarantee contentment. This year’s NBA season was delayed almost two months and almost cancelled altogether because of an angry dispute about how owners, all but one of whom are white, and players, over 80 percent of whom are black, would share revenue. At one point, the popular broadcaster Bryant Gumbel compared league commissioner David Stern to a “modern plantation overseer, treating NBA men as if they were his boys … keeping the hired hands in their place.”
Racial tensions are less severe in baseball, where white players are in the majority, but Latinos comprise about 30 percent and African-Americans about 10 percent in MLB ranks. Another indicator of the less severe racial dynamics affecting baseball: Last week, Magic Johnson, one of the greatest basketball players in history, became the first black owner of a MLB team, buying the Los Angeles Dodgers for an astonishing two billion dollars along with other investors.
Meanwhile, few MLB players ever endure the concussions that are alarmingly routine in the NFL and present what may be the most troubling problem in contemporary pro sports. According to the Washington Post, as many as 1,000 former players are currently suing the NFL for ignoring or concealing the head traumas they suffered during their careers. The National Hockey League, which only recently prohibited hard checks to the head, may not be far behind.
Thus, at the opening of its 142nd consecutive season, major league baseball is healthier than it has been in years. This may make it easier for the casual fan to walk through the gates of a ballpark and take pleasure in a game whose rules and aesthetics have changed little since Grover Cleveland lived in the White House. In The Art of Fielding, Chad Harbach’s delicious first novel, a wise young college catcher reflects on “the almost unfair beauty of a professional ball field, the expensive riotous green of the grass, the scalloped cutouts around the bases, the whole place groomed like living art.” You get to drink beer and yell at the umpire too.
Thanks to Danny Kazin for guidance, both empirical and conceptual. Michael Kazin is the author, most recently, of American Dreamers: How the Left Changed a Nation. He teaches history at Georgetown University and is co-editor of Dissent.
20 comments
My favorite American sport is college football (I love the pageantry of it), but if I had an existential either/or choice to make, I'd have to take baseball, since that's the sport I know most about (although I roughly calculated once that if you laid all the pick-up basketball games I played end-to-end, they'd take up a full 2 years of time--street ball was obviously my favorite sport to play). I don't know what Kazin means by least exploitative. Is he talking about the fans or the players? Yes, the average cost of a MLB ticket is lower than that of other pro sports, but then there's the cost of parking and food and drink. There's a reason Frank McCourt insisted on keeping half the parking revenue from the Dodgers, even after he sold the team for an obscene $2 billion. I understand parking in Dodger Stadium parking brings in almost $350 million per year. And I paid $12 for a puny little hotdog at Safeco--years ago. I don't drink, and I'm glad. I shudder to think what a beer will cost in Dodger Stadium or any other MLB stadium in the future. Kazin is right about David Stern--the worst commissioner in any sport. And after he conspired to yank the Sonics out of Seattle, his product has become beyond boring to me. The game is way too slick and showtime, just like Stern.
- magboy47.
March 31, 2012 at 1:08am
Baseball is slow, piss boring, and the infields are saturated with spent chewing tobacco. In the second grade, I very nearly fell asleep playing in the outfield, waiting for something to happen. To each their own, I guess.
- Curran1
March 31, 2012 at 4:55am
Baseball is intuitive intrigue. Playing it well requires a concentration and dedication to the moment. A calculation of likelihood given tendencies and on field realities. Every pitch has its own unique implications fit within each unique momentary context.
- jacko
March 31, 2012 at 8:38am
I love baseball, at all levels. It is the greatest game. And it has lots of potential to grow. By far the biggest potential is in the African American community. What many don't realize is that most of the black baseball players they see in the major leagues are not from the United States; they are either from the islands or Central or South America. Attend any high school or college baseball game and you will be surprised just how few black players are on the teams; indeed, it's not unusual for every player on the field to be white. Why? Baseball may be America's game, but football and basketball dominate in the media. Also, for kids growing up in less affluent areas, baseball facilitites and equipment are not available; unlike basketball, where all is needed is a ball, a hoop, and at least two players, baseball requires a large field, a diamond, and at least 18 players. Another obstacle is economic. As Kazin points out, even accomplished players with experience at the college level must spend several years in the minor leagues developing the pro skills, where pay is low and the crowds are small. By comparison, in the NBA many players are drafted right out of high for multi-million dollar contracts. But in my opinion, the biggest obstacle to greater participation in the sport by African Americans is self-imposed. First, top college baseball programs are allowed only 11.7 total scholarships, that's 11.7 scholarships for the entire team, not per year. Even the best college player typically receives the equivalent of only 25% of a full scholarship. Baseball is definitely not the path to a free college education for a kid from a poor family. Second, once a kid commits to college baseball, it's a three year commitment; he isn't eligible for the pro draft for three years. Third, high school and colleges use different equipment from the pros; in high school and college, they use metal, not wood, bats. Many accomplished high school and college players never make the transition to the wood bat and wash out at the minor league level. It's like high school and college basketball using a 9 foot basket rather than 10. Don't misunderstand. High school and college baseball games are great fun to watch. But consider how much better it would be if the very best athletes were on the field. Yes, baseball in America has great potential to grow and be even better.
- rayward
March 31, 2012 at 8:39am
I love baseball, at all levels. It is the greatest game. And it has lots of potential to grow. By far the biggest potential is in the African American community. What many don't realize is that most of the black baseball players they see in the major leagues are not from the United States; they are either from the islands or Central or South America. Attend any high school or college baseball game and you will be surprised just how few black players are on the teams; indeed, it's not unusual for every player on the field to be white. Why? Baseball may be America's game, but football and basketball dominate in the media. Also, for kids growing up in less affluent areas, baseball facilitites and equipment are not available; unlike basketball, where all is needed is a ball, a hoop, and at least two players, baseball requires a large field, a diamond, and at least 18 players. Another obstacle is economic. As Kazin points out, even accomplished players with experience at the college level must spend several years in the minor leagues developing the pro skills, where pay is low and the crowds are small. By comparison, in the NBA many players are drafted right out of high for multi-million dollar contracts. But in my opinion, the biggest obstacle to greater participation in the sport by African Americans is self-imposed. First, top college baseball programs are allowed only 11.7 total scholarships, that's 11.7 scholarships for the entire team, not per year. Even the best college player typically receives the equivalent of only 25% of a full scholarship. Baseball is definitely not the path to a free college education for a kid from a poor family. Second, once a kid commits to college baseball, it's a three year commitment; he isn't eligible for the pro draft for three years. Third, high school and colleges use different equipment from the pros; in high school and college, they use metal, not wood, bats. Many accomplished high school and college players never make the transition to the wood bat and wash out at the minor league level. It's like high school and college basketball using a 9 foot basket rather than 10. Don't misunderstand. High school and college baseball games are great fun to watch. But consider how much better it would be if the very best athletes were on the field. Yes, baseball in America has great potential to grow and be even better.
- rayward
March 31, 2012 at 8:39am
Plus, you can go to the ballpark, a beautiful ballpark like Wrigley, say, and snooze in the sun. What could be bad:)
- Sophia
March 31, 2012 at 12:42pm
"But in my opinion, the biggest obstacle to greater participation in the sport by African Americans is self-imposed." You're right, rayward. Back in the Sixties and Seventies, when I was living in the inner city of Detroit, I didn't see any blacks playing sandlot baseball, which is where it all starts--and there was a baseball diamond in the neighborhood. And you're right when you talk about the process a baseball player has to go through to get to the bigs. It's much more complicated than getting to the NBA. Baseball is simply a more fine-tuned and therefore a more difficult sport. I played a lot of sandlot baseball, too, when I was a kid, but it's much tougher to hit the ball or even field it than it is to catch and shoot a basketball. Curtis Granderson and other MLB players are trying to get black kids to start playing baseball again with their RBI (Reviving Baseball in Inner Cities) program, and it's having some success. Kids will listen and adapt if there's a structure to their play, as in RBI. The NBA is what basically wrecked baseball for black kids. Once that became prominent in the Fifties, even amateur black baseball teams started to disappear. I lived next to the projects in Detroit, and I must admit what a pleasure it was to go to the freshly-blacktopped basketball court next to my house and find people to play a pick-up game with at any hour during daylight. It became addictive. Baseball is like a security blanket for me. For at least parts of 3 seasons there's a game on TV or the radio almost every day (especially since I subscribe to MLB.com, where I can get every game in MLB in HD on my PC). Ernie Harwell, the Tigers announcer, was like my dad, always there, always telling good stories. Yes, if forced to, I could give up all other sports, but not baseball. The withdrawal symptoms would be worse than hell itself.
- magboy47.
March 31, 2012 at 3:08pm
"But let’s not confuse popularity with superiority." (By the way, what position did Plato play? Was the philosopher king an umpire?) Philosopher William James was a busy fellow, so I don't know if he had time to engage in any sports. I wonder if sports qualifies as his "moral equivalent of war." Unfortunately people suffer injuries in sports, such as brain concussions, especially common in football. Is baseball less hazardous? I don't know. Incompetent in all the sports I played as a kid, I stopped a sliding runner with my knee at third base, requiring four or five stitches for the spike punctures.
- skahn
March 31, 2012 at 5:33pm
Interesting article. I can see baseball as a more wholesome game all right and of the few American sports fans I've meet, I can say without hesitation, that baseball fans are the most obsessed and possessed, in a way that's very familiar mind. I sat through a full Yankees game and I have to say, the novelty was great, the beer was welcome but I couldn't do another 3 odd hours of live baseball again. I wasn't even sure who won and the boredom was alleviated by YMCA dancing by the teams and other such variety entertainment sandwiched in between the game. Reckon I'm more of an American football fan (I agree with Einstein that basketball is for the criminally insane and morally suspect). In saying that, I had the exact same experience I had with the Yankees when I watched a full days cricket. Both games are great to watch with lots of food, alcohol, good friends and free time. And both games are heritage games, that more than any other, capture some essence of a national character, which makes them valuable and worthwhile. Just don't ask me to sit through another 3 hours of it.
- IggyPop
March 31, 2012 at 7:25pm
Iggy, As a curious fellow who grew up incompetently playing baseball, I've often wondered about cricket. Idly watching a match once on a visit to Vancouver, BC, I asked an obviously knowledgeable onlooker for a quick explanation. It must be something like learning a language; possible for talented and enterprising adults to do; but for most of us, best imbibed twixt sips of mother's milk.
- skahn
March 31, 2012 at 10:48pm
For sure skahn. I think baseball is the more complicated sport though. I'm about to watch Moneyball now to end the weekend and from what I gather it's about how statistics can be used in the game. You're unlikely to see that in cricket. Cricket for the English is probably what Hurling is for us or Baseball is for Americans or Hockey is for Canadians or Snobbery is for the French. I watched cricket in the Pheonix Park with mates and a hamper in glorious sunshine. An English friend dragged me there. Twas a good day but when he turned to me and expected to see me in rapture he was disapointed. Don't think I'll ever truly enjoy cricket or baseball but I can respect the sport and people who do. That's more than I can say for people who like Formula 1 for example, who clearly have learning difficulties.
- IggyPop
April 1, 2012 at 4:49pm
Iggy: You don't like or understand cricket or F1? I do. I'm the one who has learning difficulties?
- scooter129b
April 1, 2012 at 7:22pm
I don't make the rules Scoot. If you enjoy spending 4 hours of your life watching cars go around the same track 20 times, waiting breathlessly for an "exciting" pit stop before the cars resume going around the track then that's a degree of self loathing I cant really comprehend. If you think the human spirit is best expressed in the minutiae of aerodynamics where skill is tyre pressure and atmospherics instead of the grace of crafted tree on leathered ball; where stamina is faster lap times instead of facing a nemesis down with sweaty brow and lungs on fire; where beauty and truth is the same lap replayed over and over again instead of an arched swing and an impossible, curving ball, then yes, you have learning difficulties. But I can help you. If you give yourself completely over to Hurling, I can save your soul. Kneel with me Scoot...let me take your hand...Are you ready to repent and embrace Anthony Daly as your Lord and Saviour?
- IggyPop
April 1, 2012 at 7:49pm
Ig: Very amusing. Too bad that "If you enjoy..." and "If you think..." followed by your own imaginings is not amusing. "Self loathing"? and yet again "learning difficulties" Silly boy.
- scooter129b
April 1, 2012 at 8:46pm
Huh? When I was a kid, I thought learning to drive a car would be exciting. Even though, we couldn't really steer the car, I was excited by the ride that felt like driving at Disneyland. When I actually learned to drive, the excitement wore off fairly quickly. Anyway, I would think that driving a race car would be much more exciting than watching a race. I guess after a while everything gets old. As do we.
- skahn
April 1, 2012 at 9:33pm
Tis only having the craic with ye Scootie. I am a silly boy for sure to be sure begorah.
- IggyPop
April 2, 2012 at 5:50am
skahn - you must have been unfortunate in your choice of nearby onlooker to explain cricket. It is, after all, a game designed to entertain the English idle rich for a week (!) at a go. Basically if you're caught on the full (without the ball bouncing) you're out. If the bowler can knock of the bails (bits on top) of your wicket with the ball, you're out. If the ball knocks of the bails when you are out of the "crease" (area near the wickets) you're out. If you block the ball hitting the wicket with your legs or other body part, you're out. If you smack the ball to the boundary, that's 4 runs (unlikely you could make 4 runs in the time it takes a fielder to retrieve and return the ball) If you smack the ball over the boundary, that's 6 runs. Once all of your batters are out, the other team gets to bat. A bowler delivers 6 balls in an "over" and then rests his shoulder. The game can be played for a certain number of overs, or other unit of time. And that's about it. Oh yes, and you can be a fat slob but still be an elite player. Rare, that. However I fully agree with Iggy that while it's something to do on a sunny day with friends and drink, I have managed to avoid going to match for well over a decade and counting myself. I only keep track of it through osmosis, as I work with a lot of people from other cricket playing countries (read: former British colonies) and the Australians are so good that they can field two teams that win most of the time. So when someone beats the Australians, I'll hear about it. If you want a real sport, try Australian rules football. It's fast, it's full contact (without padding), you can kick and handball the ball and the scores get into the 3 digits, so there isn't quite the maddening frustration of soccer, nor the interminable breaks in the NFL. Its been cleaned up a lot from when I was younger as a) players are a lot more valuable, and b) mothers stopped taking their kids in the 80s until the number of concussions and amount of blood on the odd face went down a lot. Its available on most satellite suppliers, and you basically get 6 points for kicking the ball through the 2 tallest uprights, 1 point otherwise and you have to bounce the ball for about every 20m/65ft traveled. There's some other rules for dealing with out of bounds and pile on conditions, but they're pretty obvious.
- Nari224
April 2, 2012 at 10:08am
Nari, Thank you for the excellent explanation. I was probably not unfortunate in my choice of nearby onlooker. I was unfortunate in my choice of me to be (as far as ability to comprehend). While most of us can learn all sorts of things (including music, languages, and sports) by persistence and effort), there is such a thing as innate talent. I learned to play the flute -- my teacher said, not unkindly, 'Best student I have with no talent," while my uncle got a Macarthur award for composition; I learned a few words of French and Spanish, while my cousin became fluent in Mandarin; I once got an "A" in a college physics class -- a high school acquaintance of mine went on to get a doctorate in astrophysics at Cal Tech and work on the Hubble Telescope project; in Little League I once or twice hit a baseball out of the infield, while an astonishing player in our league who baffled all of us at every position later went on to the major leagues. Even there, the variety is astonishing. The cosmologist once told me that when she studied in Richard Feynman she could barely comprehend what he was talking about. The major league baseball player (who so dazzled us as a child) only lasted two years at the Dodgers as a utility infielder. If I had ever played Australian rules football, I am sure I would have stayed alive for about five minutes.
- skahn
April 2, 2012 at 1:26pm
Baseball may be the best business, but it's not the best sport. It's telling that the arguments for it have to do with prices, pretty views, and players' easier lives, not the game itself (and does it occur to you that prices are related to demand?). As much as I loathe football (mostly because of the disastrous health consequences to its players), it is an intrinsically exciting game. Basketball has its problems, but it involves the best athletes and the best pacing of any major sport. I'd even rather watch hockey or soccer than sit through an endless baseball game.
- polcereal
April 2, 2012 at 4:52pm
I landed here way too late to participate in the conversation, but I cannot resist.... My ex- and I share joint custody of a pair of season tickets to a Triple A baseball team. Baseball is too important to let a failed marriage interfere. But, seriously, watching baseball in the minor leagues often puts me in a reflective mood at the ballpark. The younger players in Triple A have been successful at every previous level, but rather few will make it to The Show and even fewer will stick and make a career there. The older players often have Major League experience and are striving to get back. For many of these quite good players, our Triple A ballpark will prove a field of broken dreams. Baseball is inherently a lesson in humility, contingency, and luck. Baseball rewards close attention and patience, virtues which I suspect many of us would benefit from cultivating. I get a kick out of watching our manager motioning one of the outfielders over, as if to say "Dammit, move over 20 feet, you know this batter likes to hit for that gap." Every play is distinct, so much depends on the specific count and combination of strengths and tendencies. Truly, I find baseball as facinating as chess, and I can treat it as intensely as I want. Some evenings I just soak up the vibe of the stadium with my beer and can hardly tell you the score when we leave. Other times, I'm drained by intense focus on the game. Finally, how can one not appreciate the names of minor league teams? For example, the Albuquerque Isotopes (my favorite), the Lehigh Valley Iron Pigs, the Richmond Flying Squirrels, the Las Vegas '51's. My team is the Omaha Storm Chasers, affiliated with the Kansas City Royals. As the rest of the American League figures out that the Royals are a lot better this year; indeed, for many years, I'll say I told you so, because I cheered for many of Royals while they toiled with the Storm Chasers.
- JTShaw
April 26, 2013 at 2:48pm