Rich Folks Like Socialism

How MLB Have-Nots hope to acquire more cash

Enquirer

Reds position players are due in camp today.

Show of hands: How many of youse stopped reading just now?

Look, it’s February. The options aren’t good. No NFL, a pickup basketball game the NBA chooses to call an “all-star’’ contest and a golf tournament in which the marquee name is a 47-year-old man who trivializes women.

Paraphrasing someone, “What else you gonna talk about?’’

Thank goodness MLB is around for comic relief. Apparently, baseball has formed an “economic reform committee.’’ That’s one helluvan oxymoron.

The stated purpose of the committee, which will consist of baseball owners, is to discuss ways the game can become more socialist, like the NFL. Isn’t it rich, pun intended, to see wealthy, conservative team owners asking that baseball’s revenue pie be shared more equally? You have to think some of these same folks also want Medicare and Social Security “sunset’’-ed, don’t you?

But we digress.

Here’s Manfred the apparent commissioner talking about it, via The Athletic:

“When you start thinking about the opportunities in terms of a more national (broadcasting) product, it did lead into a conversation about our disparity issues on the revenue side,” Manfred said. “We have businesses that are literally not similar in terms of the overall revenue that they’re generating. And to the extent that you could find a new distribution model that actually helped on that disparity side, that would be the daily double. So people are having conversations that haven’t been had in baseball, and it’s really been owners talking to owners, which is a good thing.”

Because Manfred is a lawyer, a translator is needed whenever he speaks. So. . .

Translation: The poor kids want more money. They’d like the rich kids to write them checks.

Fact: Anytime you want to downplay, kill or trivialize an issue, you form a committee. Anytime you really have no clue how to fix a problem — or even if there is a problem — you form a committee.

Dress a window, lipstick a pig. . . form a committee.

And a committee of owners? Seriously?

You could put the 30 MLB owners in a room with one clock on the wall and they couldn’t agree on the time. I doubt Bob Castellini wants to discuss anything with Steve Cohen but Cohen’s disappearance.

“The reality is you got to solve your revenue disparity problem before you can even think about a cap,” Manfred said. “We’re so disparate right now, that it’s almost hard to make — and I mean, literally — the math of a salary cap work. You got to be at a certain level to get an agreement with the players. You start thinking about minimums and maximums, you know all of a sudden, you’re talking about minimums, we have some clubs where …” he said without finishing the thought. 

Translation: When Cohen’s paying his Mets something like $370 mil this year, a minimum payroll requirement seems irrelevant to a team such as the Reds. That floor would still be too high to help Cincinnati. In fact, a floor would probably force The Club to spend more than it’s spending now.

It’d be like Mom giving you a $5-a-week allowance, then forcing you to spend $6 a week on Brussels sprouts.

And forget about an NFL-style model. MLB’s economic dysfunction is caused in big part by the difference in money earned locally, not nationally. Try convincing the Yankees to share their local media cash pile with the Reds. They’re already sharing 48 percent of all their local revenues equally with the other 29 teams.

Where does that leave the esteemed committee?

I’ll give you two guesses and both feature the word Nowhere.

MEANTIME. . . A familiar bolt of candor from Joseph Daniel Votto. No matter what happens this year and/or next, I sincerely hope the Reds keep their 1st baseman around for years to come, just to answer media questions. Votto Sunday, re the state of the Reds state:

“It’s a failure of ours to leave such a supportive fanbase dissatisfied. We are aware of it. I am aware of it. The cynicism, in my opinion, is completely justified. More of it. Give it to us. We deserve it.’’ (Enquirer)

Votto did not say if he were considering donating, oh, $24 mil to the cause of vanquishing baseball cynicism in the Queen City. But at least he loosed the elephant into the room.

THIS ISN’T WHY EGGS ARE $6 A DOZEN, but it does represent a new revenue stream. Huddle Up, a sports-biz website on Substack, reports that the Reds are one of five MLB teams to have signed a sponsorship deal with local/area businesses. Kroger will pay the Reds $5 mil this year, to have a Kroger patch affixed to the team’s uniforms.

I recall suggesting this to then-Reds GM James G. Bowden IV close to 20 years ago. Why shouldn’t franchises use their players as billboards, a la NASCAR and the PGA Tour?

Barry Larkin, I wrote back then, brought you by Procter & Gamble!

AS FOR THE QUASI-AM BKB WEEKEND THAT WAS. . .

Colby Jones

Xavier reminds me of some of Jay Wright’s better Villanova teams. The Musketeers pass the ball well, they’re proficient at spreading the floor, own excellent court awareness and feature a wealth of scoring options. Colby Jones could have played for Jay Wright. Souley Boum would have thrived.

I heard Joe Sunderman say during Saturday’s W over DePaul that this X team is fun to watch. He’s right about that. No college team was more entertaining than Wright’s best ‘Nova clubs.

MEANTIME, how great is it that David DeJulius is closing his college career on a high? It’s beyond easy to root for this kid. One, he has improved every year at UC. He’s their best player now. And two, he has had to dig deep for everything.

Maybe you recall the sad season of 2020-21, buried as it was by COVID. DeJulius took what was in essence a leave of absence. The lonely and mostly empty COVID existence — go to practice, go to his room, rinse and repeat — overwhelmed him.

He came back better. Sunday, he won the game at UCF by driving the lane and bottoming a runner at the buzzer. Gotta love it. DeJulius is a reason we love sports.

ONE MORE NEGATIVE BASEBALL NOTE BEFORE WE ADJOURN. . . Orioles owner John Angelos spoke to Baltimore media the other day. He probably shouldn’t have. In explaining his team’s tiny payroll and its lame offseason, Angelos said this:

"We have a very young team that's overachieved and overperformed because of the great work of our baseball folks. It's not my job to predict payroll. My job is to make sure that the community partnerships are sustained, and I think all of that comes after that."

Um, well, I’m not exactly sure what the hell that means. You don’t “predict payroll’’? Who does, Warren Buffett, Spiro Agnew, the Wizard of Oz?

Translation: My job is to keep our sponsors from flipping out at my cheapness. Wow, what a ringing endorsement for hardball in Baltimore.

ONE LAST TIGER REFLECTION. . . Lots of feedback from the Woods piece Saturday morning, re Tiger’s unfortunate joke involving Justin Thomas and a tampon. Some of youse suggested that Woods is such a low-rent human being, we should either (1) Root against him always or (B) Ignore him.

Question: When you’re watching pro jocks, how much does their perceived character affect your support of them?

The truth is, we don’t know these people. We like to think we do, but the reality is, we know only the image they choose to show us.

Frequent question on the local guest-speaking trail:

What kinda guy is (fill in the blank) Ken Griffey Jr, Joey Votto, Chad Johnson, Carson Palmer etc etc etc

My standard answer:

I have no idea. I know the relationship I have with them (mostly superficial) but it’s not as if we’re buds.

Is Tiger Woods a Bad Guy? Well, some of his documented actions don’t exactly paint him as Prince Charming. Does that impact my interest in his golf game? Not in the slightest. I don’t know him.

Cautionary Tale: At the 1998 Super Bowl, Atlanta Falcons safety Eugene Robinson was presented with the Athletes in Action/Bart Starr Award, given annually to a player who best exemplifies outstanding character and leadership in the home, on the field and in the community.

Cool. Must be a Great Guy.

The night before the game, an undercover cop arrested Robinson for soliciting a prostitute.

We just don’t know.

TUNE O’ THE DAY. . . Cool topic, says me.

What is your favorite band’s signature tune, the one song that universally defines the group to the largest amount of people? A few of mine:

Stones: Satisfaction

Eagles: Take It Easy

Zeppelin: Stairway to Heaven

Beatles: Impossible, but if I had to choose: Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band

Beach Boys: California Girls

Van: Brown-Eyed Girl (also one of my least favorite Van cuts)

Dylan: Like A Rolling Stone; Dead, Truckin’; Doors, Light My Fire. . .

And Springsteen. . . this one. This tune is the litmus test for Broooce fanhood. If you like it, you like The Boss. If you don’t, you never will. Simply a sublime amalgamation of everything he and the E Street Band do well. Fragile piano, stand-alone sax, mood shifts, gritty words and a sublime little guitar solo in between.

Agree or disagree?