The Business of Baseball
Posted by Ramsey Safieh, MLBPAA Summer Intern
With the Major League Baseball trade deadline in the rearview mirror, teams have made big moves to compliment their final push to the rapidly approaching post-season. The trade deadline in baseball is like no other professional sport. I mean, c’mon people, Austin Jackson getting replaced in the middle of the 7th inning of his game due to a trade! One second Jackson is playing centerfield for the Tigers and the next he’s jogging off the field for the last time as a Detroit Tiger on his way to play for the Seattle Mariners. Such a bizarre occurrence can only happen in Major League Baseball. Imagine Peyton Manning getting taken out middle of a touchdown drive due to a trade; you simply can’t.
Blockbuster trade deals reinforce the fact that professional baseball is a business. From the infamous Babe Ruth trade to the Yankees for $100,000 to finance Harry Frazee, then owner of the Red Sox Broadway play, to any acquisition today; money will forever be the determining factor of a team’s success. Teams show no remorse when uprooting a player to a team across the country on short notice causing him and his family to immediately relocate. Some may say that it is the nature of the game, I say that it is the nature of the business.
Major League Baseball has too many similarities to Fortune 500 companies (in regards to business practices) to not be considered a “business first” game. At any moment, a CEO can let experienced employees go for a younger crop of workers, relocate an employee to another branch, promote unqualified workers with higher salaries, or even sell the whole company to someone else. Sounds a lot like professional baseball if you ask me. In fact, just two days ago, the Houston Astros promoted their 2013 #1 overall draft pick, Mark Appel to their AA team causing a huge stir in their organization. Normally such a promotion doesn’t get much attention, however, the fact that Appel had a 9.74 ERA while two other pitchers on that roster hold ERA’s in the 2 range was the epitome of an undeserving promotion, in my opinion.
If you have been keeping up with my blogs, then you know I have to always throw my two cents in on the New York Yankees. And what illustrates the business aspect of professional baseball more than the tactics of the Yankees? Although they are the most successful team in all of professional sports, they have not seen the playoffs in the past two consecutive years and if they don’t figure it out soon you can make that three consecutive seasons without making the playoffs. They also have not won the World Series since 2009 causing critics and fans alike to lambaste the organization with the second highest payroll in all of baseball. Surely this is to concern of the members of the Yankees front office, but like I said professional baseball is a business and what separates a successful business from a failing business is the green piece of paper that rules the world.
According to Forbes list of most valuable baseball teams in the MLB, the Yankees posted the highest revenue in the league at 461 million dollars which is 168 million more than the second place Los Angeles Dodgers for the 2013 season. This brings one to think, was last year’s sub-par season without making the playoffs really a failure? In the mind of businessman, no. As long as the team keeps coming out on top with league revenue, they are the winners. Certainly, Yankees stakeholders would love another World Series ring to add to their decorated collection, but they also like their money. To put this all into perspective, if Apple doesn’t win the award for smartphone of the year but demolishes their competitors in company revenue, I can promise you that Steve Jobs will not be rolling around in his grave.
-Ramsey
