As an agnostic fan with the strongest of his team allegiances to the Blue Jays (a team from a city three times zones ahead of me in a country where I do not live), I feel like "knife to the kidney" is in fact a perfect analogy for recent Toronto history.
The Cardinals time will come, but it will have to wait until both Pujols and Molina return from honing their managing skills in the Caribbean, to lead the team to victory as a two-headed strategical megamanager.
Hal Steinbrenner talking about the Dodgers is hysterical. The Yankees are flush. We all know it. The difference: George had to divide profits by 1. Hal has to divide by four (which includes Hank’s heir/heirs who may have their own problem to solve).
I remember how the Parking Lot Attendant nearly ruined the Dodgers. So I am happy Guggenheim wants to WIN. The problem is not that, or even the small market teams like Pittsburgh etc that don’t spend to improve, it’s the teams like Seattle etc that don’t spend for decades on end. If you don’t want to put a winner on the field, sell out to someone who does.
I do not agree that the $2B the Dodgers are spending isn't a problem. The Dolans could spend their fortune (and no do not flout the money their cousins have at me: they are not that rich) and they'd still be way under the Dodgers. The Dodgers don't have more money than everyone else because their owner went into the red for a few years and built the team. The Dodgers have more money than (almost) everyone else because they're in LA. That will be true until the day I die.
That doesn't absolve the other owners for being cheap. I sure as hell have not forgiven the Dolans for spending less than they should and if I were a Twins, Rays, Pirates, Reds...take your pick, fan I'd be furious too. But just because one thing is bad does not mean that other issues don't exist.
Hear, hear. The insistence that one problem is the most important problem and everyone should concentrate on that problem and ignore the others is deeply unwise politics, and more than a little self-serving and unjust when it comes from a Dodgers fan saying that the one problem is cheapskate owners, so that we ignore massive revenue disparities in the MLB.
Whenever I see talk about MLB expanding I wince. I really do think the frustation many fans have is from the size of the league(s), and the difficulty in finding parity and distributing talent the bigger a league might be. Looking back to the major sports league expansion explosion of the sixties and seventies, I feel the focus for fans in smaller markets shifted from quality of competition and entertainment to simply being in a 'major' league. This is why we saw cities give up long loved francishes in leagues like the AA, IL, PCL, for a shot at MLB. Or in the case of other sports, owners pursued teams in new 'major' leagues like the World Hockey Association over long-standing, fan-loved teams in minor leagues (imo best exemplified by the beloved Cleveland Barons AHL team vs the Cleveland WHA team, and the eventual NHL Barons that stumbled along for two years before being absorbed by Minnesota). Even if the major league proposition was either a league that itself might fold, or if the established major had expansion rules that would likely lead to excessive debt and likely years of mediocrity, the lure of being in the top tier drove interest.
I suppose it was inevitable, no one wants to think of their city as second-tier. I grew up near Toronto in the 1970s, and the drive was to portray Toronto as a "World Class City." Getting a MLB team was certainly part of that identity. But I also wonder about an alternate timeline where MLB was still two 8 team leagues of the largest, most financially viable cities, and there were still primarily competitive (vs primarily developmental) minor leagues in cities on the next tier down of financial viability, then another, etc. Would fans in, say, Cleveland and Seattle be happier to have teams that compete and win championships in a different version of the PCL or the IL than we got? We'll never know, of course, but few seem happy getting stuck in cycles of mediocrity, and being the 22nd best team in a field of 30. I just really hope that doesn't increase to 32, and certainly not while multiple teams are playing in minor league parks.
I’m interested in joining the Zoom with Howard and Molly on Feb 11th. How/when does Molly supply the zoom link to subscribers? (Yes I am a paid subscriber.)
Looking forward to hearing Howard and Molly. I read Howard’s book on Rickey when it came out but I’m going to re-read it before the Zoom so it’s fresh n my mind!
As a life-long Blue Jays fan with the strongest of his team allegiances still hitched to the team after a tough stretch of underperformance, I was gutted with other fans in Toronto at the news of Sasaki's decision. All that softened that blow was knowing that the good citizens of Los Angeles really did need some good news more than I did.
Scherzer's not the same, but it'll be fun to watch him and the rest of a veteran rotation try to succeed in ways that seem counter to many of the pitching pitching trends in baseball right now. Don't we all, in our heart of hearts, want to cheer for a proud starting pitcher disappointed by anything less than a 6 inning outing?
As an agnostic fan with the strongest of his team allegiances to the Blue Jays (a team from a city three times zones ahead of me in a country where I do not live), I feel like "knife to the kidney" is in fact a perfect analogy for recent Toronto history.
“the owner of their favorite sports team is a cheap corncob.”
The lol I sorely needed today, thank you.
Hey, whaddyamean, just this week the Cardinals signed Zack Weiss, Victor Santos, and Yohel Pozo. Yes, that Yohel Pozo. What else could you want? 😉 🫣
The Cardinals time will come, but it will have to wait until both Pujols and Molina return from honing their managing skills in the Caribbean, to lead the team to victory as a two-headed strategical megamanager.
My wife, a Webster Groves HS grad, has been saying this since the ’24 All Star Game
If Hal Steinbrenner thinks fans don't know that he has his own private printing press, I have a bridge to sell.
Hal Steinbrenner talking about the Dodgers is hysterical. The Yankees are flush. We all know it. The difference: George had to divide profits by 1. Hal has to divide by four (which includes Hank’s heir/heirs who may have their own problem to solve).
As a 50 year fan of the Cardinals I fully agree!
I remember how the Parking Lot Attendant nearly ruined the Dodgers. So I am happy Guggenheim wants to WIN. The problem is not that, or even the small market teams like Pittsburgh etc that don’t spend to improve, it’s the teams like Seattle etc that don’t spend for decades on end. If you don’t want to put a winner on the field, sell out to someone who does.
This offseason has been mostly infuriating watching owners aiming high for 83 wins. Or, y’know, not.
I do not agree that the $2B the Dodgers are spending isn't a problem. The Dolans could spend their fortune (and no do not flout the money their cousins have at me: they are not that rich) and they'd still be way under the Dodgers. The Dodgers don't have more money than everyone else because their owner went into the red for a few years and built the team. The Dodgers have more money than (almost) everyone else because they're in LA. That will be true until the day I die.
That doesn't absolve the other owners for being cheap. I sure as hell have not forgiven the Dolans for spending less than they should and if I were a Twins, Rays, Pirates, Reds...take your pick, fan I'd be furious too. But just because one thing is bad does not mean that other issues don't exist.
Hear, hear. The insistence that one problem is the most important problem and everyone should concentrate on that problem and ignore the others is deeply unwise politics, and more than a little self-serving and unjust when it comes from a Dodgers fan saying that the one problem is cheapskate owners, so that we ignore massive revenue disparities in the MLB.
(Not to mention how politically appalling it is, in this historical moment, to insist that the solution is to find better billionaires.)
Whenever I see talk about MLB expanding I wince. I really do think the frustation many fans have is from the size of the league(s), and the difficulty in finding parity and distributing talent the bigger a league might be. Looking back to the major sports league expansion explosion of the sixties and seventies, I feel the focus for fans in smaller markets shifted from quality of competition and entertainment to simply being in a 'major' league. This is why we saw cities give up long loved francishes in leagues like the AA, IL, PCL, for a shot at MLB. Or in the case of other sports, owners pursued teams in new 'major' leagues like the World Hockey Association over long-standing, fan-loved teams in minor leagues (imo best exemplified by the beloved Cleveland Barons AHL team vs the Cleveland WHA team, and the eventual NHL Barons that stumbled along for two years before being absorbed by Minnesota). Even if the major league proposition was either a league that itself might fold, or if the established major had expansion rules that would likely lead to excessive debt and likely years of mediocrity, the lure of being in the top tier drove interest.
I suppose it was inevitable, no one wants to think of their city as second-tier. I grew up near Toronto in the 1970s, and the drive was to portray Toronto as a "World Class City." Getting a MLB team was certainly part of that identity. But I also wonder about an alternate timeline where MLB was still two 8 team leagues of the largest, most financially viable cities, and there were still primarily competitive (vs primarily developmental) minor leagues in cities on the next tier down of financial viability, then another, etc. Would fans in, say, Cleveland and Seattle be happier to have teams that compete and win championships in a different version of the PCL or the IL than we got? We'll never know, of course, but few seem happy getting stuck in cycles of mediocrity, and being the 22nd best team in a field of 30. I just really hope that doesn't increase to 32, and certainly not while multiple teams are playing in minor league parks.
I’m interested in joining the Zoom with Howard and Molly on Feb 11th. How/when does Molly supply the zoom link to subscribers? (Yes I am a paid subscriber.)
Molly sends out a post on the day of the meeting with the link, like this one: https://open.substack.com/pub/mollyknight/p/join-me-for-our-book-club-zoom-discussion?r=h6b2&utm_medium=ios
Thank you!
Looking forward to hearing Howard and Molly. I read Howard’s book on Rickey when it came out but I’m going to re-read it before the Zoom so it’s fresh n my mind!
As a life-long Blue Jays fan with the strongest of his team allegiances still hitched to the team after a tough stretch of underperformance, I was gutted with other fans in Toronto at the news of Sasaki's decision. All that softened that blow was knowing that the good citizens of Los Angeles really did need some good news more than I did.
Scherzer's not the same, but it'll be fun to watch him and the rest of a veteran rotation try to succeed in ways that seem counter to many of the pitching pitching trends in baseball right now. Don't we all, in our heart of hearts, want to cheer for a proud starting pitcher disappointed by anything less than a 6 inning outing?
“Cheap corncob” made my day. Hello Stanton of the Mariners