One can only imagine how painful it must have been last week for Bud Selig to tell his small-market brethren, Florida Marlins owner Jeffrey Loria and his stepson president David Samson, to pony up on the payroll in the face of major heat from the Players Association.Madden goes onto mention that this is likely "a prelude to what figures to be the crux of the next collective bargaining for a new Basic Agreement in 2011 - when the union will be seeking major changes and far more definitive revenue-sharing guidelines."
The only question I have is: What took the union so long to press the issue of teams pocketing their revenue-sharing booty instead of spending it on players - which is what the system was supposed to be all about? It took, of all people, John Henry, owner of the large-market Red Sox and a longtime Selig loyalist, to blow the whistle on baseball's revenue-sharing welfare cheats.
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In the meantime, the union is far from done pushing this revenue-sharing issue. Next up: the Pirates, who have been the most blatant team of all when it comes to pocketing their revenue sharing, trading off all their highest-paid players and creating a mausoleum of their beautiful taxpayer-funded new park. The Pirates, who have had 17 consecutive losing seasons, have ranked in the bottom four of payroll the last six years. Last year, they began the season ranked 28th of 30 teams with a payroll of $48 million but finished at around $25 million after trading off shortstop Jack Wilson, outfielder Nate McLouth, first baseman Adam LaRoche, second baseman Freddy Sanchez and pitchers Ian Snell and John Grabow for a bunch of minimum salary unproven prospects. That accounted for $28.6 million in shed payroll, but team president Frank Coonelly justifies the jettisoning of their six best players by invoking the old Branch Rickey line to Ralph Kiner: "We finished last with you, we can just easily finish last without you." Tell that to the Pirate fans who deserve so much better. But have faith, Buc faithful. The players' union is coming to your rescue.
According to sources familiar with what went down between Selig and Players Association honchos last week, the union has targeted four teams - the Marlins, Pirates, Rays and San Diego Padres - against whom they've threatened to file a grievance if they don't get their payrolls up in accordance to the revenue-sharing formula in the Basic Agreement. To make their point, they have cited the Milwaukee Brewers, whose owner Mark Attanasio has taken their payroll to over $80 million the last couple of seasons - and been rewarded by attendances of more than three million for the first time in their history the past two seasons. Not bad for the smallest media market in baseball. It is probably worth noting that when Selig owned the Brewers, the highest payroll they ever had was $50 million in 2002, the second year of Miller Park, and through the '90s they consistently ranked among the bottom. When Selig sold the team to Attanasio in 2005, the payroll was back down to $27.5 million - which Attanasio immediately bumped to $40 million. Of course, Selig didn't have the benefit of revenue sharing, so we'll never know if he'd have taken the same road as the Marlins, Pirates, Padres and the others who've apparently been using their revenue sharing to pay off their debt.
For years I thought these teams didn't do enough with this money and I agree with Madden; it's about time somebody stepped it. It may have come far too late, but at least Selig is doing something, which is more than he usually does.
