MLB: Sport? Sports Business? Just Business? Corrupt Business?

Posted by: Nick K.

With all of the rampant steroid use through Major League Baseball came great financial gains for the players, organizations, and the league itself.  As described below, the power numbers generated in the steroid era saved Major League Baseball.  Bud Selig and company saw their league climb from the depths of strikes and lackluster attendance to a plateau of burgeoning performance numbers.  Obviously, whatever happened to cause this dramatic increase in ability was good for the league and good for baseball because all of a sudden, people cared.  It’s becoming clearer and clearer that MLB was well aware of the circumstances that jacked it back into relevance.  My question is: why is the league not being held accountable for the obvious abuse of drugs throughout the clubhouses?

For me there are three things that make Major League Baseball different from the rest of the “Big 4” sports in the United States.  These three things are what classify MLB as “Corrupt Business” as opposed to “Just Business” (which in my opinion, should also not be how sports are classified), or “Sports Business” which is how I see the NHL, NFL, and NBA.

[I find it hard to believe that any major league can classify itself as just “Sport.”  After all, sports is a $213 Billion industry and even colleges treat their amateur athletics as business.]

Before I talk about what makes Major League Baseball “corrupt,” I want to say that I do believe every league has its issues with corruption.  Leagues usually take measures to benefit their business, not their game, whether corrupt or not.  With these decisions come immoral or unsportsmanlike decisions that could taint the competitiveness of the game.  For instance, the NBA has consistently been chastised for their not-so-inconspicuous lopsided refereeing.  Anyone that saw the Kings-Lakers Game 6 in 2002 knows exactly what I’m talking about.  MLB isn’t the only league to make corrupt decisions; they just do it the most, and get away with it every time.

Ridiculousness Number 1:
I’ll start simple with this one, because I’m quite sure no one on the planet would disagree with what I’m about to say.  How are there two different leagues in the same Major League?  The fact that the National League requires pitchers to bat and the American League doesn’t is an absolutely absurd fact of baseball.  I understand there is a lot of history in this game, and changing things like this could cause millions of old white men to have strokes, but lets be real, they simply aren’t the same game.  Base stealing, bunting, lineup substitutions, and pinch-hitting just do not have as much meaning in the AL.  Furthermore, when a pitcher knows he has to get out there and take some hacks, what does that do to his psyche?

Can you imagine this in any of the other Big 4 sports?  NEWSFLASH: The NHL just changed the rules, the Eastern conference now lines up 1 center and 1 winger on the face-off and there are now three defenseman on the ice in that conference.  In the Stanley Cup Finals, whoever is at home gets to use their rules.  But wait, that would completely change the dynamics of the game and rosters would be compiled completely differently!

…?

Beyond the simple differences in rules in the leagues, there is an EVEN MORE ridiculous aspect of the structure of Major League Baseball.  The NL Central is made up of SIX teams while every other division is made up of FIVE.  That would be somewhat understandable if MLB had 31 teams (which wouldn’t surprise me).  However, the AL West has FOUR teams in its division.  Excuse me?  So the Cubs have a 1/6 (16.67%) chance of making the playoffs as a division winner in any given year, whereas the Angels have a ¼ (25%) chance?  Including the Wild Card spot, the Cubs get an extra 1/13 (7.69%) chance and the Angels get a 1/11 (9.09%) chance. Together, that’s more than a 10% difference based entirely on the structure and nothing to do with talent. 100% absurd.

These next two things have more to do with the issue of steroids and accountability on the part of Major League Baseball.

Ridiculousness Number 2:
Why is no one talking about the fact that “anonymous” drug testing in 2002 is now completely un-anonymous?  Is Major League Baseball so corrupt that sensitive information is accessible to people who are willing to sell it for cash?  The last few months have been riddled with “groundbreaking” new evidence that X player was doing steroids in 2002.  Wait a second, I, Sammy Sosa, took an anonymous test administered by Major League Baseball itself, failed it, and now everyone in the world knows I did?  How did that happen?

THESE WERE NOT ANONYMOUS TESTS.  MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL BREACHED THE CONFIDENTIALITY AGREEMENT THEY MADE WITH THEIR PLAYERS.  MLBPA?  ANYONE?  THEY COMPLETELY LIED ABOUT THE ANONYMOUS TESTS AND NOW PLAYERS ARE BEING CHASTISED FOR INFORMATION THAT WOULDN’T HOLD UP IN COURT.  (Yes, the fact of the matter is they did it.  I agree.)

This leads me to Ridiculousness Number 3, the most ridiculous of the ridiculous:
Why was Major League Baseball “anonymously” testing their athletes in the first place?  What did they have to gain from making these tests “anonymous”?  Were they internally surveying the current state of steroid abuse in baseball?  I can’t seem to find any other reason why a league would anonymously test players for illegal substances.  It seems to me that they simply wanted to know for themselves how bad it really was.

Why not test athletes for real?  Why not make these athletes take tests and be held accountable for the results?  Is it because, back then, if they told everyone what was happening, no one would watch the games anymore?  It doesn’t seem coincidental that 7 years later, while baseball has been consistently performing well in the sports industry, all these results are coming out at once.  In fact, it’s almost a slap in the face to all fans of baseball.  “You guys have been riding our absolutely ridiculous wave of power numbers and loving every minute of it.  Now that we have you sucked in again, we’re going to break the news to you, everyone was juicing.  I know, it’s disappointing, but now that we’ve had you for these seven years, albeit under false pretenses, we know you won’t leave us again.  We know that you love the long ball.”

I could go on and on about what makes Major League Baseball terrible.  The fact of the matter is, the fans are still following it.  (For very good reason – baseball really is a beautiful game.) They’re following it to the point that I don’t know if I would run the league any differently.  MLB is getting away with letting the steroid abuse happen all over the place without any hit to its business.  I think it’s kind of like Nike using sweatshops throughout Asia to produce their kicks.  “If we’re doing something immoral while supporting our bottom line, why stop?”  “If the fans aren’t going to stop watching (or buying our shoes) why would we stop?”  “After all, we are a business right?”  “We are in the business of making money right?”  “Our main goal is to be profitable, right?”

I sure as hell hope not.

~ by Nick Kim on June 19, 2009.