In the past months the LA Dodgers have spent over $1 billion on three players. They’re able to do this because they just signed a 15 year broadcasting contract with Time Warner for $8.5 billion. Obviously TW expects to sell a lot more advertising time than $8.5 billion. It is very possible that the Dodgers can buy the best player at every position–thanks to this bottomless pot of gold. For those old enough to recall, all player moves–both trades and free agent signings–had to be approved by the Major League Baseball Commissioner’s Office. FYI, there has been NO comment from the Commish on the Dodger signings. Let’s go back to the 1970’s for a moment. In 1978 the Cincinnati Reds–aka “the Big Red Machine”–tried to sign a Cy Young award winner to their staff. His name was Vida Blue. He had played for the Oakland Athletics for several years but had a falling out with Charlie Finley, the teams owner. When the Reds announced their deal with Blue the Commissioner, Bowie Kuhn, was quick to void the contract. He said it would be bad for baseball because it might upset the balance of talent and be unfair to other teams. Of course, the Reds protested but, coming from a small market town, had no real clout and were easily dismissed. Contrast that 1978 situation with the Dodger’s recent power grab and ask yourself “is there any justification for letting a big market team buy its way into World Series contention regardless of how that affects the rest of the league–especially small market teams?” Watch the Dodgers this season and see how many games they win and know that their payroll now dwarfs every other team–even the New York Yankees. There apparently is no consideration for balanced competition. As usual, the wealthy win, the rest try to survive.
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