|
To clarify....
Major League Baseball is more a corporate entertainment enterprise than a sport. Everything business-related is the most important aspect of MLB to MLB. Athletics ain't it. Fans are treated as consumers and, therefore, by definition, are not really fans because the sport is minimized in favor of virtually every corporate concern.
Two examples:
During the John Rocker controversy several years ago Braves GM John Schuerholz responded to questions by referring to Rocker as "someone who wears our company uniform." COMPANY not "team." This is not a slip of the tongue. It is an actual pervasive mindset that has evolved over the last couple of decades.
And this from the excellent Bob Costas book "Fair Ball":
"During the 1998 season, the defending world champion Florida Marlins, languishing in last place with a skeleton of their '97 squad, finally made another move, dealing Bobby Bonillia, Charles Johnson, and Todd Zeile to the Los Angeles Dodgers. Florida's clubhouse had become a ghost town by this point, and Bonilla, Johnson, and Zeile had just been dealt to a big-market club with tradition and a gorgeous ballpark, and one that was desperately trying to stay in a pennant race. So when Bonillia was informed that he'd been traded to the Dodgers, his first reaction was to ask reporters, "Is there a state income tax in California?"
This is what Major League Baseball actually is. Probably more than 60% of MLB players use perfromance (as in entertainment) enhancing drugs not to be better athletes. That is the antithesis of being an athlete. They use them to increase their dollar value. Period.
It ain't a sport and hasn't been, as I said, since at least 1994.
|