Not Relocating Teams a Major League Insult

There was a whole lot of yakking Tuesday out of Chicago concerning contraction, pending labor negotiations, and relocation. Lots of posturing. The owners want to send a strong message to players that this round of negotiations will be different, that they won’t just lie there and be rolled over by the union as has been the case nine other times. By choosing not to name the victimized teams now, the powers that be in Major League Baseball have time to pressure municipalities to build new ballparks to generate additional revenue.

But there was something that angered me and probably angered just about everybody who lives in metropolitan Washington and doesn’t consider the Orioles “ours.” Did you hear Commissioner Bud Selig when he said, “There exists no prospective market . . . [for an] economically viable franchise for next season.”

Initially, I found it inconceivable that Selig could stand before cameras and microphones and allow those words to escape his lips. I would expect some owners to spew that kind of ignorance because most of them never set foot in metropolitan Washington. They don’t know how it has evolved since the Senators left for Texas in 1971, don’t know how diverse and financially healthy a community this has become. We all know most baseball owners are out of touch.

But Selig has been here hundreds of times over the past 10 years. He testifies here all the time. He has toured RFK, home of the old Senators, a dozen times. He has been shepherded out to Tysons Corner and other parts of Northern Virginia. He has heard the sales pitches and has seen the data, that Fairfax County is the richest county in America and that Montgomery County isn’t far behind.

The D.C. metropolitan area is much richer, much more economically positioned to support baseball than, say, Selig’s beloved Milwaukee. It’s amazing that Selig could be that dismissive of the nation’s capital. About a week ago, I winced when two Virginia senators and three congressmen from Northern Virginia sent a letter to Selig that basically said MLB should relocate a team here by 2002 and participate in the building of a national landmark ballpark or else its antitrust exemption might not be so secure. It sounded too much like a threat.

Stupid me. A threat is exactly what’s in order. Begging hasn’t worked, has it? I should have learned a long time ago that Selig and his pals only respect power. It’s the behavior of a classic bully, to flex when he has all the leverage and cower otherwise. That’s what this whole thing smacks of. As Thomas Boswell detailed in Wednesday’s Post, baseball has never enjoyed such overallhealth, from attendance to TV ratings. Contraction, should it actually happen, will result because teams like the Yankees (nearly $ 200 million in revenue in 2001) don’t want to pick up any of the tab for teams like the Expos ($ 54 million in revenue in 2001), Twins ($ 58 million), or Florida Marlins ($ 67.3 million). The Yankees are worth an estimated $ 635 million, the Expos are worth $ 92 million, presumably before the exchange rate is applied.

Major League Baseball doesn’t have the NFL’s share-and-share-alike system. The rich guys got tired of the Expos drawing fewer people than 13 minor league teams, including Saltillo of the AAA Mexican League, and decided this was the last straw. In fact, three Mexican League teams outdrew the Expos in average attendance. And get this: The Expos drew fewer fans this season (619,451) than the 1904 Boston Pilgrims. Two weak teams are going to be bounced. Selig is caving in to the most powerful owners in baseball.

And on the Washington issue, Selig is caving in to Orioles owner Peter Angelos, as if he were Tony Soprano. ‘Hey, Carmela, get Bud a plate.’

If a D.C. area team were to take fans only from the District and Northern Virginia, it would average twice as many fans as the Marlins (15,765) or Tampa Bay Devil Rays (16,029) did this last summer.

How foolish was it to put a team in Tampa four years ago instead of metropolitan Washington with its 4.5 million people? If the Miami Dolphins, a team rich with tradition, can’t sell out eight football games a year, why would baseball choose Miami over Washington? Since baseball’s decision-makers were misguided enough to put teams there in the 1990s, the game deserves its dismal state.

Personally, I believe every professional sport has too many teams and too many athletes below major league standards. If there were fewer teams, the games likely would be better. But Major League Baseball’s actions were brutal and insensitive. No one denies that Montreal lost its chance to have a team, that Minnesota is in sad shape financially and that Florida should not have two teams.

One of these teams ought to be moved to the Washington area or purchased by the Washington or Northern Virginia ownership groups. That’s a fact, whether Angelos and Selig like it or not.

But the way Selig and friends did their business was to put on their marquee: ‘Dead Teams Walking’ and exit laughing.