Can a Commissioner solve Baseball problems?

Payrolls are only a problem if they are genuinely "out of control," which is to say that payrolls are growing faster than revenues. That's not the case nor has it ever been the case.

 

Selig has done exactly what he's supposed to do, which is make more money for the people who own MLB franchises.

 

Can Ilmago start a thread without posing a question?

 

The Giants played before about 30 consecutive sellouts, home and away, when Bonds was coming up to Hank Aaron.

Whether people believe like Bonds or not, whether they believe his record was legit or not, they still wanted to see history. Bonds had 754 homers in LA, where he was hated more than anywhere, and the fans all jumped to their feet when he hit a long fly ball.

Anyway, that's a little bit of a tangent from the original topic.

No commissioner can really solve all of baseball's problems for the same reason that no president can solve all of the nation's problems or no school superintendent can solve all of a school district's problems. That's the way life is.

 

1. It is a fallacy to say "the owners." The Yankees think one way, the Red Sox another, the Marlins another. The biggest battle in the next round of labor negotiations will not be players vs. owners. It will be owners of high-revenue teams vs. owners of low-revenue teams.

2. As newspaper publishers might tell you, if you are so relentless about cost control that you gut your product, why would your customers pay to see it?

3. The major league minimum wage is $400,000. There is no issue of "rising living standard," and there has not been one for decades.