Comments on: I Don't Want To Be Part Of Any Club That Has Jeffrey Loria As A Member

By: Emma Span

Emma Span — Wed, 12 Jan 2011 01:18:00 +0000

[6] I agree that they aren’t discriminating on race or gender — and it’s not like a lot of minorities or women are trying to buy teams, which is not MLB’s fault. But it’s definitely a club and as Shaun points out, they do pull strings to make sure that anyone who buys a team is the person that Selig and the owners want to sell to.

By: Shaun P.

Shaun P. — Tue, 11 Jan 2011 15:50:35 +0000

[6] MLB has proven that it will go to any lengths to have sales of teams only to those it approves of. Look no further than the duplicitous and illegal sale of the Red Sox by the Yawkey Trust to Henry et al. The immediate bottom line (i.e, highest bidder) did not get the team, but the ultimate bottom line (contract two teams, which became sell the Expos for a fortune) was certainly the reason why.

The late, great Doug Pappas summarized it best.

Of course, given all that’s happened since Henry et al. bought the Sox, no one in Massachusetts ever complains.

By: williamnyy23

williamnyy23 — Tue, 11 Jan 2011 15:01:56 +0000

[5] The “highest” bidder isn’t always chosen, but the mitigating factors are usually financial related (i.e., the highest bidder may not always be the most financially sound). That’s not to suggest that MLB doesn’t have special privileges, but it certainly doesn’t have the authority to discriminate on the basis of race or sex. If MLB turned down a higher offer from a female or minority owner, I am sure they would face intense legal scrutiny.

As for Cuban, it’s my understanding that his bids for the Cubs and Rangers weren’t the “highest”. While MLB has certainly been selective, I think the bottom line is still the bottom line.

By: Emma Span

Emma Span — Tue, 11 Jan 2011 05:33:47 +0000

[3] Have to disagree with you here. I think the problem is that there are NO clear, set guidelines at all for who gets to be an owner. Obviously you need to be wealthy, but then the highest bidder isn’t always chosen (see: that fiasco of a sale of the Expos/Nationals a few years ago). Strings get pulled to ensure that certain people get to own franchises, maneuvering that would never stand up to a lawsuit if we were talking about, say, Subway franchises.

I wish you were right about the transgender eskimo because that would make for some fun blogging, but they wouldn’t even let Mark Cuban buy a team. This is not a group that welcomes iconoclasts.

By: Chyll Will

Chyll Will — Tue, 11 Jan 2011 04:23:39 +0000

[3] “Nothing below the belt, boys!”

By: williamnyy23

williamnyy23 — Tue, 11 Jan 2011 03:29:27 +0000

Baseball teams are considered franchises, and business do have the right to set guidelines for who gets to own their franchies (of course, those guidelines are financial, not personal).

Also, Selig can’t force McCourt out, but he can choose to not help him. I don’t see why that isn’t fair, especially when you consider Selig works for the owners, and it’s their money that would used to provide the “help”.

Finally, I am pretty confident that if transgender eskimo offered to buy the Oakland A’s and build them a new stadium, the white male ownership group would be more than happy to take the money.

By: Chyll Will

Chyll Will — Mon, 10 Jan 2011 21:43:41 +0000

Which brings up once again the MLB Commissioner’s baffling power when it comes to deciding exactly who gets into baseball’s 100% male, 96.67% white, 100% non-Mark Cuban ownership club.

Because Lord knows, we definitely need another representative for the extraterrestrials in that bunch besides Mark Cuban…

By: Cliff Corcoran

Cliff Corcoran — Mon, 10 Jan 2011 20:49:40 +0000

For those interested Brad Snyder’s A Well-Paid Slave, as much as it is a Curt Flood biography, is also an excellent history of baseball’s anti-trust exemption and the challenges to it, of which, to my knowledge, Flood’s was the last to go as far as the Supreme Court.

I say that as the books “unbiased” editor, and with no disrespect to Alex’s Flood biography linked in the right-hand sidebar, which is more about the man than the legal history behind his case.