The Futility Infielder

Yankee fans are still grumbling about the results of their first-ever regular-season foray into Wrigley Field, in which the Cubs took two out of three games on the strength of their fine young pitchers, Kerry Wood and Mark Prior, and plenty of sloppy play from the Yanks. Sunday night's ballgame started with Andy Pettitte getting shelled, reached its nadir with Juan Acevedo donning the goat horns yet again (this time via a throwing error) and ended with pinch-runner/tying run Charles Gipson being picked off of first base after the Yanks had turned an 8-3 deficit to 8-7. Grrrrr.

But as bad as things look from the Pinstriped view, at least one astute Cubs fan sees the contrast between the owners of the Yanks and the Cubs and finds his own team wanting. Neither Cub Reporter Christian Ruzich nor Bronx Banterer Alex Belth should need introduction from regular readers of this space; Ruz has an excellent piece on Alex's site called "I Wish George Steinbrenner Owned the Cubs." Here are a couple of excerpts of some required reading. Of the Cubs, Ruzich writes:

The Cubs were not the first team to be owned by a large corporation (even the Yankees spent some time owned by CBS before Steinbrenner rescued them), but their purchase by TribCo certainly foreshadowed the current wave of corporate ownership. Tribune looked at the Cubs as cheap content for their WGN TV station, which was showing up on cable systems all over the country. They talked up the team on WGN Radio and in the pages of the Chicago Tribune. With the exception of the hiring of Dallas Green, however, they did very little to improve the team.

They did lots of things to improve the amount of money the team brought in, though, like installing lights and skyboxes. After the '84 division title, they ended the decades-old practice of selling bleacher seats on the day of the game... And yet, not much of this extra money ended up on the field. Or, when it did, it went to people like Larry Bowa and Dave Smith, and (famously) not to people like Greg Maddux.

On the Yankee front:

Steinbrenner has a lot of money. TribCo has as much money as Steinbrenner, if not more. So does Fox, and Peter Angelos, and look how well their teams have done. Steinbrenner not only has the money, he isn't afraid to spend it, and he is smart enough to hire smart people to run his team. For some reason, those last two things get lost when The End of Baseball As We Know It gets discussed.

Steinbrenner wants to win, and he does what it takes to do so. Plus, he brings all the excitement of a loaded pistol with a hair trigger being passed around by a bunch of speed freaks... But I'd gladly deal with all that uncertainty and day-to-day craziness if it meant I have the privilege of following a team that gave itself every opportunity to win.

While it's tempting to tell Christian, "Be careful what you wish for," I do think he's hit the nail on the head. Baseball needs more owners like Steinbrenner, not fewer, and by that I don't mean a guy who's going to make a horse's ass out of himself every time something goes wrong, I mean a guy who cares more about his ballclub winning than he does about petty issues like revenue sharing. Wouldn't you, Twins-Orioles-Brewers-Royals-Pirates fans, rather have as an owner a guy who'd knock his own grandmother on her ass in order to gain an advantage than a guy who'd pocket revenue-sharing money while complaining about having to trade a star on the verge of free-agency because he "can't afford" him and fielding a team which might struggle to win 60 games? Yes, the Twins are winning right now, and perhaps the Royals have finally turned a corner. But the bottom line is that the bottom line depends on winning: build a winner and fans will show up, and plenty of money will follow.

• • •

Speaking of building a winner, the Dodger fan in me is very excited about the news that Tampa Bay Buccaneers owner Malcolm Glazer is close to buying the Dodgers. According to the Los Angeles Daily News:

Malcolm Glazer is finalizing his agreement to purchase the Dodgers from Rupert Murdoch's News Corp., and people with knowledge of the negotiations believe the deal will get done by the end of the week... The purchase price is believed to be in the $375 million range, but even if an agreement is reached this week, it could be months before the ownership officially changes hands. Major League Baseball previously said it wouldn't schedule a special owner's meeting before one in mid-August.

I've cringed before at some of the Dodgers' suitors. When Dave Checketts made a bid earlier this spring, I wrote, "I want my Dodgers back, but I don't want Dave Checketts anywhere near them. I'll take my chances with the next S.O.B. who comes along instead."

I have yet to read anything saying that Glazer is an S.O.B., but even if he is, that shiny Lombardi Trophy he's holding as the owner of the team who won the Super Bowl is good enough for me. Anybody who can turn the Buccaneers into champions ought to be able to restore some of the winning mojo to the Dodgers. I'm sold, and I hope the Dodgers will be soon enough.