Category: Baseball

[Business Day One] Can’t Have It Both Ways

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Yankees fans are an interesting breed. Every fanbase has a particular culture, sculpted by everything from the team’s winning (or losing) tradition to the regional cuisine and availability of parking at the stadium. The New York Yankees play in the most culturally and economically influential city in the world, and have been putting a consistently good product on the field for a century. These factors combine to create a team that celebrities, rappers, and even certain breeds of cats think is cool to root for. This unbridled popularity creates a sense of arrogance and entitlement that is despised not only by their neighbors to the north, but by countless small market teams regardless of whether or not those teams even play baseball. And Yankees fans bask in it. They, or should I say ‘we,’ gain power from it. The hate is like our yellow sun. Hearing “Yankees Suck” chants empower us, even in years like this when the team actually does suck.

There is really one single element that caused Yankees fans to become what we’ve become. It’s not the World Series rings or the House That Ruth Built or the location in the world’s capital, though those things certainly set the table for the ‘element’ to dine at. The factor that made us what we are is our owner, George Steinbrenner. The reason why we demand a championship every year and demand instant accountability when we don’t get it is because of that man. He is why his team, and their fans, are hated. That said, I wouldn’t trade him for anything. And other Yankees fans should realize how lucky we are to have him. Read More

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Sox Appeal for the Lonely Red Sox Fan

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Hot Ortiz ShirtThe Red Sox cable network (NESN) is making a new show (no, not a Cold Pizza spinoff — Warm Beer) called Sox Appeal. It is a reality show slightly based on the core demographic of your channel… it worked for MTV. (Does MTV show any music? I haven’t watched MTV since 2000.) It’s a televised version of speed dating. From the website:

Each episode a single fan (man or woman) is sent on three blind dates over the course of one Red Sox game. Everybody involved better bring their “A” game because each date only lasts two innings. During the seventh inning stretch, our single fan chooses the date he/she wants to continue dating. (And maybe, just MAYBE, they get to experience something at Fenway that most fans would kill for.)

Will our hero win and his choice join him for the rest of the game? Or will he suffer the agony of defeat. Alone. In his single seat.

I don’t know about you, but I don’t think that I would be willing to kill to date someone a second time, but I guess there are some rabid redsox fans. Also, why in the first paragraph did they say “he/she” but in the second paragraph go with his, him, and he? Read More

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And Other Unpopular Suggestions

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Short one today, but I want some feedback: why doesn’t Boston build a new ballpark for the Red Sox?

First, some economics: let’s say an average Red Sox seat retails for $501. In practice, most of those tickets are scooped up by scalpers, who resell them for $100 and up. If I’m Theo Epstein, then every penny between the original $50 price and the final $100 price is a penny that I could have captured. This steams my britches.

Should I raise ticket prices across the board? Not necessarily. Baseball tickets are a luxury good, so they tend to have a higher demand elasticity. This means that people are more sensitive to changes in price than with other goods. Cigarettes and gasoline have very inelastic demand, by way of contrast: you can raise the price by 10 or 25 or 50 cents and people won’t buy less of it2. But no one needs loge seats. And a ticket that might have looked perfect at $40 might suddenly seem too expensive at $50. Yes, it’s only another $10, but people are weird.

Further, the Red Sox have been raising ticket prices pretty regularly for years and the problem remains. Scalpers buy up as many tickets as possible, resell them for half again as much, and pocket the difference. It seems pretty clear that the issue with the Red Sox is fundamental: demand outstrips supply.

Fenway Park is the oldest baseball stadium still in operation. It seats 38,805 and is pretty rickety. While other stadiums have fewer available seats (PNC Park in Pittsburgh, for instance), there’s no franchise in baseball with greater demand and fewer seats. Given their tremendous history – to say nothing of their 2004 championship – the Sox can bet on drawing capacity crowds every time.

I would wager that the Red Sox can draw in more fans a season than the struggling Orioles3 (48,800 in Camden Yards) and at least as many as their rivals, the Yankees (56,500 in Yankee Stadium). By this logic, Fenway Park is at least 10,000 seats too small.

So what should happen? Should the Red Sox build a new baseball stadium, raise prices to a level where scalpers won’t be able to make a profitable resale, and start counting their future revenue?

Well, maybe not.
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Multimedia Blitz

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I have no unifying story today so I am just going to toss a bunch of links and info with fun sights and sounds at you.

Let’s start with Sound. Have you ever wondered how exactly to say “EA Sports. It’s in the game.”? Well Andrew Anthony, the guy behind the words, is willing to teach you.

(go here. Player removed.)

Next stop on the multimedia parade is Light, Read More

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Papelbon’s Hummers

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Apologies for the lack of posts recently. I would like to make it up to you with something substantive, but that’s not going to happen until next Thursday at the earliest. Instead, I present you with Jonathan Papelbon’s commercial for 125 Auto, continuing in the great tradition of hysterical Red Sox commercials. This one, unintentionally so:

I still find in a little endearing, despite the fact he clearly memorized his lines ten minutes beforehand. Paps, stick to pitching, ok? You’re a lot less stiff and wooden out on the mound.

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[Business Day One] The Times That Try Mens Souls

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My original plan for the day involved a stirring commentary on the Boston Marathon, and how it reflects the wonderful sports culture of my beloved city. I had the framework in place and was starting to organize my thoughts and observations. I was all ready to start. And then all of my planning went into the trash can, courtesy of the starting rotation of the New York Yankees.

Mike Mussina and Carl Pavano found their way on to the Disabled List this week, joining fellow hurlers Chien-Ming Wang and Jeff Karstens, who have been riding the medicated pine since opening day. Three of the five projected starters and the projected long man are now out of action, with the Yankees sitting at 5-6. With the season at just two weeks old, it’s a bit early to start lamenting a lost campaign, but this is the kind of devastatingly bad luck that can doom a club.

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The Roaming Nerd — Camden Yards

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The Baltimore OrioleThis past week the day job had me travel down to D.C. to meet with a client. Well, our team of 4 decided (after a long day of work that had started at 4am by waking up to catch a flight) to squeeze into a Honda Civic driven by someone’s cousin for the hour drive to Baltimore to catch the Orioles v. Tigers game. At the time I didn’t know if this was a very intelligent idea, but the only ballpark I had ever been to was Fenway and it’s high time I start exploring.

We arrived just in time to see former ESPN personality Roy Firestone sing the national anthem. At this point I started compiling the ways Camden is better an Fenway. So far: cheaper seats, cheap and available parking, fireworks during the national anthem (rockets red glare and bombs bursting in air) and space to walk around. We then decided on what to eat. Even though Boog’s was right there and recommended, we weren’t in the mood for BBQ. We went with spicy cheese dogs and beer — perfect baseball food.

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Broken Fantasy

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I love my fantasy baseball league. Even beyond the awesome players, and the excellent commissioner, the online system itself has proven to be flexible and versatile to satisfy the unusual quirks of our own league. I’m not going to plug the company unless I get some money out of it, but suffice to say that it isn’t through ESPN, who recently released this statement.

We are sorry to have to make such an aggressive change, and fully recognize the impact this will have. This action was our only option because of the nature of the issues and their potential to compound if not addressed on a fundamental level. Ensuring the integrity of the season ahead for ALL players is tremendously important to us and this solution ensures that all players will be treated equally.

I did some research – after all, I wondered what could have happened that required such drastic measures – and found the following user comments on one of the various online forums I frequent: Read More

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