Some People

I read a letter to the editor in the Tribune yesterday written by someone I’m pretty sure believes in the divine right of kings and, if not that, then baseball owners. Rather than blame management, this purported “50-year plus season ticket holder [for who, the Robber Barons?]” argued, “Players’ ridiculous greed and their ‘entitlement’ philosophy are why there was a risk of no baseball.” Do tell. No doubt writing with quill in hand, this product of an earlier, meaner, age went to note “owners are the employers. They are the ones who put together investors or invested their hard-earned money in a ballclub. Significant move, to say the least!” Wait, there’s more. Ballplayers are mere “employees. They choose to play baseball; they are not forced into it. If they do not like their relationship with their employer, they are free to leave.” I could point out here that investors are also free to put their money elsewhere rather than in an industry where the employees insist on being heard. Or that baseball is a business particularly dependent on its employees unless the likes of Jerry Reinsdorf or Tom Ricketts is willing to play shortstop, a proposition that would not do much for the business in the long run. But I’m pretty sure those words would fall on deaf ears. People stuck in the 19th century aren’t open to persuasion. So, I’ll forgo pointing out that the money Tom Ricketts has is more inherited than hard-earned (ditto the Steinbrenners, the McCaskeys, the Wirtzes…) But it is interesting that the Ricketts’ clan is reported to be interested in joining an investment group to buy the Chelsea Football Club, valued at $3.3 billion. Wherever would these poor, hardworking, salt-of-the-earth people come up with that kind of cash, in whole or in part? I mean, back in 2020 Tom Ricketts said, “The scale of losses across the league is biblical,” this because of the squeeze COVID was putting on MLB owners. So, what happened, some fishes-and-loaves’ action, maybe? Goooal!