Baseball is a business. Sure, we fans are wistful dreamers who fantasize about glory on the diamond, but to the people who hold the purse strings, the Cubs win the economic World Series every year.
Baseball is not a conventional industry. It belongs neither to the players nor management, but to all of us. It is our national pastime, our national symbol, and our national treasure.
When I first came into baseball, people didn't want to hear that a team was a business. But it is. And the better the business is run, the healthier the team on the field is going to be.
Baseball has all the money.
Baseball is a poorly run business.
When the Supreme Court says baseball isn't run like a business, everybody jumps up and down with joy. When I say the same thing, everybody throws pointy objects at me.
The first thing baseball wants to do is make you a superstar and then say that you owe baseball something. I don't owe baseball anything. Baseball owes me.
The Oakland clubhouse is a wonderful place. A lot of these guys feel like rejects. They were rejects and they feel - they can tell you how baseball screwed up.
Don't quote me on this, but if they ever manage to ban beer advertising in baseball you can kiss the national pastime goodbye.
I think that the game is the game. I think that expansion is good for the game because it gives more jobs to the people and more ballplayers can play, but I think the game is still the game. The ballplayers, they come into the game with one thing in mind - it's their job.
