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The only way teams like the Tigers, or the PIrates or Royals or Rockies for that matter, could effectively compete on an ongoing basis is if MLB were to substantially delocalize baseball as both a fan pursuit and an industry. This is something the NFL and NBA have done very effectively. The NFL did it through pooling television and licensing revenues among the teams, and even though all teams keep their local money, because practically all 32 teams sell out every week, the local money is pretty close to the same for everybody. This is in large part how the NFL can have the teams in Green Bay (#68 ranked DMA in the country) and Kansas City (#32) be considered among the elites in their sport, while franchises can survive and even thrive in small markets such as Buffalo (#54) and New Orleans (#50) The NBA has effectively delocalized their sport via the strategy of marketing players over teams, a tactic that by nature has generational appeal (i.e., young fans are more attuned to players as personalities than older fans are). That’s how Oklahoma City (#48) can come to be considered THE elite NBA team for decently long periods of time, as well as the league being able to support franchises in Memphis (#51) and, again, New Orleans (again, #50). Of course, there are also key structural differences when it comes to baseball versus football and basketball. Football is a sport dominated by a quarterback personality who controls the ball for roughly half the entire game; plus, as a once-a-week event, every NFL game is considered a spectacle worthy of national or super-regional broadcast practically regardless of which teams are playing. Basketball is a sport where one guy out of five can take over and control an entire game or stretch of games or even a whole season, touching the ball and making magic happen practically anytime he wants; plus, the games are also somewhat locally event-like in that there are only one or two games in town in any given week, and since the arenas are relatively small and similarly-sized, there cannot be vast attendance differences among the teams. Baseball is practically the opposite of all of these things. In terms of players, even a superstar comes to bat only four or maybe five times in a game, and he hardly ever touches the ball on defense (not that you would want many of them to do, anyway). As for pitchers, superstar starters pitch only once every five or more days; and superstar relievers, who already have short shelf lives career-wise, are in the game for only one inning at a time, if they come into the game at all. Plus, while the stadiums are humongous all around the league, the attendance differences are vast between team groups such as the Yankees/Dodgers/Cubs versus the White Sox/Marlins/Rockies. (Baseball even has two teams playing in literal minor league stadiums right now!) Low attendance versus stadium capacity occurs in part because a team will play at home every day for a week and a half several times a year, almost eliminating the possibility that games could be considered must-see events. No amount of marketing can change the effects on the business of any of that. MLB could go a long way toward fixing this inequity among franchises by, again, delocalizing the money part of the sport by pooling all revenues—national broadcast and maybe even local broadcast, licensing, digital media, perhaps even ticket sales and other gameday sales—into one pool and dividing it evenly among the 30 teams, with perhaps some minor concessions to local cost of living differences (e.g., a touch more to New York teams, a touch less to St. Louis). They could also implement and enforce a narrow band of payroll, marketing, and perhaps even infrastructure spending, requiring a low ceiling and high floor of spending to ensure that none of the 30 teams have a substantial spending advantage over any of the others when it comes to attracting and keeping top players—something the NBA does right now, and very successfully. That would go a long way towards equalizing opportunities to compete among the 30 MLB franchises. The dirty little secret, of course, is that there is exactly zero appetite for any of this at either the team level or the league level. The league makes much, much, much more money overall when the Big Six teams (Yankees, Mets, Red Sox, Cubs, Dodgers, Giants) are successful on the field versus when they are floundering; and too many small franchises are only too happy to spend next to nothing on players, fielding 90-plus-loss teams year after year, and pocketing the money from whatever revenue they do get, while franchise valuation continues to skyrocket and gives them attractive parachute options when it’s time to cash in on that. So, really, the only way fans of franchises outside the Big Six could enjoy seeing their teams rise to the level of contender for multiple seasons at a time is to go through natural cycles where they compete for a few years and then have to reload for a few more years, because they simply can’t generate the revenues needed to compete for decades on end like the Dodgers and Yankees do; or like the Mets, Red Sox, Cubs, or Giants all could if they were simply smarter organizations when it came to the actual on-the-field baseball stuff.

Man can you believe Verducci trying to horn in on Dave Roberts with questions while he’s in the middle of making decisions during the seventh game of the World Series? That’s is absolutely offensive.

Just one time I want a manager to say on air “I ain’t got time for this ****!”

Piss poor managing played a part in the loss. Schneider trying to prove how much smarter he is than everyone else. Sounds like a Tiger's manager.

For me as a fan, it's actually easier to cope following a sweep like in 2012, than to be down to the final 2 outs of game 7 and lose in extras. 2013 still lingers for me. 2012 does not. Blue Jays fans will sting from this until they win it all, which may never happen.

Toronto was upset with the extra time granted to Ohtani to warm up after finishing the previous half innings on the basepaths. I tend to agree with them.

Nice area, eh.

I’m at a bar within the Toronto airport.

Campbell took over offensive play calling back in 2021 and said he didn't see it as being a big deal. Just saying.

Im just saying, the players aren't blameless. Yes, Morton called a bad game but if the players executed the plays he called, we may have won. Terrible team loss, nobody is blameless.

Yes, sloppy.

If Nailor didn't make the catch the Lions probably would have won the game. But the Lions didn't deserve to win. This game makes me question some of the assumptions I had made about how the rest of the season would play out.

Morton has no idea what he’s doing.

Fipp and Morton are both on my **** list. Inexcusable performance out of both units

What are we even watching. This is a freaking mess. 2 players in motion. Holding. Multiple penalties on multiple plays. This is completely amateur hour.

If that's what the voters want. Hey, that's how we got MAGA. It's call Democracy. It's their right to choose and your right to bellyache

I've got Vikings 34, Lions 13 today

The Chiefs have the best player in football and a near dynasty. Not because they can outspend but because they draft and develop well. The Royals would never have been able to sign Ohtani out of Japan nor keep him long term. The New York Jets are the worst team in football and haven't made the playoffs in 15 years. The Giants aren't much better. The NFL is thriving with the largest market having two of the worst teams in the league. The NFL went 20 years without Los Angeles. Fans won't parody and not aa focus on a couple of large markets.

This is the post of the week.

It possible that managing a mentally run down clubhouse is just not one of Hinch's strengths. He is the ultimate 'steady Eddie" guy, but maybe that is not an approach that finds way to recharge a team in the mental doldrums. He could probably also give his regulars more rest, I think Greene and Tork both played too many games. I'm with Sparky on that score.

As I mentioned elsewhere I’m in Pittsburgh this weekend. What an amazing and underrated city. All the surrounding neighborhoods reminds me of places like west village and midtown and Hamtramck but without the gentrification. It’s just been this way for 120 years. All kinds of people just mixed together and living their lives. Tons of cool shops and stores but you get the vibe they have been in that spot for a long time. Definitely suggest going.

I'm reminded of the Egyptian public's response to their loss in the 1973 Yom Kippur war. Many were excited at Sadat's turn toward peace and the Camp David summit. Others, (not you in this metaphor Bert, but perhaps some) thought the "problem" that led to the defeat was a lack of religious ardor. That led to Egyptian Islamic Jihad being founded with the intent to throw out the dictators who lost the war and bring the country back to where it needed to be spiritually. The structural problem is we don't have a level playing field. If we did we would be able to resign our ace pitcher no problem and maybe add a bat. Sadat realized that war with Israel was fruitless. The spiritual problem is not really the issue. We appear to need to overcome that structural problem somehow.

I think the team we see next March 25 will be substantially different than the team we saw this past September 25.

Man, who would have predicted at the beginning of the season the Dodgers would have won the World Series?

Once again, I can’t watch this game on FOX. Like the sad little boy who lives on the wrong side of the tracks in The Polar Express who never gets any presents, I got my hopes up when the national FOX feed of game 7 last night in Toronto pitched the opportunity to watch this Lions Vikings game on TV at home, but to no avail. When I checked my local YouTube TV listings I of course get my “local” or “regional“ broadcast of the Denver Broncos which is a whopping 12 hr. drive away and only accomplished if I never stop for food, drink or gas and am catheterized the whole way. I have never met anybody in the 38 years I’ve lived in Boise Idaho, who is an avid Denver Broncos fan among my extended family group, or friends, at work, or school, or anywhere for that matter.

Jays were 3 for 17 in scoring position. Jays left 15 men on base, most ever for a WS Game 7. Dodgers’ team batting average in the WS was .203, the lowest for a champion since 1966

If I were a free agent, my team of choice would clearly be the Dodgers. You'll have a chance to win it all every year. Access to an abundance of resources

sometimes ron does really stupid stuff.

I think the only better ending is for the home team to win and the home crowd to celebrate.

Oh well...Amazing game though. Now, back to some serious roster talk!

As Kurt Vonnegut says repeatedly in Slaughterhouse Five “so it goes.”

I’m with you, three beers is probably enough for a nine inning game. But now it’s extra innings.

At the 15th, we revert back for the 12th inning for time change.

HOSR 420

Didn’t age well

I would like a couple more runs to get to six simply for insurance, but also because I think there’s a certain cosmic symmetry to the number six.

Just wait for the Fan Duel Zamboni races at halftime.

Host: Bill Whitehouse, Earl, from, uh, Frederick, Maryland, wants to know why you and the Orioles don't go out and get some more team speed? Weaver: Team speed? For Christ sake. You get ****ing god dammed little fleas on the ****ing bases, getting picked off trying to steal, getting thrown out, taking runs away from you. You get them big cock suckers that can hit the ****ing ball out of the ball park, and you can't make any god damned mistakes.

Just tell her it’s for the morans at MTF.

LET'S ****ING GOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!! I want a Super Bowl and I want one now. Hendrickson would put this team over the top and make them the clear favorite to win it all.

I don't want him. Fighting with two coaches within 12 months of each other is a red flag. Him still wanting to play gangster is a red flag. I'm a gun guy, so guns don't bug me. But real gun people hate idiots like Morant. He isn't good enough to make me want to deal with all of that crap.

I think this Purdue game is going to be way closer than most people think. I don't know why. Just a hunch.

Greene will be our 1B in a few years

Player advancement is not linear. Player breakdown is also not linear. The bad seasons of Sweeny, Vierling and Meadows are all isolated and none should be taken as the definitive example of what will happen in 2026 too each or all. I'd say that the collapse of Riley Greene in latter 2025 was most alarming. He needs a reset of his swing/approach/ability to rest his old-man body.

Briceno doesn't need protected.

Started and finished The Pitt in about a week. Fantastic. Normally I watch the Emmy winners and don’t get why people are so enamored, but this one I get.