So a 8 year deal worth $12.4 billion = $1.55 billion a year = $51.7 million a team a year.

That is just barely below the Pirates payroll this year (according to Baseball-Prospectus) which was $51.9 million. The A's, Astros and Padres also would've needed to raise less than $10 mil extra to cover payroll.

What happens to the current MLB apps?

Anyone else read this article with the Whoosh(tm) sound effect going through their head?

Hey, we can say whatever we want about Bud Selig, but if we measure his tenure is how much the revenues of the sport have grown, the old bastrd's done right by baseball.

The Fox thing stinks, and this probably ensures the same strict rules about online content/blackouts/Youtube videos. That said, it certainly is a sign of a very healthy league, and the more money that comes in nationally the better for small market teams (everyone gets the same dollars, higher percentage of revenue increase). Overall, this is a good thing.

Are the play-in games on Friday night or day games?

our long national nightmare continues..

As part of the contract, the Saturday blackouts on FOX out-of-market games are gone. You will be able to watch the other games on MLB.TV or Extra Innings. The embedded video stuff I don't know about, but the broadcast restrictions will be fewer.

However, fewer Fox Sports games will be on free FOX, only 12 guaranteed. Most will be on Fox Sports 1 (currently Speed), particularly early season.

Scott Boras is somewhere whacking it right now. As soon as he finishes that he'll get started on a 500 page presentation about why Steven Drew is worth 30 million a year for 10 years.

That is just barely below the Pirates payroll this year (according to Baseball-Prospectus) which was $51.9 million. The A's, Astros and Padres also would've needed to raise less than $10 mil extra to cover payroll.

The Astros payroll has probably been less than half of that this year, in reality, since they traded Brett Myers, Carlos Lee, Wandy Rodriguez etc., and for the last half of the year every single Astros player has been making the minimum except Chris Snyder who makes 1.5x the minimum, Jed Lowrie who makes about 2x the minimum, and Francisco Cordero who was acquired July 20, put on the DL August 1 and released September 10.

Hey, we can say whatever we want about Bud Selig, but if we measure his tenure is how much the revenues of the sport have grown, the old bastrd's done right by baseball.

By nearly any measure, he's done right by baseball, ultimately it really depends on how much punishment you want to give him for 1. 1994/1995 2. Expos fiasco 3. Deer in headlights actions towards PED usage.

Most will be on Fox Sports 1 (currently Speed), particularly early season.

Where did you see that? I thought converting Speed into a multi sports channel was still rumor at this point. I hope they do it and use it to help keep the EPL contract from beIN. beIN's ok, but they already have too much stuff to show.

Anyone else read this article with the Whoosh(tm) sound effect going through their head?

I read it with the Whoosh sound effect going through Tim McCarver's head.

Oh goody, Joe Buck until I'm 70.

I'm still hoping that FOX one day puts GUS JOHNSON on a baseball game. The idea of what he might sound like after a walk-off home run interests me.

Where did you see that? I thought converting Speed into a multi sports channel was still rumor at this point. I hope they do it and use it to help keep the EPL contract from beIN. beIN's ok, but they already have too much stuff to show.

Lots of places. First Fang's Bites, now the LA Times repeats it here. I think Fox has been waiting for their new MLB inventory to be secured before converting Speed into a multisport channel. The EPL stuff will stay a total Fox Soccer joint, which is why they didn't fight hard to keep the non-EPL leagues or MLS. FS1 will show some soccer, according to the LAT sources.

Reached for comment at the birth of his first child while realizing he's just won the Powerball, as well as watching returning soldiers greet their families, and at the moment of reaching orgasm with the Swedish Bikini Team, Joe Buck said, "It would be reasonable to describe me as pleased."

In related news, I have renewed my contract with my TV's mute button for another eight Octobers.

the moment of reaching orgasm with the Swedish Bikini Team

"that is a disgusting act"

However, fewer Fox Sports games will be on free FOX, only 12 guaranteed. Most will be on Fox Sports 1 (currently Speed), particularly early season.

If true, I see this as a major downside. I haven't been in the US for a year and a half now, and am not sure what the current makeup of your average basic cable package is. However, I do know that I've never heard of FOX Sports 1 or FOX Speed or whatever it's called.

If FOX only shows 12 Saturday games a season, this deal reminds me too much of the 1990 CBS deal. As if FOX had anything else to show on Saturday afternoons.

By nearly any measure, he's done right by baseball, ultimately it really depends on how much punishment you want to give him for 1. 1994/1995 2. Expos fiasco 3. Deer in headlights actions towards PED usage.

Whoops, you forgot about the 2002 All Star Game fiasco, the Spiderman bases thing, dismantling the League President offices to consolidate all power to himself, the suspicious way he got the Commissioner job in the first place and a host of other things. Revenues have grown, yes -- but they have grown in every comparable spectator sport around the world. You could make a very good argument that they would have grown more without Selig at the helm, and especially without the 1994 strike.

Of course, I guess you do have a reputation for being a Selig fanboy as well.

However, fewer Fox Sports games will be on free FOX, only 12 guaranteed. Most will be on Fox Sports 1 (currently Speed), particularly early season.

I am a little surprised by this as Fox has essentially scrapped its Saturday night lineup for 8 months of the year to broadcast either baseball or college football. Its the rational for canceling America's Most Wanted and Cops.

i'm gonna use this thread to talk about TV:

first, the best news of the week is that jay baruchel is writing a sequel to goon, which is probably my favorite movie of the last decade. i probably shouldn't get too excited about it, but i have very high hopes for it.

second, doctor who:
with the finale, i'm just wondering, can the doctor just not travel to early 20th century earth anymore? because, it seems as though, if he really wanted to be reunited with the ponds, he could travel to london or somewhere, and then travel to new york city like a normal person. maybe that's overthinking it, but if the only issue he had was flying into new york city, i'd think that flying elsewhere in the same time, and then traveling to new york by conventional means.

third, fringe:
this season has potential, but i'm not sure they got off to a strong start with the premiere. the observers aren't fleshed out enough as villains to be really compelling, but they're also too familiar to be some kind of nefarious and mysterious entity.

the peter/olivia thing isn't really my cup of tea, so we'll see where that goes. and it looks like walter's back to being crazy/aloof walter after a brief moment where he was more of the evil genius walter.

fourth, dexter:
haven't seen it yet

fifth, alias:
it's finally on netflix, so when i get a moment, that'll probably be next on the watchlist.

Whoops, you forgot about the 2002 All Star Game fiasco, the Spiderman bases thing

The response to it was bad but the ASG was not his fault, it was the inevitable result of the "everyone plays" B.S. that the game has become.

As for the Spider-Man thing I just don't get why people count that as a negative. He had an idea, fans didn't like it so he nixed it, it never actually happened though.

Steagles - I liked Fringe, I think it set up an interesting season. I won't give any spoilers but as a longtime Dexter fan I'm pleased with the first episode.

I never got into Alias. I wanted too but I found there to be too much soap opera, not enough spy stuff.

Revolution - I liked the first two episodes a lot, tonight's was disappointing. It seemed a bit less edgy.

Elementary - it was ok if a bit blah. Miller plays Holmes a bit too much like a caricature. It pales in comparison to the BBC version. Cumberbatch's Holmes is more interesting than Miller's.

I can't stand the way the 2002 ASG is always brought up as a "fiasco." A minor inconvenience to an irrelevant game. It ended in a tie, so what? The overreaction to it was 100x worse than the "fiasco" itself.

As for spiderman, #### I don't even remember what that was about. Who cares.

As for this news, though, a friendly reminder to cancel MLB.tv

I can't stand the way the 2002 ASG is always brought up as a "fiasco." A minor inconvenience to an irrelevant game. It ended in a tie, so what? The overreaction to it was 100x worse than the "fiasco" itself.

Yeah, it was irrelevant. But it was still a fiasco. The cameras were all trained on Selig sitting in the box seats while nobody knew what the heck was going to happen. I still think he should have called an impromptu homerun derby.

As for the Spider-Man thing I just don't get why people count that as a negative. He had an idea, fans didn't like it so he nixed it, it never actually happened though.

That. Why does everybody forget that the Spider-Man thing never happened? Along with contraction which Selig also gets lynched for never actually doing. Is Selig not allowed to realize that something was a bad idea?

If you're going to hate Selig as a fan, hate him for all the forcible taxpayer stadium extortion. But even on that, he's just doing the job the owners hired him to do, and actually does it pretty well.

Spider-man was a bad idea that the customer based bashed hard enough to stop it from happening. It's one thing to toss around ideas in a marketing meeting it is a whole other thing to actually decide to run with it which is what MLB had decided to do with the spiderman bases. As for contraction, it is again pissing off your customer base and probably a little unethical in that it was used to extort government paid for stadiums for baseball teams.

I won't give any spoilers but as a longtime Dexter fan I'm pleased with the first episode.

i'm just watching it now.


but here's what has really turned me off from the show. when the series started, the motivation for dexter as a serial killer was that he was stepping in when law enforcement dropped the ball. when a killer got free on a technicality, or when there wasn't enough evidence to prosecute, that was when dexter would target one of his victims.

but as the series has gone along, he's actually worked against the police department's investigations. with the evidence he digs up with his personal investigations into his victims, how many of them could he have put away for life if he went through the proper channels?


the series has made a point to highlight the fact that dexter enjoys killing, but they haven't really brought up the fact that, in a lot of these cases, he didn't actually have to. there's still time to address that, so hopefully it does become a storyline, but the kind of glorification of what he's doing just rubs me the wrong way.

Whoops, you forgot about the 2002 All Star Game fiasco, the Spiderman bases thing, dismantling the League President offices to consolidate all power to himself, the suspicious way he got the Commissioner job in the first place and a host of other things. Revenues have grown, yes -- but they have grown in every comparable spectator sport around the world. You could make a very good argument that they would have grown more without Selig at the helm, and especially without the 1994 strike.

Why should any person with a functioning brain care about a tie game in an exhibition? Not sure what was wrong with the spiderman thing, if anything, it's evidence of good leadership. Same with dumping the league offices, why have separate league out of some stupid sense of nostalgia?

But ultimately those complaints are more a personal preference/viewpoint issue. From a fan point of view 14 years with no work stoppage, a system of pay that isn't completely morally corrupt(although the minor leagues and first three year players have legitimate issues)

Of course, I guess you do have a reputation for being a Selig fanboy as well.

Sure, a guy who does a good job, deserves praise.

Selig worth:

small-market owners: they should give him his weight in gold every year. The Padres (the f'ing Padres) sold for $800 M.
large-market owners: can't really complain as revenue sharing is surely more than balanced out by overall revenue growth.
players: they kicked his butt for the first decade or so but I think he's getting the last laugh ... still, the big contract guys can't complain too much.
media: who cares?
fans: I guess it depends how you feel about the market genius of wild cards, interleague, teams switching leagues, the strike, blackouts, MLBAM, Extra Innings, robot umpires, bad hairpieces, etc.


Personally, that decade of repeated anti-marketing of baseball still pisses me off. I do wonder if baseball in the alternate universe is even bigger than it is here.

So a 8 year deal worth $12.4 billion = $1.55 billion a year = $51.7 million a team a year.

Remember, that's not all new revenue, it's about $30 M more than they were getting. Sure, $30 M here and $30 M there and pretty soon you're talking about real money (or Joey Votto).

I'm not crazy about Selig, but compare him to Goodell, Bettman, and Stern. He's done a pretty good job of keeping his sport on the field recently.

If true, I see this as a major downside. I haven't been in the US for a year and a half now, and am not sure what the current makeup of your average basic cable package is. However, I do know that I've never heard of FOX Sports 1 or FOX Speed or whatever it's called.

I recently discovered I have it on comcast...there was some F1 stuff on it. It's probably not in basic packages.

I'm sure part of the strategy is to load it up with more popular programming and try to get it onto a basic tiers and collect more money from the cable/satellite providers.

I'm not crazy about Selig, but compare him to Goodell, Bettman, and Stern. He's done a pretty good job of keeping his sport on the field recently.

We'll see how long that lasts. It blows my mind that minimum salary in MLB is half that of the NHL.

By nearly any measure, he's done right by baseball, ultimately it really depends on how much punishment you want to give him for 1. 1994/1995 2. Expos fiasco 3. Deer in headlights actions towards PED usage.

...1994/1995, Interleague play, 1994/1995, the wild card, 1994/1995, Jeff Loria, 1994/1995, Frank McCourt, 1994/1995...

shock,

the players really have lost any sort of grip - they got absolutely taken to the cleaners in this CBA - the owners get to keep all that extra money because they sure as heck ain't spending it on the players

david

you forgot jim crane

and demoting the astros to the DH league

From Wikipedia:

In March 1995, two new franchises—the Arizona Diamondbacks and Tampa Bay Devil Rays—were awarded by Major League Baseball, to begin play in 1998. It was decided to add one new team to each league. However, it soon became clear that it would be impractical to have an odd number of teams per league: baseball would either have to give teams many more off-days than in the past, or interleague play would have to be extended year-round, or both. In order for MLB officials to continue the existing schedule, where teams play almost every day and where interleague play is limited to a few days per year, both leagues would need to carry an even number of teams. The decision was made to have one existing club switch leagues.

This realignment was widely considered to have great financial benefit to the club moving. However, to avoid the appearance of a conflict of interest, Commissioner (then club owner) Bud Selig decided another team should have the first chance to switch leagues

Curious, how this impracticality has suddenly evaporated with the Astros moving to the A.L. Maybe you should add this one to the list?

Curious, how this impracticality has suddenly evaporated with the Astros moving to the A.L. Maybe you should add this one to the list?

Interleague play used to require annual approval from the player's association, making uneven number of teams in the league an impractibility as it would give the player's association more leverage. The owners negotiated that advantage away.

..1994/1995, Interleague play, 1994/1995, the wild card, 1994/1995, Jeff Loria, 1994/1995, Frank McCourt, 1994/1995...

Interleague is of course personal preference. And the wild card has been widely successful/popular. Yes Selig has upset the traditionalist while massively increasing the fanbase.... he has the right viewpoint on this, screw the traditionalist for the most part.

dismantling the League President offices to consolidate all power to himself

What the hell is the point of having separate league presidents anyway?

Yes Selig has upset the traditionalist while massively increasing the fanbase

Uh, has he massively increased the fanbase? He might have increased interest among some hardcore fans but the days of baseball pulling a 50 share on TV are loooooong gone.

The days of anything pulling a 50 share on TV are long gone.

We'll see how long that lasts. It blows my mind that minimum salary in MLB is half that of the NHL.

Where are you getting that? According to the MLBPA website the minimum salary in MLB is $480,000. The NHL minimum appears to be $525,000 this past year. It's fair to say that the MLB minimum should be dramatically higher than the NHL's so that is unfair but it's certainly not half of what the NHL's is (unless that information is incorrect).

but as the series has gone along, he's actually worked against the police department's investigations. with the evidence he digs up with his personal investigations into his victims, how many of them could he have put away for life if he went through the proper channels?

I've viewed it a bit differently. Rather than glorifying what he's doing I think it's reflecting his inability to remain in control given the events of his life (particularly everything good and bad involving Rita).

I'm not crazy about Selig, but compare him to Goodell, Bettman, and Stern. He's done a pretty good job of keeping his sport on the field recently.

That's basically it for me. The other leagues are so bad that Selig can't help but look good in comparison. Perhaps it's the soft bigotry of low expectations, but I think the odds of the sports team ownership class suddenly becoming reasonable and far-sighted are terribly low. In this context - and only in this context - Selig surpasses expectations.

Uh, has he massively increased the fanbase? He might have increased interest among some hardcore fans but the days of baseball pulling a 50 share on TV are loooooong gone.

TV ratings is not a good measure of popularity, I don't care what NFL idiots try to claim. Attendance and revenue are both better factors in deciding how popular a sport actually is.

second, doctor who:
with the finale, i'm just wondering, can the doctor just not travel to early 20th century earth anymore? because, it seems as though, if he really wanted to be reunited with the ponds, he could travel to london or somewhere, and then travel to new york city like a normal person. maybe that's overthinking it, but if the only issue he had was flying into new york city, i'd think that flying elsewhere in the same time, and then traveling to new york by conventional means.

The finale didn't make a lot of sense. SPOILERS BELOW:









The whole "I read it in a book so it must happen" thing didn't really work for me. What if the editor changed something? What says that the book is 100% accurate?

I also don't get why the Doctor can't just go visit Amy and Rory. He meets people out of order, and has done so before. Knowing when they die shouldn't stop that.

Finally...did they just leave that last angel there in the cemetery? Seems a tad irresponsible to me...

But, did the "Dr. Who" finale pull a 50 share? Did it win its Time Lord slot? How did it do in the coveted "Dalek ages 18-34" demo?

Uh, has he massively increased the fanbase? He might have increased interest among some hardcore fans but the days of baseball pulling a 50 share on TV are loooooong gone.

No. The sport isn't as popular as it used to be, though the mallparks cover up a fair amount of the decline. They're pleasant and comfortable places to pass time in the summer, even if you don't care a whit about baseball -- as millions of attendees don't. Attendance in Oakland and Tampa is a good comp with the pre-mallpark era.

Every sport everywhere is doing a better job of drawing more moneyed fans and separating fans from their money to buy merchandise. Bud Selig has nothing to do with that trend. TV money is up primarily because of the invention of TiVO and DVRs, which the sports commissioners had nothing to do with.

The days of anything pulling a 50 share on TV are long gone.

Super Bowls still get shares well into the 60s. Last year's game had a 71 share (47 rating) and the highest TV ratings since 1986.

The NFL draft gets double the TV rating some early-round baseball postseason games get. Games in the 2007 NLCS got ratings in the 2s.

The NFL draft gets double the TV rating early-round baseball postseason games get.

Does it do better than 7 o'clock games? Because it's not really fair to compare primetime to things on at 1 or 10.