Whaaaaat? No way. Is there some insinuation that MLB ownership is not a free market? My gosh that would be a shock, especially given Mr Selig's history of completely transparent and open interactions with the sport and the larger community.

Whaaaaat? No way. Is there some insinuation that MLB ownership is not a free market? My gosh that would be a shock, especially given Mr Selig's history of completely transparent and open interactions with the sport and the larger community.

At the same time, I would also not be shocked to learn that Reggie was perhaps, maybe, kind of, you know, stretching the truth a tad.

I would also not be shocked to learn that Reggie was perhaps, maybe, kind of, you know, stretching the truth a tad.

Reggie wasn't the convicted one in Billy Martin's famous quote.

Many people have forgotten Reggie’s attempt to kill the Queen now, but 20 years ago it was probably more of a publicity issue.

Many people have forgotten Reggie’s attempt to kill the Queen now, but 20 years ago it was probably more of a publicity issue.

Not to mention playing on the Angels when he was supposedly retired just so he could get close to the queen.

This isn't the only time that the "Here's what you have to do" con was worked on an undesired suitor for a team.
When the Red Sox were sold, the bidding process had two stages. After the first one, Charles Dolan was the highest bidder. He thought he had inside info from the people running the process. Allegedly, he was told, "Bid $XXX million" and you'll win as though the other bids were all in and that would beat them. He bid $XXX million. The Henry-Werner group allegedly submitted their bid at the very last minute and bid just over $XXX million.

If you think you've got an inside track but someone else does, you've got a problem.

Or if you think the guy selling (er, donating) you the inside info is (a) only selling to one person and (b) the only person on the inside selling info then perhaps you are too naive to own a MLB team.

Were we texting a lot in 2003-5? Could you save them?

Not to mention playing on the Angels when he was supposedly retired just so he could get close to the queen.

Reggie can be more open about it now that he's finished the job on the queen, silenced Drebin and Captain Hocken, and discredited Nordberg.

Reggie's plan was to move the team immediately to Vegas

Jackson revealed his plans to buy the A’s alongside a group of investors, including the founders of Microsoft, Bill Gates and Paul Allen.

I'm not at all surprised that Selig screwed over Reggie. I am a bit surprised he screwed over Gates and Allen. They've got so much money they can make trouble for anybody.

Were we texting a lot in 2003-5? Could you save them?

That was the beginning of the BlackBerry era; they had 500k subscribers in 2003, over 1M in 2004, and over 2.5M in 2005. Still fairly small (there were 25M subscribers in 2010, and tens of millions of iPhones shipped that year too), but beginning to be normal in some business circles.

As for texts specifically, sure they had SMS, but it also wouldn't be shocking if Reggie meant that he and Bud were emailing and he read it from his phone.

eta: I don't know how I could have forgotten, but it was kind of a Thing that Blackberries did not in fact use SMS, but their own proprietary messaging protocol that didn't work with other people's phones. Not that it's relevant to the point.

Selig was probably worried that Allen would be willing to carry a really high payroll.

I'm a guy who likes to believe in the good in all people and think that sometimes people overspeak or overrate the amount of corruption that exists in a corporation or organization, at least I used to. Then the NFL and the Rams happened, and it was so blatantly obvious that even my naive ass had to realize the level of greed and corruption in organizations is impossible to ignore... So even though I think Selig is unfairly represented on this site as being more evil than he really is, I don't for a second think he was an good guy overall.

I believe this story as much as I believe any story that Reggie Jackson tells. I can't wait for people to ask the Microsoft Boys about this and they completely deny

A) they were trying to seriously bid on the As
B). That they were ever screwed over by some guy named Bud Selig
C) that they have ever heard of or been in a business deal with Reggie Jackson

I believe this story as much as I believe any story that Reggie Jackson tells. I can't wait for people to ask the Microsoft Boys about this and they completely deny

A) they were trying to seriously bid on the As
B). That they were ever screwed over by some guy named Bud Selig
C) that they have ever heard of or been in a business deal with Reggie Jackson

I'm fairly certain a-c were all known as facts at the time. It wasn't like this was an under the table attempt, there were several bidders for the franchise at the time and MLB had a system. Everything a-c matches up with my memory, the only thing I don't recall was whether it was actually larger money from the Reggie group than the others. (simply because that story has been stated in about a half dozen sells of franchises in sports over the past 30 years, where one group was willing to spend more and lost out because of other reasons)

ESPN.com article from 2005:

Jackson's group offered $25M more than accepted offer

SAN FRANCISCO -- Reggie Jackson is frustrated that his offer to buy the Oakland Athletics was not accepted even though his group was willing to pay $25 million more than Los Angeles real estate developer Lewis Wolff for the franchise.

"I'm still disappointed. I'm still hung over from it emotionally," Jackson said in a phone interview Thursday night. "I started my career in Oakland, I still own a home there, they just retired my number this past season. It's a special place."

Jackson, who said this was his "fourth or fifth" time trying to buy a team, said his group of four investors began discussions last spring with the commissioner's office about buying the A's. But by the time they were given the chance to make an offer in December, it was too late.

What it sounds like, from Reggie's point of view, is that Selig played interference for his frat buddy Wolff and held off Reggie's ownership group until after Schott and Wolff signed their deal. Given what we know about how Selig did business, that sounds entirely believable.

So even though I think Selig is unfairly represented on this site as being more evil than he really is, I don't for a second think he was an good guy overall.

How many rounds of collusion and blackballing was Selig a party to?

Granted, in retrospect, he's far less malevolently evil than Rob Manfred.

I can't wait for people to ask the Microsoft Boys about this

I have some bad news for you.

In attempting to buy the A's, Jackson had a plan to move the team to Las Vegas. In fact, DuPuy said, Jackson asked him about acquiring the Expos if they were going to be moved to Las Vegas or Washington.

NYT

I can't wait for people to ask the Microsoft Boys about this

As 18 points out, you're going to need to hold a Seance if you want to reach Paul.

When the Red Sox were sold, the bidding process had two stages. After the first one, Charles Dolan was the highest bidder. He thought he had inside info from the people running the process. Allegedly, he was told, "Bid $XXX million" and you'll win as though the other bids were all in and that would beat them. He bid $XXX million. The Henry-Werner group allegedly submitted their bid at the very last minute and bid just over $XXX million.

So what you're saying is Dolan lost to a legitimate bid in the second round, after having "won" with a bid that violated the rules in the first round.

OK, you're not saying his bid violated the rules in the first round. But it did. The bidders were instructed that they were bidding for just the Yawkey share of ownership (53%) of the team. Dolan's bid was for the Yawkey share, plus shares of limited partners. Due to how the partnership was founded he limited partners had veto power over who got control of the Yawkey share. A bid that was "something for the Yawkey Foundation, something for limited partners" was surely more popular than "something for the Yawkey Foundation, nothing for the limited partners", and they wanted to declare Dolan as the winner.

The other bidders, who had bid as instructed, cried foul and said it was unfair not to give them an opportunity to provide a bid for the larger stake now that it was on the table. Harrington and the partners agreed (probably because a competitive offer for the limited partners would be more beneficial to them than the single outlaw bid), which launched the second round of bidding, which was to be on the same basis as the Dolan bid: Yawkey share and limited partners' share. The Henry group won that round. Even then theirs might not have been the largest bid, but (a) it was larger than Dolan's and (b) the partners agreed that it had the most secure funding. The only contingency was Henry's sale of the Marlins, but that wasn't a financial contingency - the bidders had the funds available without the sale - but a procedural one in that Henry couldn't own both teams. MLB gave the green light to proceed with the whole Loria/Expos mess which eliminated the procedural contingency.

Like, one story makes it sound shady that Dolan lost: "He won, and they bid again, then he lost at the last minute." The other makes it sound shady that Dolan was even considered: "He broke the rules to pay off the voters with $200 million, and when other bidders were allowed to do the same he lost." Both are the truth, but when you take the full facts of both stories you still end up pretty much at the latter story.

I 100% remember Reggie being part of a group bidding on the A's (though I can't recall who else was part of the process).

Yeah, my recollection is also that Reggie's group (which by the way was much like "Jeter's group" that bought and flipped the Marlins, Reggie was just the public face with others supplying most of the money) expressly wanted to move the team to Vegas, and Selig stonewalled them and others until he could find someone willing to keep the team in Oakland. It was probably also helpful that Wolff/Schott were happy to play along with crying poor; that was the era when Selig was still making noises about Contraction, by way of extorting billions' worth of free stadiums from taxpayers.

I believe this story as much as I believe any story that Reggie Jackson tells.

"Sit, Whitey!"

I find it fascinating that there aren’t more “Michael Jordan” situations, where the ex-players are dominant PARTS OF AN OWNERSHIP GROUP.

There must be billions in ex-player wealth out there. Why wouldn’t, say, the 90’s Yankees get together, and buy a team?

Well, you know what they say - the difference between a millionaire and a billionaire is about a billion dollars. There may have been a point when the valuations of teams and the career earnings of top players intersected, but nobody seized on the opportunity, apparently.

How many former players have held a significant ownership stake in a team in any major pro sport in the last 40 years or so? I don't mean like Jeter, who the media were happy to pretend owned the Marlins but in fact had something like a 5% stake.

Off the top of my head I can think of only two: Michael Jordan, who turned his tens of millions into hundreds of millions by being a shrewder businessman than most pro athletes, and Mario Lemieux, who had taken a lot of deferred salary for many years, and when the Penguins went bankrupt found himself their largest creditor and was able to leverage that into a significant ownership stake. (I believe he was the principal owner for a few years before he sold the controlling stake to Ron Burkle.)

LeBron James and Tom Brady have made a lot of noise about wanting to own a team. Whether they actually have enough money to afford majority ownership of an NFL or NBA team, we'll see. (And in Brady's case Roger Goodell's body will have to be long cold in its grave first.)

Totally believe Selig ###### any group that wasn’t part of his plan

But also true that Selig clueless about tech. Dude was still doing faxes in the 2000s. Hard to believe he had figured out how to text

Did Selig have peeps who would text on his behalf? I believe that if Selig had a Smithers.

Totally believe Selig ###### any group that wasn’t part of his plan

No way to prove this, of course, but I will die convinced Selig allowed an underfunded/overleveraged Frank McCourt to buy the Dodgers because he wanted to hobble a big-market team to level the playing field.

I find it fascinating that there aren’t more “Michael Jordan” situations, where the ex-players are dominant PARTS OF AN OWNERSHIP GROUP.

Has anyone yet eclipsed Alex Rodriguez's career baseball earnings of about $440M? Trout and Machado will, Judge will come close. Of course that says nothing about endorsements, but it also ignores taxes and agent fees. As much as the big contracts have ballooned, so too have the franchise values. Case in point,

Why wouldn’t, say, the 90’s Yankees get together, and buy a team?

Even the big five of Posada, Jeter, Pettitte, Williams, and Rivera "only" grossed $795M.

But also true that Selig clueless about tech.

Perhaps the only area where I'll speak well of Selig is that he launched MLB Advanced Media and it became an unquestioned strength and success during his commissionership.

30--knew someone would go there. My understanding is that Selig supported it because it could be monetized.

David Beckham's ownership group owns Inter Miami CF in MLS.

30--knew someone would go there. My understanding is that Selig supported it because it could be monetized.

Hadn't heard that, but I'd expect that from a business operation. To his credit—or whomever or whatever informed him—to see the opportunity in 2000 and do it so well is something I'll tip my cap toward. Computer-based capabilities back then were barebones—heck, dial-up was predominant—and it would be another seven years until the still-current idea of a smartphone was launched. MLB AM nailed its mission about as well as could be imagined. For me it's the one silver lining on the cloud of Selig's tenure.

33: Totally agree that Selig got the decision correct. Just didn't think it was any tech savvy. Selig was always looking for revenue streams and when this was presented to his credit he said yes.

David Beckham's ownership group owns Inter Miami CF in MLS.

And that was before he doubled his personal wealth by being Qatar's useful grinning idiot.

33: Totally agree that Selig got the decision correct. Just didn't think it was any tech savvy. Selig was always looking for revenue streams and when this was presented to his credit he said yes.

I don't even think it was all that savvy. Broadcast.com made bank out of nothing because MLB sold Mark Cuban internet streaming rights for literally almost nothing. After it was proven that baseball could make money doing the thing, it was a no-brainer decision to NOT sell the rights for nothing a second time.

Many people have forgotten Reggie’s attempt to kill the Queen now, but 20 years ago it was probably more of a publicity issue

More like 35 years ago

Athletes really haven’t made the kind of money needed to buy a sports team for that long. And a lot of athletes are not very good with money, or at least prioritize other things with their spending.

There are examples of players being part of the ownership group (Nolan Ryan with the Rangers, Magic with the Dodgers) but I’m not sure how much money they put up (in Ryan’s case, I’m sure it wasn’t much).

As far as I know in both cases it's single digits.