Message #482163

[NatsAddict]

When MLB had to open its 2001 parts of it books to Congress, Andrew Zimbalist and Doug Pappas went through them and found how MLB operates.

While Zimbalist went the route of writing books, Doug Pappas put his reports online in Baseball Prospectus in an eight-part series of articles.

For discussion here, parts 4, 5 and 6 may be the most interesting interesting.

Part 1 - Gate Receipts
Part 2 - Local Media Revenues
Part 3 - More Revenue
Part 4 - Player Compensation
Part 5 - National and Other Local Expenses
Part 6 - Profits and Revenue Sharing
Part 7 - Interest-ing
Part 8 - MLB vs Forbes

Of course, after being exposed, Selig instituted a gag order with a $1 million fine per violation.  He then had trouble explaining his selective enforcement of the 60/40 rule, which limited how much debt a team can carry, included the debt owed on long-term contracts (and was caught lying on several other topics as well).

Friday Afternoon with Bud -
The Commish Speaks