For good or ill, MLB favors the big market teams like the Yankees, Dodgers and Red Sox. Those teams have enormous fan bases and generate most of the ticket, merchandise, and TV revenue. Everyone else is the Washington Generals to the Harlem Globetrotters. Someone for them to play. I honestly don't know how 90% of the other teams meet even their more limited payrolls with all the empty seats. I don't watch much baseball but sometimes pause when I come across a game to marvel at how many empty seats there are. It's like something out of a post-apocalypse movie. The TV money is the only thing keeping the league afloat.
To further your point, against my better judgement/out of sheer boredom I watched bits and pieces of the Red Sox/LET'S GO O'S!! game yesterday. First off, it was painful to watch, even one of the color commentators at one point said "This game is like a root canal"...…….the endless mound visits, pitching changes, commercials between half innings, batters in and out of the box fidgeting with their helmets, batting gloves, spitting, good Christ was it a long, drawn out exercise.
The stands were 3/4'ths empty, mostly Red Sox fans to be honest in Baltimore...……...and speaking of Baltimore; my God, what fire sale they've had. I literally recognized two names in their line up, Crash Davis and his robust .150 average and that pain in the nutbag Mancini, he hits a home run every time up it seems...…...other than that, a who's who of nobodies, that team has won exactly 9 home games so far this year.
They were loaded at one point, got to the ALCS vs the Royals and that was that.
I think their payroll is about $17.35...……….wow.
But naturally someone will chime in with how the league is awash in cash, all the owners are lining their pockets and the game itself is thriving.
These eyes tell a different story.
I'll follow the RS until mid July, then when NFL camps open, I'm out.
