Customer Reviews

May the Best Team Win: Baseball Economics and Public Policy

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Bob Costas's popular "Fair Ball" was an examination of baseball from the fan's perspective. "May the Best Team Win" is a similar work, but is written from the point of view of a professor of economics. Mr. Zimbalist's writing style is often just what you would expect from an economist; the text is very dense and may turn off some readers. Luckily, the book's fault is also its strength. The well-researched analysis provides irrefutable arguments in favor of making changes in the game, and educates the reader far better than other authors' attempts.

This deeply probing work uncovers the abuses and inefficiencies in the baseball industry, and concludes that baseball's monopoly is the devil in the details. Team owners use their monopoly power to "derive higher returns, misallocate resources, and take advantage of consumers." Any fan who has paid $5 for a ballpark hot dog will definitely empathize with his findings.

"May the Best Team Win" addresses the competitive balance (or competitive imbalance), the myth of non-profitability, the collective bargaining agreements, and how teams convince cities to foot the bill for new stadiums.

In the end, Mr. Zimbalist outlines some possible solutions to help improve the game. Some of his ideas seem workable, while others seem idealistic and unrealistic. However, all of his suggestions are well worth reading. This is an ambitious effort, and fans with serious concerns about the future of the sport will definitely appreciate this analytical endeavor. Zimbalist has taken on a difficult issue, and shown that he has more than just warning track power.

Highly recommended.

This was a great view into the inner workings of baseball's front offices. Not only does it give the reader a foundation for understanding the complexities of baseball labor negotiations, but it also gives insight into foundations of free agency and many of the arcane laws that give the sport its monopoly status.

Its a quick read and a great reference for any student of the financial aspects of the game, especially those interested in reform.

I work for a professional sports franchise (but not baseball), and this book really helped me understand the issues surrounding a professional team. This covers some major subjects, such as labor agreements, stadium financing, and broadcasting deals, by using major league baseball as an example. Anyone wanting to further their knowledge of how the economics of a professional sports league should grab this book.

A solid follow up to Baseball and Billions his more extensive book on the workings of baseball. While each is now dated it is important to trace how baseball's structure really is by following where it can from. It is also interesting to see how predictions have turned out. Finally no baseball author or sports writers seem to come out with the idea that competive balance in baseball is much more then it is given credit for. Not just the Rays but also the Twins(although until this year there good years every year was a part of the problem actually) and the Giants and Rangers. Baseball has more parity then football in some studies. The other thing is does competive balance matter? People think it matters but really it doesn't so much as people like it when the Red Sox and Yankees are always in the race.

This book was published in 2002, just after the Diamondbacks won the World Series vs. the N.Y. Yankees, and before the steroid drug scandal. Zimbalist had dark premonitions about the future of baseball then, but nothing substantive has changed in terms of laws, subsidies, etc. Yet, the Tampa Ray Marlins almost won in 2008, contrary to Zimbalist's worry over big-dollar domination. He contends that MLB suffers from a lack of competitive pressure, thanks to its exemption from antitrust laws. True, a number of teams do show attendance declines since the book was written, but others show increases. A lot of the declines undoubtedly are more linked to the sagging economy than any MBL deficiencies. Even so, despite large numbers of growing empty premium seats, team revenues and values hit record values, per Forbes, 4/7/2010. Zimbalist should just relax and stick to teaching economics.

This book provided a great analysis of the economics and policies of Major League Baseball. The author's points are clear and easy to follow. While the author appers slightly more in favor of the players' perspective than the owners', he makes a point to show both sides of the argument and does not favor particular teams.

It was written in 2002 so some of the information is outdated, but it is amazing to look back and see what was important at the time, how little has actually changed since that time, and how the CBA of 2002 has impacted today's game.

Excellent book written by Andrew Zimbalist. Well written w/extremely well-fleshed out arguments. The only thing I didn't like (and this is a style thing) is the use of footnotes after the narrative in an appendix. Flipping back and forth sucks.

I thought this book gave me a brand new insight on buisness and the way this economy works. Zimbalist gave brilliant views of the corruption among the game.

A very useful and informative economic discussion of baseball. What economists often do is point out the obvious, but it is only obvious after it has been pointed out. Most interesting and informative was the discussion of the cost-revenue structure of baseball teams, and if owners actually lose money as they say. I only wish the book were longer and attempted to do more.

The author is on solid ground with the analyses and could have added some more topics to look at from the economics viewpoint. Maybe it could be updated now.

Andrew Zimbalist's "May the Best Team Win" explains to the reader just how much the game aspect of baseball has dwindled over the years. Many owners nowadays seem to want to maximize profits out of their teams, not wins.

He goes into detail about the history of the Major League Baseball Players Association (MLBPA) and their fights against ownership. It is interesting to note that while the union is portrayed as the goat for many of the past labor work stoppages, after reading this book one can understand why the union's grievances with ownership are what they are. They have also harbored feelings of distrust not just against the owners, but against commissioners as well: Ueberroth and his role in the collusion scandal of the 1980s, and Selig and his ludicrous demands thrown on the bargaining table along with his claim after the 2001 season that Major League Baseball was in the red by millions of dollars.

Zimbalist studies Major League Baseball's exemption from antitrust legislation, how it came about, and how it is congressionally and judicially deemed today. While it seems baseball will retain exemption so long as they can police themselves, given the bevy of problems plaguing the game (or, rather, business) today, it seems that the government must sooner or later step in and right the many wrongs. If baseball were not exempt from antitrust legislation, notwithstanding the fact that owners could sell a team to municipalities and amateurs could challenge the right of a team to withhold exclusive rights to their services for up to seven years, one would find out just how much money ownership really lost and by how much the number would differ from Selig's number.

He writes with a viewpoint that seems to place most of the blame, right or wrong, on ownership and the commissioner's office. Labor problems aside, if the owners and commissioner would be open and honest with the union and the government while striking accord between themselves over what issues they should bring to the bargaining table, Zimbalist seems to rightly conclude this would lead to amicable relations between the union and management. He cannot be wrong in blaming management-because of their antitrust exemption, they are given a lot of liberty that many corporations in this country do not enjoy. In addition, the owners who own other businesses (John Hart, Ted Turner, et al) can rearrange their books to categorize revenue earned from the team under their other business ventures.

He proposes many rational solutions to be implemented: a promotion/relegation system similar to the English Premier League where the worst team moves down into a second-tier league and the best team in that league moves up to the premier league; an international draft, along with more early draft picks for low-revenue teams; and an adjustment to the revenue sharing system that discourages excessive spending but will not reward low-revenue teams that simply pocket the money they receive. If the government chose to intervene, he suggests splitting MLB into the American League and the National League as two separate leagues. This, Zimbalist believes, would bring down team revenues, player salaries, and costs to attend games while at the same time resolving competitive-balance issues. These solutions are certainly not without merit, yet given the myopia of the current caretakers of the game (or, rather again, business), it is unlikely any of them will be enacted, and if so, reach remotely successful fruition.

It seems really unfortunate to think about the idea that baseball really has become less of a game and more of a business. Given the "new wave" of GMs who feel they can put a team together on the basis of sound sabermetrics, it appears that the players are seen more as commodities than they are as people. They say baseball is a game of numbers. While common numbers used to center around batting average, home runs, and runs batted in, numbers studied in the "game" today seem to include expected rate of return, comparative advantage, and cost-benefit analysis.