Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig and his Capitalist Cronies have come up with a new way to squeeze more money out of the fans for tickets.  They offer you the opportunity to “upgrade” your seat location during a game with a new phone app, Mobile Seat Upgrade.

Here is the party line:

“This is designed to give fans a little more during the game,” Steve Fanelli, Oakland A’s executive director of ticket sales and operations, said of the upgrade app. “We’re just trying to completely engage the consumer, from the purchase process and throughout, through their mobile. If we have inventory, we want to give them something new to try.”

Bollocks!

It is designed to make fans pay extra [$5-$55, avg. $16] and fill the empty seats at a game.  With all the vacant seats in his Oakland Coliseum, Steve Fanelli has a lot of gall to spin it as giving “fans a little more.”

If MLB teams and Selig were not so attached to the bottom line, maximizing profit by wringing every last dime out of their fans, they would allow fans to relocate to any empty seats after the Third inning.  This would allow fans, especially kids, to see the game from the more expensive seats; so, maybe when they grow up and have the money, they might be willing to pay the price for them.

“Should MLB succeed with the ticketing-upgrade feature, other leagues, and just about any ticketed event for that matter, will likely follow suit with their own features or apps.” [http://www.sfgate.com/giants/article/MLB-puts-squeeze-on-sneaky-fans-with-app-4360795.php]

Anyone who has ever played “Dodge The Usher” at a game knows the thrill of “upgrading” and we would bring binoculars to games, so we could spot the empty seats downstairs from our lofty perch on the second or third deck.  Or, we waited near the main exit for well-dressed departing fans and asked for their ticket stubs.

This is another example of how Major league baseball has become another business owned by corporations to turn a maximum profit and why Minor league attendance his breaking records.

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inter-league games in late September:

Boston Red Sox at Colorado Rockies, 9/24, 25

S. F. Giants at  N.Y. Yankees, 9/20, 21, 22

During the home stretch of the 162-game race, the rhythm of contending teams will be disrupted by inter-league games, just when teams should be going mano-a-mano with their division rivals.

With Bud moving the Houston Astros to the American League to create two 15-team leagues, there is going to be inter-league play virtually every day next season.

“It will force teams to mix and match based on whether they’re in an AL or an NL ballpark while simultaneously trying to maintain a good standing in the postseason picture.” [Zachary D. Rymer, Cal grad, 2010. http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1332238-2013-mlb-schedule-5-interleague-series-that-will-determine-playoff-races]

In 2013, the Red Sox will  play NL West teams, as they’ll host the Colorado Rockies (June 25-26), San Diego (July 2-4) and Arizona, dates to be finalized.

They will visit San Francisco from Aug. 19-21, the Dodgers from Aug. 23-25 and Colorado in their final road trip of the season.

Bud’s Wild Card, sudden death playoff scheme is stupid; baseball has always rewarded the long-distance runner, not the sprinter, during its regular season; now, a WC team can finish barely over .500 and, with two starters, run the table to the World Series.

Isn’t it time for MLB to consider restructuring the divisions?

Baseball purists may need to realize that it is way too late to reverse course and accept that a change to four divisions may be a step in the right direction.  It would eliminate the WC circumlocutions and, maybe, it might lead to more improvements, like canning the DH and inter-league play.

For all his BS about the sanctity and history of the game, Bud was willing to move the Seattle Pilots to Milwaukee as the AL Brewers; then move the Brewers to the NL; then move the more historically established Houston franchise to the NL.  He also played Three Card Monty and killed off the Montreal Expos:

“On December 20, 2001, the Boston Red Sox were sold to a partnership led by John W. Henry, the owner of the Florida Marlins. The purchase was approved by the MLB owners in January.^[5][6] To clear the way for Henry’s group to formally take control of the Red Sox, Henry sold the Marlins to Loria for $158.5 million.” [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montreal_Expos#Purchase_by_Major_League_Baseball]

Result:  Loria got rid of the Expos; Henry got rid of the Florida Marlins and bought the Red Sox; Montreal got the shaft.  Once Bud’s Master Plan to merge the Expos and the Twins was thwarted, when the Metrodome owners file a lawsuit, Selig had MLB, i.e. the Commissioner’s Office, buy and own the Expos, until they could be sold for a handsome profit [$340 million] and shipped to Washington.

Bud stole the Expos for $120 million and then sold it for $450 million.

Where did that $350 million profit go?

Major League Baseball announced in July 2006 that it had chosen the Lerner Enterprises group, led by billionaire real estate developer Theodore N. Lerner. The final sale price of the team was $450 million and the transfer of ownership was completed July 24, 2006. [source: WIKIpedia]

The Washington Nationals organization sold the rights to Youppi, the Expos mascot, to the Montreal Canadiens hockey team for an undisclosed amount and a mascot to be named later.

We will propose a reorganization of MLB divisions in another post.

HOW WOULD YOU ORGANIZE MLB?

WHAT ABOUT THE DH?

WHAT ABOUT EXPANSION, CONTRACTION, OR RELOCATION?

WHO IS YOUR CANDIDATE TO REPLACE SELIG AS COMMISSIONER?

I nominate Keith Olbermann. ‘His bark is as bad as his bite.’

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We call “horseshit” on the Fenway Brain Truss [Larry, John & Benny] for the way they are “managing” the Boston Red Sox franchise. Isn’t it way past time that the citizens of Red Sox Nation buy the team from these management morons?

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Who kidnapped our Red Sox?  The Owner? CEO? GM? Manager? Players?

Hand me my Red Sox souvenir Giant Foam Finger: ALL of the above! And it’s time for the Citizens of Red Sox Nation to take their team back!

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[Ed. Note:  We have attempted to make the case that the current owner, CEO, GM, manager, and players are ruining the Boston Red Sox.  Now, in the last of the 6-part series, we propose a solution.]

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We the people of Red Sox Nation, in order to form a more perfect team, believe it is our duty to the Boston Red Sox franchise and the game of baseball to buy the team and own it forever.

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We ask for a FIFTH time: Who kidnapped our Red Sox?

Hand me my Red Sox souvenir Giant Foam Finger, YET, ONCE AGAIN!

A: ALL of the above! And it’s time for the Citizens of Red Sox Nation to take their team back!

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We ask for a FOURTH time: Who kidnapped our Red Sox?

Hand me my Red Sox souvenir Giant Foam Finger, ONCE AGAIN!

A: ALL of the above! And it’s time for the Citizens of Red Sox Nation to take their team back!

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We ask for a THIRD time: Who kidnapped our Red Sox?

Hand me my Red Sox souvenir Giant Foam Finger, yet AGAIN!

ALL of the above! And it’s time for the Citizens of Red Sox Nation to take their team back!

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We ask for a second time: Who kidnapped our Red Sox?

Hand me my Red Sox souvenir Giant Foam Finger, AGAIN!

ALL of the above! And it’s time for the Citizens of Red Sox Nation to take their team back!

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Who kidnapped our Red Sox?

Hand me my Red Sox souvenir Giant Foam Finger: ALL of the above! And it’s time for the Citizens of Red Sox Nation to take their team back!

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The Red Sox need a front-line starter to compete for a slot in the AL playoffs.

By now every Tom, Nick, and Larry, websites and bloggers, came to a consensus about that weeks ago; last week even GM Ben spoke about the need for starting pitching on Sirius XM with Casey Stern and Jim Bowden of MLB Network Radio.

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It’s long past time to revise the voting for the All-Star game by taking the Commissioner and the managers out of it, limiting the role of the fans, and allowing the active MLB players to decide which of their peers gets the honor of playing in the Midsummer Night’s Dream Game.

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source credit: WICKED GOOD SPORTS

If Carl Crawford’s injury woes continue and he never returns to his former level of performance, will it be the worst contract in MLB history?

You may come to a different conclusion, after reviewing the list below, but the Crawford contract–$142 million over 7 years, or $20.3 million per year–leaves the Red Sox with a potential budget albatross that could drain their resources and crimp their spending until 2018.

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With the Red Sox collapse of ’11, you might say that this is a no brainer. You might say of course this is a good idea, after all if it had been in place last season the Sox may have added some new bling under those batting gloves. This is true but there is a big downside to this new format. The two wild card winners will play a one game playoff. Yes I said ONE game.

In a one game playoff anything can happen. If you dont believe me, go ask the 2007 San Diego Padres. In ’07 the Padres tied with the Colorado Rockies in the regular season and then lost the one game playoff while the Rockies went on to play in the World Series. (Losing to the Sox, of course.)

How disappointing that must have been, having your World Series hopes end before they really even started. Its exciting to watch but is it good for the game we all love? Lets look at it even further.

Lets say the American League looks like this in 2012: (These are not projections, just examples)

AL East Winner: Yankees (Just an example, Relax!) 98-64

AL Central Winner: Tigers 95-67

AL West Winner: Rangers 94-68

AL Wild Card #1: Red Sox 97-65

AL Wild Card #2: Angels 92-70

Under the new playoff format the Red Sox would play the Angels in a one game playoff. Winner goes to the Division Series. Now lets say that the Red Sox send Jon Lester to the mound, he is ineffective and the Sox lose the game. Season over, no second chances. Pack up and go home. Nevermind the fact that the Red Sox won five more games in the regular season, their fate rests on just one.

This isnt the way baseball is played. Baseball is full of averages, everything is determined by what teams and players do over the course of many games. Not just one game. There are too many variables in baseball to place the fate of any team on a single game. If the new rule featured even a three game series I would be on board but at this point I cant step onto the bandwagon. Its exciting to watch every few years when teams tie but it should not become a standard.

As Red Sox fans, what do you think? Do you support the one game playoff? Or do you support this format at all? Let us at BoSox Injection know what you think below.

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