San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
Sanders trying to save minor league baseball
Bernie Sanders called. He was talking baseball, and you could hear the passion. The Dodgers were his team when he grew up in Brooklyn, watching Jackie Robinson play. The Dodgers are not his team anymore, having moved to Los Angeles.
The pain of a community losing its team still resonates with him, decades later. He was the mayor of Burlington, Vt., in 1984 when the city landed a minor league team. When he learned last month that major league owners wanted to kill the team, he could do something about it. As a United States senator and candidate for president he could raise hell about it.
The Vermont Lake Monsters, an affiliate of the A’s, are among 42 teams that major league owners have targeted for elimination. The owners say they want to streamline player development, improve facilities, ease travel burdens and improve working conditions for prospects most likely to reach the major leagues. For every team that would be lost, Major League
Baseball promises to work to replace it with a team in a college summer league, or in a lastchance independent pro league.
Congress has formed a task force to oppose the plan. Sanders, a democratic socialist, and Rep. Kevin McCarthy (RBakersfield) and the House minority leader, are among more than 100 members of Congress who have signed letters urging MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred to back off.
Sanders met with Manfred this past week, before representatives from MLB and the minor leagues are scheduled to meet in San Diego.
Here is how the questionandanswer portion of the phone call with the Los Angeles Times went:
Sanders: Let me just say a few words. Some 30 years ago, I helped bring minor league base
ball — it was a DoubleA team affiliated with the Cincinnati Reds — to Vermont. What I saw with my own eyes is what minor league baseball does to a community. It is especially gratifying to see kids go out to the ballgames, families able to afford the relatively low price of tickets, and kids get autographs from the players. There’s just a huge amount of excitement and community spirit.
I was very distressed to hear that major league baseball wants to eliminate baseball in 42 communities, including Burlington, Vt., where we now have a lowerlevel team associated with the Oakland A’s. I think what we have to appreciate is that Major League Baseball is not just a business. It is called the national pastime for a reason.
We have a situation today where Major League Baseball is mostly owned by a group of billionaires, people who have tremendous wealth. Last year, Major League Baseball made nearly $1.2 billion in profits, up 38% from the previous year. It is a business that uniquely receives an antitrust exemption from the United States Congress and over the years has received many hundreds of millions of dollars in corporate welfare from communities all over this country where taxpayers build stadiums for their owners.
Q: You put out a statement after the meeting. So did the commissioner. Each of you emphasized your concern. But do you believe you made any progress?
A: I hope. Representatives from minor league baseball will be meeting with Major League Baseball in San Diego, and I do hope what Major League Baseball will do is sit down and negotiate seriously, and they will take off the table this simply outrageous idea that they can simply shut down these 42 teams around the country that are so important to those communities. That demand should be taken off the table, and the major and minor league organizations can come to an agreement.
Q: Every time something happens in baseball that gets the attention of Congress, the possibility is floated that Congress might take away baseball’s antitrust exemption. That never happens. Why should baseball be concerned that it actually might this time?
A: The Congress of the United States has given a great deal to Major League Baseball, and Major League Baseball owes consideration to the people of this country not to shut down 42 teams. All I can say is that I have the feeling I am not just speaking for myself, as a United States senator from Vermont. I think you will find many, many members of the House and the Senate who are prepared to take a hard look at that issue if Major League Baseball moves forward and shuts down baseball in 42 communities.
Q: Do you believe this issue is emblematic of other issues you see in your campaign?
A: Once you are talking about a small number of incredibly wealthy people — a number of them are actually billionaires — who are making huge amounts of money. Apparently, what they want is to make even more money, even if it means taking minor league baseball away from 42 communities.
We call that corporate greed, when very wealthy and powerful people could care less about the communities, and 1,200 young ballplayers, and all they are interested in is increasing their profits . ... Major league owners have got to understand that this is not just a profitmaking business. This is something that millions of people, and kids, think about, pay attention to, and feel strongly about. This is the national pastime.