Empty seats an eyesore at stadiums around the league

There was once a time when it was possible to attend a major league baseball game, sit in an excellent seat, and not go broke doing it. I know that for a fact. I used to do it.

I remember paying a dollar to park my car, then walking over to the ticket window. If it was a weeknight I could almost pinpoint my seat location. I’d buy what I considered the best seat in the house and spend less than $4 for the ticket. Once inside the park the people around me were my pals for a couple of hours. We had something in common — we were all baseball fans.

A few of my pals had extraordinary eyesight. They could see everybody play from their location better than that man in blue who was only five feet away but terribly biased against the home team. Some were very smart. They could manage the team better than that idiot in the dugout who was being paid to manage it and they made cer-

tain everybody around them understood that fact. Some simply had leather lungs, a capacity for guzzling beer and a desire to holler insults.

We were all having fun at the ballpark. We, and millions like us, were the people who made baseball America’s national pastime.

I don’t know where those people are today but know where they aren’t. They aren’t in those seats anymore. Today those seats belong mostly to corporations and other business concerns which dole them out to customers, clients, employees and other associates. If some of those people happen to be baseball fans that’s purely coincidence.

The price tag for a single ticket usually runs three digits before the decimal — four digits if you want to include the luxury boxes. That isn’t something most fans feel they can afford, especially if they want to bring their family. If the true fan is even in the ballpark he’s likely to be sitting somewhere where he has a good view of the top of the blimp.

Baseball sold its economic soul to the business world, with a huge assist from the United States government. The government

decreed that as long as the seats were being used to conduct business, they could be construed as a business expense and thereby written off on the company’s income tax. Entertaining associates and providing recreation for employees was regarded as conducting business.

Put another way, they were soaking up the luxury at fancy prices and the rest of us were paying for it with our increased tax bills. It wasn’t just baseball and other sports. It was meals at fancy restaurants, rounds of golf on posh courses and who knows what else?

That appears to have changed and changed abruptly. Late last year Congress enacted a new tax law, which is now in effect. The law, itself, is very controversial. Proponents say it will stimulate the economy. Opponents say it benefits only the rich.

As far as baseball is concerned, both are wrong.

Among other things, the new law limits what companies can claim as business expenses. It makes it much more difficult for businesses to deduct the cost of baseball tickets from their tax bill. Consequently, more than a few companies chose not to renew their tickets this year.

The result is a significant drop of attendance at major league games. Eighteen of the 30 teams have seen their crowd figures dwindle. Overall the shortfall is nearly three million.

Of course, the tax law isn’t the only reason this has occurred. Weather was unusually bad early in the season and more people stayed home. But when the weather warmed up and schools recessed for the summer, attendance continued to lag.

Some argue that the game has become plodding and less appealing than it once was and that has caused attendance to drop off. That may be a valid argument, but the game’s condition has evolved over a number of years. The attendance dropoff is sudden.

By the way, television ratings have not fallen noticeably this year. That would lead to the conclusion that roughly the same number of people are watching the games. They just aren’t going to the stadiums to do it.

Frankly, they can’t afford it. *** By the way, the new tax legislation might affect baseball in an even bigger way than causing an attendance drop. It could be that every team will be required to pay a capital gains tax on every player it acquired in the trading market.

Technically, of course, teams don’t acquire players when they make trades. They acquire those players’ contracts. In the past those contracts were not subject to taxation since the teams parted with other contracts to make the acquisition.

That might still be the law — but maybe it isn’t. Legal minds appear to disagree on the meaning of the language in the law.

If it turns out that teams must pay taxes on players acquired that could open another large can of worms. What will be the basis for determining the value of each of those contracts?

If there is a tax and that tax is heavy enough it will likely curtail the trade market in the future.

A FEW STATISTICS (Wednesday’s games not included): The Cubs’ Javier Baez leads the National League in RBIs with 97. The last time a middle infielder won the NL RBI title was 1959 when Ernie Banks did it…According to Statcast, the 10 hardest hit homers this season have been hit by members of the Yankees. Giancarlo Stanton has hit eight of them, with Gary Sanchez and Aaron Judge rounding out the top 10…If errors (102) wild pitches (66) and passed balls (14) are combined, the Phillies have given their opposition 182 gifts this season, far more than any other club… The Mets’ Jacob DeGrom has given up two earned runs or fewer in nine of his last 10 starts…Freddie Freeman of the Braves, Nick Markakis of the Braves and Freddy Galvis of the Padres are the only players who have started every one of their team’s games this season. Cesar Hernandez of the Phillies, Trea Turner of the Nationals and Matt Olson of the Athletics have played in all their team’s games but not always as a starter…The Cardinals are 27-12 since Mike Shildt became the manager…The Indians are 3919 against teams in their own division. They’re 36-37 against everybody else… National League pitchers collectively have a 4.03 ERA. In the American League it’s 4.26…The Reds are 1-17 in games started by Homer Bailey…The Cubs have won 77 games. They’ve had to come from behind to win 41 of them.