Mailbag: Answering your Thunder questions
The following letters have been edited for brevity.
My family, and many friends are angered about the Thunder/ Yankees split. I read your article and was hoping for some explanation as to why the split occurred. You went out of your way to say capitalism was at fault but I didn’t see any facts to back that up. I’d just like to know where to direct my anger. Did Somerset offer a better financial deal? Did Trenton not do something that caused the break up? A followup article with that information would be great.
— Tom Kane
We can only speculate about why the move was made because the Yankees have offered no explanation. One of the Thunder owners accused them of preferring Somerset because the ballpark is located in a more affluent neighborhood than the one in Trenton. That’s only an allegation but it sounds plausible to me. It sounds like precisely the sort of thing Yankees president Randy Levine would do and precisely the reason why he would do it. If that is the reason, he’s smart enough not to admit it.
By the way, I do not blame capitalism for the loss of the Thunder. I do blame a particular mind-set in which some people cite capitalism as justification when a one-sided business deal is forced upon an unwilling participant. I’m an American and I’ve lived quite well under capitalism all my life. But I believe we can practice capitalism and still protect small businesses like the Thunder from being crushed by large monopolies.
Doesn’t your analogy miss a key point? MLB and MiLB were in a partnership in which MiLB teams provided a service (training players) to parent teams in exchange for money (which did flow both ways, but on balance MiLB was clearly seriously underwritten by MLB). Isn’t this just the money side of the partnership becoming dissatisfied with the product and making an adjustment? Weren’t the Thunder just outcompeted by the Patriots? There’s no prohibition on baseball in Trenton; the Yankees simply found a better partner. Isn’t that part of the essence and risk of such agreements?
— Patrick M. Sullivan
You’re right. This is a case of a buyer choosing to terminate his relationship with one seller and doing business with a competitor instead. Things like this happen every day in the free market. But I think it’s a stretch to call this a free market. A free market exists only when the buyer and the seller have choices to make.
In this case the seller’s only option was to do whatever the buyer demanded. If The Thunder didn’t like Major League Baseball’s offer they couldn’t turn to X, Y or Z because there was no X, Y or Z to turn to. MLB controls almost all of professional baseball in America and firstyear economics student could tell you that probably constitutes a monopoly.
There’s no law against operating a monopoly. However, the United States anti-trust statutes prohibit the use of a monopoly to restrain trade. When a monopoly dictates unfair terms to a supplier that might be deemed a restraint of trade.
Only a federal judge can say whether or not baseball has violated the anti-trust laws and that can only happen at the end of a trial. MLB is doing its best to make sure no such trial ever occurs. Every minor league team has been told that one condition of continued association with MLB is that it waives its right to sue.
I find myself wondering if that, in itself, isn’t a violation of the antitrust laws.
Enjoyed reading your column “Thunder got screwed by MLB’s greed.” Indeed MLB found it “inconvenient” that the Trenton Thunder continue to operate at the AA level despite years, 18 to be exact, of overwhelming support from the Trenton community. SHAMEFUL!!
I have been a lifelong fan of the Yankees for 70 years...sticking with them through thick and thin. For more years than I care to remember, I make several bus trips each year to Yankee Stadium and pay an outrageous price for a ticket, $18 for a beer, and $14 for a hot dog. But I do it. With the Thunder, I would bring my entire family, buy inexpensive tickets, eat inexpensive ballpark food at a premier ballpark, have great seats, watch future Yankees, and not spend the monthly mortgage payment.
We are now left with a Thunder team of young amateur players, playing 34 home games a year instead of 71 games per year. I wonder if the Trenton community will continue to support the Thunder since we have been essentially downgraded. Without community support, the result may be that we will lose the franchise completely.
— Ed Vreeswyk
One small correction. The Thunder have been here for 27 years. Every one of those years, except for the Covid season, was a financial and entertainment success. They certainly haven’t been downgraded because of their own failures.
I was wondering if you had thoughts on Dick Allen passing.
— Chris Baud
Nice to hear from you again, Chris. Before I answer your question let me first remind our readers that you are a former member of The Trentonian sports staff. Now, about Dick Allen...
I have been watching baseball since 1951 and I have seen only two players — Willie Mays and Jose Canseco — who I thought had more natural ability than Allen. He could swing the heaviest bat in the bat rack and whip it through the strike zone as though it were a toothpick. In his younger days he hit a number of tape measure home runs completely out of Connie Mack Stadium. The left field stands were two decks high with a roof on top but Allen was capable of clearing that roof on the fly.
Unfortunately, two factors tempered what should have been a great baseball career. One factor was Allen, himself. He tended to be irresponsible and sometimes didn’t even bother to show up for ballgames. The other was the Phillies, who were amazingly stupid and insensitive, especially during the early part of his career.
The Phillies were the last National League team to integrate and Allen was the first African-American player of any consequence to wear their uniform. The year before they brought him to the big leagues
they sent him to Little Rock, Ark., for a season of development at the AAA level. At the time bigotry and Jim Crow laws flourished in Arkansas but he was expected to endure them. When he arrived in Philadelphia in 1964 they told him his name would be “Richie,” even though he hated that name. The Phillies didn’t care what he thought. Richie Ashburn had been a popular Phillie and they wanted another Richie.
Looking back, it’s clear that Allen flourished under some managers. He was a three-time All-Star for the Phillies when Gene Mauch managed the team but was much less productive under Mauch’s successors. Later he had three more All-Star seasons for the White Sox under Chuck Tanner. Mauch and Tanner were very different managers but I consider them two of the best I ever saw. They both knew how to get the most from a talented ballplayer.