IT'S PAY DAZE
Puzzling use of money by MLB, Rutgers
WAIT a second ...
MLB demanded the return of its $5,000 donation to the campaign of Mississippi Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith after she made a comment about a “public hanging” that was deemed racist and the revelation that she attended a segregated high school.
Wait. MLB donates to political campaigns? Regularly, tens of thousands of dollars, too. On whose instructions? The Office of the Commissioner of Baseball’s Political Action Committee. Huh?
Why does MLB have/need a political lobby? Rob Manfred’s political operatives donated five grand, the legal maximum, to her campaign in exchange for what? Money for nothing?
Was this donation to a candidate from a state that doesn’t have a big league team designed to buy influence or silence? One or both are what five grand donors expect in return.
Or does MLB’s political lobby buy 50-state protection of its Federal antitrust exemption?
Turns out MLB’s explanation on this one doesn’t conform to submitted facts. MLB claimed it made the donation in a one-shot deal, to attend a single fund-raiser “MLB lobbyists were asked to attend.”
But public records show MLB donated $2,500 twice to her campaign, months apart.
Regardless, for $5,000 MLB could have gifted Sen. Hyde-Smith two front row seats to a Yankees home game. Always plenty available!
On the subject of curious, waita-second donations, last week Rut- gers observed Giving Tuesday with two mass email solicitations.
One was from and for the athletics department, no doubt in great financial need as its Big Ten football team has created a $35 million operations deficit, a hole so deep that taxpayer and student subsidizers can’t see its bottom.
OK, so you can give to RU athletics to throw a shovel or two of dirt into that hole, or ...
The other solicitation was on behalf of non-athletic scholarship RU students, specifically those in a bad way. Kerri Wilson, an RU director of housing: “At Rutgers University many students experience food insecurity. This can mean skipping meals or eating lower-quality food that doesn’t provide the nutrients they need to fuel their minds.
“Each day I see students in need. Students who are uncomfortable asking for help. The Rutgers Student Food Pantry provides more than just a convenient, dependable source of groceri es for the week ...
“Rutgers seeks to provide educational opportunities to students regardless of their economic background or income level. Ona full stomach, students stand a better chance to excel, create and thrive at Rutgers.
“Help scrap student hunger by making a gift today!”
Starving, undernourished Rutgers students? Forgive my indelicate cynicism, Ms. Wilson, but I hope you spread that missive throughout RU’s Athletic Department. After all, since 2012 RU has burned tens of millions to sustain its deadly Big Ten football fever. But that’s RU’s No. 1 priority.
Even the low end is costly. In 2016, RU paid its football-only weights training coach $260,000, roughly twice as much as full-time professors.
Malnourished students? Truly sorrowful. But with the reminder that charity begins at home, begin with RU’s athletics department.