Remember in the days leading up to Ohtani to the Dodgers? A number of people and those supposedly in the know, mistook Shark Tank investor, Robert Herjavec for Shohei Ohtani. Hey, all those really rich guys look alike when they board planes.
No longer a reality television drone, I hadn’t thought about Shark Tank in years. However, Herjavec brought to mind erstwhile MLB owner wanna-be, Mark Cuban. Way back when, some in the local media encouraged the foolish idea that Cuban would be a great owner of the Cubs because he was a brash spender. I didn’t care then nor do I now, how much money he is worth. However, the thought of him ruffling other owners’ feathers is appealing. But, and this is a big but, we’d be subjected to his rants. Because one has billions doesn’t a great owner make.
While some people might think of him as some great owner-innovator because of some of the things he gave his Dallas Mavericks. Other owners have done other clever things for their teams. I can’t really picture Cuban sharing any of the stage with Theo Epstein.
As a passionate fan of a professional team, I’d love for my owner to spend money like Steve Cohen of the Mets has. Great wealth doesn’t confer genius though. Some will say, what do I care, it’s not my money. Unfortunately, the costs of crazy expensive players does eventually get passed on to the paying fans. Otherwise, $20 draft beers wouldn’t be the exception at ballparks.
The reality television show that’s been on my mind this offseason is Storage Wars. I haven’t seen the A&E show in years, but I recall the premise and see the analogy with ML today.
A handful of interesting character-buyers would attend storage sales and bid on lockers. The actors would only get peeks as to the contents and make educated guesses on the units’ worth. Essentially, they were hoping to pay dimes on the dollar in the hope of finding some gem. Nobody really cared if it was as phony as professional wrestling-everyone rooted for certain characters and liked to see the heels get burned. Does this sound like GM’s and owners chasing after hidden gems in the form of talent?
For sake of the analogy, this era’s Dodgers are the shop and gallery owners that don’t have to attend these low-rent auctions. They are buying directly from the nicer galleries-willing to pay top dollar for quality talent. The Yankees, Mets, Red Sox and occasional interlopers go straight for the jugular. The rest of the middle to small market teams are the ones looking for bargains in these remote locations.
The buyers on Storage Wars spent most of the time trying to sell the audience on their wonderful finds and how much money they could sell various items for in their “antique shops.” It sounds an awful like press releases from teams’ PR departments.
Correct me if I’m wrong.
