I read this article from CBS Sports on comments made by the Colorado Rockies owner, Dick Monfort, expressing his displeasure with how much the San Diego Padres have spent this off-season. What his comments basically amount to is griping that the Padres are a small market team and are “setting a bad example” for other teams who can’t (read: don’t) spend as much (read: don’t have a desire to win, but would rather just run their teams as a business venture).
I loved this quote from the article:
"The single biggest problem in Major League Baseball right now -- and the driver of many related problems -- is the owner who doesn't care about winning, who views the franchise as a portfolio holding rather than a civic treasure that carries with it certain obligations. Worst of all, owners can invest in the payroll and still remain quite profitable, such are the immense revenue streams that teams enjoy in exchange for merely existing. Too many, though, would prefer to cash those checks while putting forward very little effort toward the only thing that justifies their existence. That thing is trying to win baseball games like, you know, the small-market San Diego Padres."
I feel like I’m ripping a scab off again because there were some heated, yet, I felt, good debates on the Brewer Fanatic Facebook posts during the Winter Meetings and right after. However, I’m still wondering if the Brewers will remain in the “Rockies camp” and stand by their claim they can’t spend X amount of dollars, or, adopt more of a “Padres camp” approach in the offseason and commit to do whatever necessary to bring a World Series title to Milwaukee - a small market, yes, but one that is a baseball-first city who very much supports the team.
More importantly, I wish just one Milwaukee sports media person would ask GM Matt Arnold and owner Mark Attanasio, “How important is it to try to win a World Series vs. ‘put a good team on the field [something Arnold has said multiple times as of late]’?”
A lot of people think one helps get to the other, but in reality, one is a commitment. The other is…just business.
