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SBJ/January 15 - 21, 2001/Opinion
Share the ball field, then share the wealth
Published January 15, 2001
Marvin Miller ["Baseball panel gathers an unlikely band of share-the-wealthers," Jan. 1] takes to task the members of baseball's Blue Ribbon Panel because they are otherwise staunch capitalists but advocate a "share-the-wealth" philosophy for baseball, in which large market clubs would share more local revenue with small market clubs. There is no philosophical inconsistency, however, because those panelists would also agree that competing companies should share revenues from any product that they jointly produce.
As George Will argues, the Yankees' product is not simply Yankees' baseball, as they do not play 162 intrasquad games. The product is professional baseball games played against other clubs, and revenue is already shared from gate receipts. Sharing the revenues of a joint business venture is not socialism.
Kevin Caton
San Francisco
