MLB Owner Admits Some Drugs Are OK with Him

Until this morning I thought Hank and George Steinbrenner had the greatest brain to mouth dysfunction. According to ESPN, an unidentified major league baseball team owner (not from New York) came out and stated he really isn’t concerned about his athletes taking performance enhancing drugs, he is concerned with alcoholism, cocaine and marijuana use: substances and drugs that can impair performance. If that is the truth, it explains the hesitance of the commissioner’s office to test for HGH. It’s back to being all about the money not player health.

One truth for sure, the HGH era has lead to a rise in baseball profits, on both the major and minor league level. During this era of steroids and other performance enhancing drugs, we have increased the number of major league teams, and expanded the minor leagues.

Minor league baseball, once an endangered species north of the Mason-Dixon line, has seen expansion by the major teams of Baltimore, Philadelphia, St. Louis, the New York Yankees, the New York Mets and the Boston Red Sox’s. The majority of the minor league training program for both Philadelphia and the New York Yankees is concentrated within a 90 minute drive of each team.

The Phillies have 6 minor league teams, two housed in Florida, the Clearwater Threshers, an “A” level team and the Gulf Coast Phillies, an “R” or recruitment/rookie training team. The rest of the Phillies organization is in PA, except for one of two minor league “A” teams, the Lakewood Blue Claws, located in Lakewood NJ.

The New York Yankees also have 6 minor league affiliates, however three, the Staten Island Yankees, the Trenton Thunder and the Scranton-Wilkes Barre Red Dogs are located in NY, NJ and PA respectively. Despite this strong presence of MLB farm teams; there are many other minor league teams, with no MLB affiliation that are turning a baseball profit.

In the last decade, the Atlantic League of Professional Baseball (ALPB) has expanded. The league has no affiliation with any major league baseball team this league operates in MD, PA, NJ, NY, and CT. The league founded in 1998 has brought baseball to areas where it once had faded. With that rise of baseball fever, came the MLB minor league teams to the same area, to cash in on the dollars. In search of affordable family fun, a night at an ALPB game or any MLB minor league can be less than $100 for a family. The same type of event in the MLB could run over $500 for a family.

For MLB teams, acquiring the northern minion league teams brings them new facilities. Most stadiums are less than 15 years old and designed to bring the family to the ballpark. The Yankees in the last 5 years have moved “AAA” and “AA” operations to Scranton and Trenton. And with the local popularity of baseball in NJ and PA, it guarantees they will fill the stadium; by allowing access to their developing replacement players or a site close to home for the injured to have rehab starts.

In contrast the ALPB is league of ex-players. While there are some young minor league players, the vast majority of the league is ex-MLB pros, who aren’t ready to turn in their spikes. Most notably among the names are John Rocker and Jose Canseco. The league maximum is $3000 a month, and most survive on endorsements or a well –invested MLB salary. However the stands still fill each night.

The Mitchell Report was Pandora’s Box, a plaque on baseball. Like the movie “Outbreak” the plaque continues to spread, however as of yet, no impact on baseball profits has been seen. Like watching Ian Kennedy pitch I am waiting for the other shoe to drop on baseball profits. And with this latest anonymous owner comments you have to wonder if they were just looking the other way all this time.

How will America respond now that some owner has hinted it is all about the money? We can only wait and see.