It’s do-or-die for Minnesota, which probably means die.
First pitch: 7:10 Central
Weather: Very nice, start temp 77°
Opponent’s SB site: Camden Chat
TV: BS North, MLB Free Game Of The Day (where available). Radio: As annoyed as you are
The Orioles will be starting rookie pitcher Cade Povich, who will not be revealing paternity tests on air about his guests. He is a lefthander and has about one crappy start per month.
The Twins will start Pablo López, who was not good in his last outing.
With Minnesota exactly 3 GB of the Wild Card spots occupied by Detroit and Kansas City, only a series sweep by the Twins combined with three losses by one of those other teams gets a playoff berth.
Kansas City is playing Atlanta, who is fighting for their own playoff spot. Detroit is playing the White Sox, who are fighting over who hates Jerry Reinsdorf the most.
We’re going to wrap up our Friday coverage this year with an annoying little story about how billionaire giveaways work.
So the Orioles wanted over half a billion to “renovate” Camden Yards, which as you can guess, is in no danger of falling down. Maryland’s governor Wes Moore was all set to hand them this money. Until word got out that the team was in negotiations to sell to a new owner.
So Orioles CEO John Angelos called Gov. Moore to assure him that, no, the team wasn’t selling. Gov. Moore believed him; and the team got a zillion dollars in public money.
Then promptly announced that, yup, they were selling.
(Which means the governor was played for a fool, but that’s his problem, and his constituents’.)
Of extra annoyance is that the team isn’t being sold all at once. It’s being partially sold now, and fully sold once aging team owner Peter Angelos passes away. Why is this?
It’s a perfectly legal tax dodge.
You see, Peter Angelos bought the team before Camden Yards opened. Which means that if he sells it now, he has to pay taxes on the team’s increased value. That would be a lot of taxes.
After he dies, though, the team’s value for tax purposes isn’t what Peter Angelos paid for it — it’s what the team is worth when his kids inherit it. AKA, the team’s value resets to today. They can then sell it and pay NO capital-gains taxes.
They’re have to pay some other taxes, but they’ll dodge about $300 million’s worth. And that’s just federal. They’ll be dodging state tax, too. All perfectly legal.
What is the moral of this story? There really isn’t one. Just that, as teams constantly ask for more and more public money, municipalities and states should do a better job of negotiating. The Pohlads, for example, can’t sell the Twins before 2040 without owing Hennepin County whatever the team’s increased value due to Target Field is. (Which would mean Fun Lawyer Fight, and nobody wants that.)
Since this is the last Friday preview of the year, I’m gonna leave y’all with a song that represents how I feel about baseball at the moment:
There’s a line in Jim Bouton’s Foul Ball (about trying to save a historic minor-league ballpark); “baseball is like religion — a great game with sh**ty owners.”
What I enjoy is separate from the annoying behind-the-scenes stuff; it’s in things like reading box scores, or listening to games on radio (even though Atteberry is a putz sometimes).
It’s less even about who wins and loses, except in that it makes what’s going on in any given moment more interesting.
No, it’s the game itself, and the frequently weird-but-likeable guys who play it.
And that’s probably going to go on at least a bit longer.
So, if this site is still around next year, you’ll probably see me back to write about strange baseball characters. And if not — maybe our paths will cross again, somewhere else.
It’s been fun — even if those owners sure are frustrating, sometimes!
And for less of a bummer than sports owners avoiding taxes, here’s a fun FanGraphs article by Michael Baumann about overseas soccer players visiting American sports stadiums, including Camden Yards. Here is a player from a women’s team who actually knows baseball, seen trying to explain it to her European teammates:
Hey, I’ve made that face when explaining baseball to people who didn’t grow up with it… and come to think of it, I’ve made that face listing to the Twins on radio this month!