Think our beloved author was wearing his ruby slippers when he wrote up this one. Here’s my turn as ‘Toto’. At a holiday dinner party. Met nice guy. Quiet. Get to talking. Turned out he’s manager of a fund that invests in about 5 - 6 pro franchises (an owner). Levels weren’t insignificant. Most MLB, some other pro league teams. A couple teams were even rivals, so asked the obvious; how’d he feel about/pick the teams individually? These guys do not concern themselves w the teams results/players … other than passing interest. It is purely for financial participation in a monopoly with amazing returns. And those returns further amped w incredible tax deductions (I.E. commenter note — even when you and I aren’t paying for tickets (voting w feet), we are still are subsidizing these fat cats!) Asked it they ever get involved w fun club calls for cash as depicted in MoneyBall. Nope. Go to lots of games? Nope. About one a year per club. On certain investor days. Zero attachment to any of stuff fans cry about. Just great returns from participating in a monopoly that just appreciates. Trade in and out of teams like RE speculator. Quite a contrast to characterization written above. Brought back memory of Steinbrenner’s timely passing right AFTER Bush JR. got rid of inheritance tax. Speaking of small fixes. Let’s bring that back. Anything to help ensure all these brats don’t keep inheriting daddy’s franchises. They’re largely incompetent. Like Joaquin Phoenix character in Gladiator. If they want a franchise, they can work to earn it like Dad.
Why do you even follow Joe? If you follow him, you know he's a dreamer. You know he sees baseball the same way we all did when we were 10. That's the joy of reading his articles. Even though he knows better, even though he's a seasoned reporter who has first hand experience with surly players, work stoppages, moneyball, and scandals involving both players and owners, he STILL sees baseball the way we all did when we were kids. His love is that pure. Don't get me wrong, his brain sees all the reasons to doubt, but in spite of that his heart still sees sandlot ball. Why try to ruin that?
While you are talking about the inheritance tax, as someone who sees a lot of tax returns, the number of taxpayers that make pretty much all of their money on capital gains and qualified dividends from inherited money grows every year, and their max tax bracket is 20% on that money - and it has to be really high to get there. Let's say 2 single people have $500,000 in income. One makes a salary and one has capital gains. The guy who makes a salary pays $148,757 in federal taxes. The inheritor pays $70,762. Not to mention the $23, 614 the first guy pays in social security and medicare that the second guy does not.
The system is set up so that the progeny of the rich get rich and stay rich. Taxing capital gains like any other income would create a lot of money for the country and not be punitive to the working man.
Get 10,000 readers to pay five bucks a month. That's $50,000 a month income. The government takes half. That leaves you with $25,000 a month, or $300,000 after taxes per year. Learn to live on $100,000 in annual expenses. That's a pretty nice lifestyle. Save the rest.
That leaves you with a net of $200,000 per year after taxes and expenses.
Keep up this pace, and by the year 7023 you'll be a billionaire.
On the good side, if Joe makes $600,000 in North Carolina, he keeps about $396,000 of it, (After Federal, State, Social Security, and Medicare and that is if he doesn't itemize or write off business expenses, and you know he probably does both.
On the bad side, he probably is spending better than 50K a year on college right now.
I am a 33 year San Diego resident, moving here from the east coast in 1989. I was a Yankees fan as a kid (starting in 1972, so I was weened on bad baseball) and decided that I would embrace my new city by rooting for its team instead. My first Padres game was August 11, 1989. Andy Benes made his first big league start and gave up 6 earned runs in 6 innings. Kind of laid the groundwork for the next 30 years of my Padres fandom.
Joan Kroc owned the team at that point. She was a fantastic philanthropist, but none of that McDonald's money every really filtered down to the team. Tony Gwynn was an amazing gift to this city, 1998 was a great ride, which directly caused the passage of the vote to fund Petco Park. John Moores proved to be an unremarkable owner who leveraged the new ballpark to even greater wealth, but he was smart enough to hire Larry Lucchino who knew a thing about building downtown ballparks.
Of course the braintrust of the late 90s Padres fled to Boston and won 4 WS in 20 years, while the Padres proceeded to give us 15 years of AAAA baseball, punctuated by the disasterous Jeff Moorad ownership. Things were beyond bleak.
When the Chargers finally left town, Peter Seidler showed up to save the day and show SD what a real owner could deliver. I can't imagine there is an owner in baseball more beloved by his fan base at this moment. He says he can't take his money with him, and apparently means it. Will this team win a WS this year? I doubt it, Padres will Padres. BUT, expect them to be fun on and off the field, draw over 3 million people, and absolutely give this community something to bond around.
It's not my money he's spending, but my sons and I will be indirect beneficiaries of it. And what more can you ask for?
What strikes me is *how* these owners made their money. Poz tells us that John Henry struck it rich by proving "...“mechanical non-discretionary trading decisions in response to systematic determinations of reversals in each market’s direction,” and Peter Seidler made his by "...by founding some private equity firm,,,"
Or--they made their money not by creating things that would make the average American better off, but by manipulating other people's money.
Seems to me that the world would be no worse off if neither of them had never existed.
Ehhhhh, kinda. The last thirty years have been some of the most capital-rich in history, because we have the biggest generation in history (the baby boomers) reaching the height of their working lives and then retiring. There's more money sloshing around the system than there's ever been before, all chasing increasingly-quick returns so the boomers can wring that last little bit out into their pension funds.
So yeah, a lot of the way that modern finance is constructed is weird and icky. But there was always going to be a major spike in demand for financial services over the last couple decades, simply because there was a lot of money chasing the maximum possible short term return on investment.
For what it's worth, I have heard of Jensen Huang, because he runs NVIDIA, the company that makes the majority of graphics cards that are sold and marketed to gamers and other nerds!
I work for Jensen. He's brilliant. Not much of a baseball guy but several of us NVIDIA executives are season ticket holders of the Proud and Glorious San Francisco Giants. So there's that.
Ah, come on, if I owned a team, I would go to a great majority of the games both home and away. I would get to meet players and their families. I would be able to do baseball related charities. That is, supporting local teams, Little League, camps for children and adults. I would be able to support charities such as having a pink ribbon day at the park etc. I would be careful not to interfere with the actual baseball experts but could enjoy just being around it.
I can tell you a little bit about the Johnson family of Wisconsin and nothing I can tell you is good. So, yeah, other than MacKenzie Scott, I really can't name a billionaire I have a positive opinion of. Ironically, I have a modestly positive opinion on Mark Attanasio, who has kept the Brewers competitive while other small market teams periodically ride the tank, and is by the standards of whatever article Joe was reading *not* a billionaire.
Yeah that sounds good Joe but did you read today’s story in the Washington Post about Daniel Snyder & all his problems with sexual harassment lawsuits, emails, using investigators to dig up dirt in his fight with the NFL? Sounds like a den of vipers!
For all the many ways the NFL is problematic, the one thing they did manage to get right was revenue sharing and a salary floor/cap. While there may be a few cheap owners there, for the most part the owner’s wealth isn’t an obstacle to a team winning. And it’s a lot harder for an owner to pocket money at the expense of the on field product.
We will probably never see that in MLB - and I’m not sure if today’s NFL would have it either if it hadn’t done it long ago starting with shared TV money in the ‘60’s - but it would be nice if baseball fans didn’t have to care so much about how rich and invested in winning their team’s owner is.
And why would I not do other fun things like getting the surviving Beatles and the Beatles' musician kids into a band for an album? Launch another season of Brockmire? Give every schoolkid with perfect attendance or all A grades or just being menches free tickets?
I think I would have much more fun than most billionaires seem to have.
I grew up wanting to be a major league ballplayer--like many. I read the daily box scores -like many. I am bummed when my team loses. Joe strikes out in his column. He foul tips when he noted that teams are more like hobbies, with owners who do not have a trace of the best of Veeck. He misses when he wrote that being civic minded is not fun. Joe-you just reinforced greed. Joe also swung and missed about not mentioning relative salaries. How many years does the average American have to work to make Judge's salary. The national average U.S. income in 2021 was $97,962. The median U.S. income in 2021 was $69,717. Sure, I would want to own a team. I would rather have just played a year in the majors.
First, the numbers you mentioned are household incomes, not what the average worker makes.
Secondly, why in the world would Joe mention player salaries when talking about billionaires? Aaron Judge has a marketable skill that you don't possess. People will pay good money to see him and buy his jersey or whatever. People talk about him in sports and in regular news as well. The vast majority of them know his name as well as his face. What unique marketable skill do you have? How many people know your name and face or would pay to watch you do something or want your autograph?
You may or may not be an "average American." Judge is not. The fact that he makes much more than you do is what the market will bear, and what he is deemed to be worthy of being paid. His money, and his skills, have nothing to do with you, or this story.
Bonus points for the "Brewster's Millions" reference.
Think our beloved author was wearing his ruby slippers when he wrote up this one. Here’s my turn as ‘Toto’. At a holiday dinner party. Met nice guy. Quiet. Get to talking. Turned out he’s manager of a fund that invests in about 5 - 6 pro franchises (an owner). Levels weren’t insignificant. Most MLB, some other pro league teams. A couple teams were even rivals, so asked the obvious; how’d he feel about/pick the teams individually? These guys do not concern themselves w the teams results/players … other than passing interest. It is purely for financial participation in a monopoly with amazing returns. And those returns further amped w incredible tax deductions (I.E. commenter note — even when you and I aren’t paying for tickets (voting w feet), we are still are subsidizing these fat cats!) Asked it they ever get involved w fun club calls for cash as depicted in MoneyBall. Nope. Go to lots of games? Nope. About one a year per club. On certain investor days. Zero attachment to any of stuff fans cry about. Just great returns from participating in a monopoly that just appreciates. Trade in and out of teams like RE speculator. Quite a contrast to characterization written above. Brought back memory of Steinbrenner’s timely passing right AFTER Bush JR. got rid of inheritance tax. Speaking of small fixes. Let’s bring that back. Anything to help ensure all these brats don’t keep inheriting daddy’s franchises. They’re largely incompetent. Like Joaquin Phoenix character in Gladiator. If they want a franchise, they can work to earn it like Dad.
Why do you even follow Joe? If you follow him, you know he's a dreamer. You know he sees baseball the same way we all did when we were 10. That's the joy of reading his articles. Even though he knows better, even though he's a seasoned reporter who has first hand experience with surly players, work stoppages, moneyball, and scandals involving both players and owners, he STILL sees baseball the way we all did when we were kids. His love is that pure. Don't get me wrong, his brain sees all the reasons to doubt, but in spite of that his heart still sees sandlot ball. Why try to ruin that?
While you are talking about the inheritance tax, as someone who sees a lot of tax returns, the number of taxpayers that make pretty much all of their money on capital gains and qualified dividends from inherited money grows every year, and their max tax bracket is 20% on that money - and it has to be really high to get there. Let's say 2 single people have $500,000 in income. One makes a salary and one has capital gains. The guy who makes a salary pays $148,757 in federal taxes. The inheritor pays $70,762. Not to mention the $23, 614 the first guy pays in social security and medicare that the second guy does not.
The system is set up so that the progeny of the rich get rich and stay rich. Taxing capital gains like any other income would create a lot of money for the country and not be punitive to the working man.
I liked the famous quote by Alfred Taubman, owner of the original Michigan Panthers of the USFL.
Someone asked him the best way to become a millionaire and he said "Start as a billionaire and buy a USFL franchise."
Joe, here's my plan for you.
Get 10,000 readers to pay five bucks a month. That's $50,000 a month income. The government takes half. That leaves you with $25,000 a month, or $300,000 after taxes per year. Learn to live on $100,000 in annual expenses. That's a pretty nice lifestyle. Save the rest.
That leaves you with a net of $200,000 per year after taxes and expenses.
Keep up this pace, and by the year 7023 you'll be a billionaire.
One caveat: You better start eating healthier.
On the good side, if Joe makes $600,000 in North Carolina, he keeps about $396,000 of it, (After Federal, State, Social Security, and Medicare and that is if he doesn't itemize or write off business expenses, and you know he probably does both.
On the bad side, he probably is spending better than 50K a year on college right now.
It's more fun to be a fan of the Padres, that's for sure.
I am a 33 year San Diego resident, moving here from the east coast in 1989. I was a Yankees fan as a kid (starting in 1972, so I was weened on bad baseball) and decided that I would embrace my new city by rooting for its team instead. My first Padres game was August 11, 1989. Andy Benes made his first big league start and gave up 6 earned runs in 6 innings. Kind of laid the groundwork for the next 30 years of my Padres fandom.
Joan Kroc owned the team at that point. She was a fantastic philanthropist, but none of that McDonald's money every really filtered down to the team. Tony Gwynn was an amazing gift to this city, 1998 was a great ride, which directly caused the passage of the vote to fund Petco Park. John Moores proved to be an unremarkable owner who leveraged the new ballpark to even greater wealth, but he was smart enough to hire Larry Lucchino who knew a thing about building downtown ballparks.
Of course the braintrust of the late 90s Padres fled to Boston and won 4 WS in 20 years, while the Padres proceeded to give us 15 years of AAAA baseball, punctuated by the disasterous Jeff Moorad ownership. Things were beyond bleak.
When the Chargers finally left town, Peter Seidler showed up to save the day and show SD what a real owner could deliver. I can't imagine there is an owner in baseball more beloved by his fan base at this moment. He says he can't take his money with him, and apparently means it. Will this team win a WS this year? I doubt it, Padres will Padres. BUT, expect them to be fun on and off the field, draw over 3 million people, and absolutely give this community something to bond around.
It's not my money he's spending, but my sons and I will be indirect beneficiaries of it. And what more can you ask for?
What strikes me is *how* these owners made their money. Poz tells us that John Henry struck it rich by proving "...“mechanical non-discretionary trading decisions in response to systematic determinations of reversals in each market’s direction,” and Peter Seidler made his by "...by founding some private equity firm,,,"
Or--they made their money not by creating things that would make the average American better off, but by manipulating other people's money.
Seems to me that the world would be no worse off if neither of them had never existed.
Ehhhhh, kinda. The last thirty years have been some of the most capital-rich in history, because we have the biggest generation in history (the baby boomers) reaching the height of their working lives and then retiring. There's more money sloshing around the system than there's ever been before, all chasing increasingly-quick returns so the boomers can wring that last little bit out into their pension funds.
So yeah, a lot of the way that modern finance is constructed is weird and icky. But there was always going to be a major spike in demand for financial services over the last couple decades, simply because there was a lot of money chasing the maximum possible short term return on investment.
For what it's worth, I have heard of Jensen Huang, because he runs NVIDIA, the company that makes the majority of graphics cards that are sold and marketed to gamers and other nerds!
I work for Jensen. He's brilliant. Not much of a baseball guy but several of us NVIDIA executives are season ticket holders of the Proud and Glorious San Francisco Giants. So there's that.
You cannot convince him to buy the As. Giants do not need any help. Not that much further to Oakland from Santa Clara.
Ah, come on, if I owned a team, I would go to a great majority of the games both home and away. I would get to meet players and their families. I would be able to do baseball related charities. That is, supporting local teams, Little League, camps for children and adults. I would be able to support charities such as having a pink ribbon day at the park etc. I would be careful not to interfere with the actual baseball experts but could enjoy just being around it.
I think they're worth 3.6 bil, not "making" 3.6 bil - net worth, not annual salary.
I can tell you a little bit about the Johnson family of Wisconsin and nothing I can tell you is good. So, yeah, other than MacKenzie Scott, I really can't name a billionaire I have a positive opinion of. Ironically, I have a modestly positive opinion on Mark Attanasio, who has kept the Brewers competitive while other small market teams periodically ride the tank, and is by the standards of whatever article Joe was reading *not* a billionaire.
Yeah that sounds good Joe but did you read today’s story in the Washington Post about Daniel Snyder & all his problems with sexual harassment lawsuits, emails, using investigators to dig up dirt in his fight with the NFL? Sounds like a den of vipers!
For all the many ways the NFL is problematic, the one thing they did manage to get right was revenue sharing and a salary floor/cap. While there may be a few cheap owners there, for the most part the owner’s wealth isn’t an obstacle to a team winning. And it’s a lot harder for an owner to pocket money at the expense of the on field product.
We will probably never see that in MLB - and I’m not sure if today’s NFL would have it either if it hadn’t done it long ago starting with shared TV money in the ‘60’s - but it would be nice if baseball fans didn’t have to care so much about how rich and invested in winning their team’s owner is.
And why would I not do other fun things like getting the surviving Beatles and the Beatles' musician kids into a band for an album? Launch another season of Brockmire? Give every schoolkid with perfect attendance or all A grades or just being menches free tickets?
I think I would have much more fun than most billionaires seem to have.
Reds fan here... laughing at people saying they're "quitting" the Red Sox
Yeah, right... you're done huh?
Good luck with that, you don't get to choose who you love, or who will hurt you in sports fandom.
I grew up wanting to be a major league ballplayer--like many. I read the daily box scores -like many. I am bummed when my team loses. Joe strikes out in his column. He foul tips when he noted that teams are more like hobbies, with owners who do not have a trace of the best of Veeck. He misses when he wrote that being civic minded is not fun. Joe-you just reinforced greed. Joe also swung and missed about not mentioning relative salaries. How many years does the average American have to work to make Judge's salary. The national average U.S. income in 2021 was $97,962. The median U.S. income in 2021 was $69,717. Sure, I would want to own a team. I would rather have just played a year in the majors.
First, the numbers you mentioned are household incomes, not what the average worker makes.
Secondly, why in the world would Joe mention player salaries when talking about billionaires? Aaron Judge has a marketable skill that you don't possess. People will pay good money to see him and buy his jersey or whatever. People talk about him in sports and in regular news as well. The vast majority of them know his name as well as his face. What unique marketable skill do you have? How many people know your name and face or would pay to watch you do something or want your autograph?
You may or may not be an "average American." Judge is not. The fact that he makes much more than you do is what the market will bear, and what he is deemed to be worthy of being paid. His money, and his skills, have nothing to do with you, or this story.