Collusions I, II ... and III (A Hard Lesson Learned) - PDF

By Maury Brown

An essay from Rob Neyer’s Big Book of Baseball Blunders : A Complete Guide to the Worst Decisions and Stupidest Moments in Baseball History

Format-Adobe PDF (5 pages)

Blunders can cost a team games. Big games. Blunders have changed the course of franchises. A few blunders have even resulted in Curses.

But this blunder is bigger than all of those. This blunder is bigger than perhaps any other blunder in the game’s long history; bigger, that is, than any blunder but the one that left so many wonderful ball players in the shadows for far too long (and that one’s so big that it wouldn’t fit in this big book).

Peter Ueberroth, Major League Baseball’s sixth Commissioner, got owners started down their ruinous path on October 22, 1985. After eleven straight years of supposed financial losses for the “industry,” Ueberroth addressed the owners at the headquarters of Anheuser Busch (courtesy of Gussie Busch, one of the original hard-line owners).

At one point in what amounted to a stern lecture, Ueberroth said,

If I sat each one of you down in front of a red button and a black button and I said, “Push the red button and you’d win the World Series but lose $10 million. Push the black button and you would have a $4 million profit and you’d finish in the middle.” You are so damned dumb. Most of you would push the red button. Look in the mirror and go out and spend big if you want, don’t go out there whining that someone made you do it.

In closing, Ueberroth told his employers, “I know and you know what’s wrong. You are smart businessmen. You all agree we have a problem. Go solve it.”

This essay is republished by permission of Rob Neyer and Fireside Publishing. To read the rest of this essay, select the link to the PDF document provided.

Comments (3)

Subscribe to this comment's feed

pdf link broken
written by John Brattain, November 11, 2008

Yo, Hell's Angel ... could you send me the pdf of your collusion essay (or fix the link) when you get some time please? I keep getting a 404 message when I click on the link.

Thanks in advance.

Hope all is well at your end ... especially with the progeny.

Best Regards

John

• 
• +0
• 
• 

Mr. Brattain. All Fixed
written by Maury Brown, November 11, 2008

Well, well, well... How are you, Mr. Brattain? I have fixed the link. Seems to be one of those files that missed the boat when we conducted the site migration to the new servers. Stay in touch.

-- The Hells Angel

• 
• +0
• 
• 

Awesome
written by John Brattain, November 11, 2008

I will--I haven't forgotten about you (try as I might *g*) but the season had me on a brutal schedule.

I have a local friend with an autistic son that hit puberty a year or so ago and every time I speak to him I wonder how things are going at your end.

Thanks again and stay strong--I needn't tell you where you can find some extra help :-)

Best Regards

John

• 
• +0
• 
• 

Title

Comment

smaller | bigger

Subscribe via email (registered users only)

I have read and agree to the Terms of Usage.

Write the displayed characters

Add Comment