Russ Paige gave up a long homer to Otis Nixon and said:
 RP>  -Free agent salaries out of control.
Despite what they try to say in the press, teams are still making a profit. 
Some teams like the Braves and the Cubs can hide their income behind the 
entities that own them but it's apparent to anyone that looks that they're 
still making a lot of money. The money is there for the owners to spend and 
the players know it.
If you want to control salaries then push for the media to stop paying them 
so much money and then they'll have to lower salaries because they won't be 
making as much money.
 RP>  -Heck, MINIMUM salaries are out of control.
If you're talking about their salary vs yours then you're correct but if 
you're talking in terms of what their industry pays then it's hardly worth 
berating them.
 RP>  -Income disparity between large market and small market teams.
I'm all for revenue sharing but I'm NOT for profit maximization. Look at SD 
and how their operation differs from Montreal and Pittsburgh. They've taken a 
leap of faith and they stand to make MORE money despite the fact that they've 
spent more. If the owners from Pittsburgh and Montreal don't spend the money 
that they will get from revenue sharing on the players then they've shown 
that they don't deserve the money (The Bengals were notorious for this in the 
NFL. It wasn't until they HAD to spend a MINIMUM that they were able to 
retain some of their free agents. The Cowboys were just as bad).
 RP>  -Team relocations
It hasn't happened in a while but it could. I don't think that I'd put the 
blame anywhere but on the owners as a collective.
 RP>  -Municipal extortion over team relocations and stadium construction.
They can do just like Houston did with the Oilers or better yet, what Oakland 
did with the Raiders. I'm sure that with a little vision into the future, 
they'd gladly give Al Davis what he wanted back then. I don't think that the 
cities that gave their teams new stadiums are regretting it after all is said 
and done.
 RP>  -Rising ticket prices
Baseball STILL remains one of the best buys in all of sports. Ticket prices 
aren't raised often (Cincinnati hasn't raised theirs in years) and when they 
are, they're not raised by as much as other sports.
 RP>  -Increasing player violence
Are you kidding me? I saw more "violence" back in the '80s. I can still 
remember some of the more memorable brawls between the Braves and the Padres 
and I'm sure that other fans can remember just as many as well. Hell, Albert 
Belle's "rumble" over Vina enraged the media and fans with short memories 
more than it did former players, who were surprised by the furor caused by 
something that was quite common many years ago.
 RP>  -Increasing confrontations between players and umpires
The owners can put a stop to this by muzzling their umpires and making them 
accountable.
--- TrekEd 1.00
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