Most hated current sports owners: Baseball edition

[No2W2004]

[playahata1]

1. I voted for GEORGE MITCHELL STEINBRENNER III.

I am a die-hard Yankee fan, but I cannot stand the man!

[peekaloo]

2. Drayton McLane (Houston Astros)

to know him is to loathe him. Micro-managing, bible thumpin', WalMart cheerleader, Boo$h/DeLay supportin' arsewipe.

[tcfrogs]

3. Gotta Be King George

Just on principle.

[3rdCoast Productions]

4. Who voted for the Tribune Company?

And why? Don't mean to pry... I don't like the Tribune Company for all the media they own, but as baseball owners, they are decent.

[tcfrogs]

6. They've improved as owners the past few years

But they just sat on their cash cow for years. WGN is just reporting that they might be after Nomar. That's good ownership - being proactive. They didn't do that for a long time.

[No2W2004]

8. Simple if you live in Chicago...

1) Wrigley Field is a huge tourist attraction. The Tribune has more money than Steinbrenner, but doesn't have his desire to win. As long as the tourist keep packing Wrigley every game, the Tribune will NEVER spend the money to produce a winning team year after year. Anytime the Cubs "accidentlly" get in the playoffs, it's due to the players, not ownership.

2) The Tribune Co. owns a "Ticket Broker" company. Any unsold season tickets go to this broker. The broker then jacks up ticket prices way beyond face value. A bonus: Tribune doesn't report sales from this company as direct ticket sales, so they don't share revenue from those tickets with the other teams.

3) Wrigley is a shrine, and it's a great place to watch baseball, but would it kill the Tribune to update the restrooms? I mean really, piss troughs? 40 drunks lined up elbow to elbow struggling to stand up while relieving themselves is just gross. I hate to think what the women's restrooms are like (what little there are)

[tcfrogs]

10. Isn't it funny to explain to a woman

the whole trough situation in the men's bathrooms.

[No2W2004]

12. It's very hard to describe

because it's so damn ridiculous it's hard to believe.

[Deja Q]

5. Carl Pohlad - Minnesota Twins

x( :puke:

Timmy No-Tool is bending over backwards for that jerk so he can have his own stadium (and Timmy wants 2 other stadiums as well) yet MN 's budget for 2006-2007 looks like a $1 BILLION disaster.

WTF is Timmy No-Tool doing?! He's dismantled tons of programs and increased loads of fees, so why is another big deficit looming?!

[No2W2004]

9. People in Minnesota should really take a look at Milwaukee

The voters were PROMISED the Brewers would spend more money for good players if they got their new stadium.

Take a look at the Brewers payroll. They got rid of Sexton because they DIDN'T want to pay him.

Same thing will happen in Minnesota.

[tcfrogs]

11. The Brewers made out like bandits in that deal

Sexson is out for the year, but they got Lyle Overbay, Junior Spivey, and four other players for him. Overbay will (and is) make Brew-Crew fans forget about Sexson.

[KamaAina]

7. Colangelo: anti-choice, plus bought a pennant on credit

in effect.

At least when Steinbrenner buys pennants he pays cash on the barrelhead. :-)

[yellowcanine]

13. Peter De Angelos - Baltimore Orioles

Drives away good managers

Lets good players (esp. pitchers) get away because he is too cheap to pony up the cash - then buys them back when they are almost washed up and commanding smaller salaries.

Stuck the Maryland taxpayers with the cost of a new stadium in downtown Baltimore and then insisted on calling it Oriole Park when the popular choice was Camden Yards - finally settled for Oriole Park at Camden Yards and now everybody calls it Camden Yards anyway.

It's not that he doesn't have the money - has made billions as a lawyer on the aspestos and tobacco settlements.

Having driven the team into the ground, insists on blocking a team in Washington, D.C. because supposedly the Wash D.C. - Baltimore corridor can't support two teams. Only reason he has been able to keep a team out of D.C. so far is that he is good buddies with Bud Selig, the most corrupt commissioner in MLB history.

At least Steinbrenner made the adjustments to produce a winner and supports his manager. Yeah, he spends lots of money too but if some of the other owners weren't so cheap he wouldn't be able to outbid them as often.

[Bombtrack]

14. Of course Steinbrenner,but the people who own the Cardinals should be

a choice. There was an articule somewhere about their big ties to the Bushies. They had dubya throw out the first pitch on opening day.

[OneBlueSky]

15. aw, c'mon . . . people are just jealous of George . . .

face it . . . baseball NEEDS the Yankees . . . they need a team that everyone hates for their money and their success, a team they can shoot to knock off (which, as I recall, some team from Florida did last year) . . . without George, baseball would be far poorer and a lot less fun . . .

[Spirochete]

16. Rupert Murdach

isn't he the Lakers owner, and the former Dodger owner?

If I'm wrong about that, I want to change my vote to Steinbrenner.

[Magrittes Pipe]

17. Dude, you left off the worst scum of all!

First of all, Wendy Selig-Prieb isn't really the Brewers' owner. She's not even in charge of the money anymore (a cosmetic move, really). No, daddy BeelzeBud still owns the team, his shares are just in a blind trust. I suppose that makes it okay. :puke: Every move Selig has made as commissioner has had one purpose -- to screw teams that are better than the Brewers. When King Bud says "competitive balance," he really means "make every team as shitty as the Brewers."

Second and third, I direct you to the Carls: Linder and Pohlad. Both richer than Steinbrenner, yet both unwilling to invest in their teams. Now, I've got a horse in this race -- look at my avatar, and you'll know the source of my hatred for Lindner. He has no interest in winning, he has no interest in the team, the players, the fans.

Oh yeah, remember when Selig nixed the sale of the Twins to that businessman a couple years back? He had pledges to PRIVATELY finance their new stadium. His bid was rejected, because it was a slap in the face to Selig's policy of extorting stadium money out of the public.

Fourth, Jeffrey Loria, that sack of shit who backed into a World Series last year. The man who single-handedly ruined the Expos ("English broadcasts? We don't need no stinkin' English broadcasts").

Actually, I have respect for two, and only two, baseball owners. The first is Peter Magowan, who is, by all I've heard, a royal prick. That said, he privately financed the magnificent Pac Bell park. The other (and it pains me to say this) is George Steinbrenner. Look. I LOATHE the Yankees. And I think Steinbrenner's an ass. I do NOT like the man -- but I respect him.

Say what you will about Big Stein (go ahead, most of it will be justified); but the man really wants to win, and he ain't afraid to spend his own money to do so.