Minor League Baseball Salaries

Fifty-seven years later, A's are in same predicament as their Philadelphia ...

On Sept. 19, the Philadelphia Athletics, a onetime baseball dynasty whose popularity had been so great that spectators often filled adjacent rooftops, concluded their 1954 home schedule in front of 1,715 fans at wet and dreary Connie Mack Stadium.

The 4-2 loss to the Yankees was the A's 99th of the season. They were 59 games behind league-leading Cleveland, with six meaningless road contests left. Their final home attendance totaled 305,362, an embarrassing number that nonetheless surpassed their payroll.

As the beaten A's trudged off the muddy field that afternoon, they didn't yet know that after 54 seasons, nine pennants, and five world championships, they had played their final game in Philadelphia.

Now, nearly 57 years later, when the A's return to the city of their birth for an interleague series with the Phillies, they will find themselves in the same troubled state as their flannel-uniformed ancestors.

Like the '54 A's, the 2011 Athletics are dogged by a lack of financial resources, an outmoded stadium, an apathetic fan base, the rise of the National League team that shares their market, and persistent speculation that they could move or even fold.

"The Athletics' current difficulties are in some respects eerily reminiscent of those that affected the club during its last years in Philadelphia," said Bob Warrington, vice president of the Philadelphia Athletics Historical Society.

These Oakland A's are in last place and near the bottom in attendance (27th of 30). They play in obsolete Oakland-Alameda County Stadium, where their lease will expire in 2013. An apathetic city government won't get involved. And they can't move to nearby San Jose, a boomtown that wants them badly, because baseball considers that Giants territory.

"What is the alternative for this franchise if baseball does not allow us to move to San Jose?" A's president Mike Crowley said recently. "I don't know. I don't know that we have any options. I don't think it can work here in Alameda County."

Desperate as the trading deadline approaches, the A's, at $66 million already in the bottom third of payrolls, are widely expected to jettison salary, action that would link them even more closely to the '54 Athletics.

"If Oakland moves Josh Willingham, as has been suggested, to dump his salary and pick up lower-cost prospects in return," Warrington said, "it will be the same strategy Connie Mack pursued in the 1950s to keep his A's on life-support financially.

Baseball Prospectus | The BP Broadside: The Hubris of Riggleman

It was interesting that Paul McCartney's sad little shot across John Lennon's bow was referenced in the front page blurb for this article. It's not an apt comparison on any level, but it was interesting. First, the song was terrible. Cats screeching-level bad, like the rest of McCartney's post-Beatles song catalogue. Paul was tied for least talented in the group, after John, George and the fifth Beatle. I'm a little confused as to why BP is all alone racing to attack Riggleman and defend Rizzo. Perrotto slammed Riggleman without the benefit of facts, Goldman comes up with a couple of "out of left field" comps that in no way further his argument .... this sort of stuff is reflective of BP's seeming editorial decision to place snark and opinionated blather over nuanced analysis. . Only one of those three has played a significant role on the strong Rays teams of late. Meanwhile astute scouting and player evaluation has lead to the Rays winning ways-- Shields, Hellickson, Joyce, Zobrist are just a few of the names that were finds due to the hard work and expertise of the front office and development personnel; and with a stocked minor league system (that has been largely acquiring players since the team's rise to the top of the AL East), they'll be more than ok for a while. Likewise, much of the Nats' bright future has been through hard scouting work and deft player analysis. Sure, Stras and Harper give the team a hope for the future that few other teams have; but the two Zimmermen(n), Espinosa, Ramos, Desmond, and some more arms on the way down at the farm have more than a minor role in that future as well, and all are the products of scouting and development, not lucking their way to draft gold.

1. While I agree that as a supposed shot at Lennon the McCartney song was a weak effort, I like it on its own merits and it seemed to fit. As for the rest of Paul's output, Ben Lindbergh and I will be disagreeing with you from the comfort of field-level seats at his upcoming Yankee Stadium concert. I think your "least talented" remark betrays a pretty weak understanding of how the Beatles functioned as a unit. Still, tastes vary, so fine: you registered an opinion. 2. The Dressen comparison is a parallel in terms of a manager who confused his own importance in what is, as you actually point out, an organizational-level success that results in part from good drafting (or in the Dodgers' case, scouting and open-mindedness). That they are not identical figures in terms of what got them to this point doesn't matter at all. It's that they arrived at roughly the same place. 4. Finally, I get really, really bored of hearing "snark over analysis," which has been a favorite of some readers since I got here in 2003. There is no snark in this piece. There is a historical comp. We reject [anything] over analysis on the rare occasions we get it. While I respect and appreciate every reader who takes the time to read and comment, I have long since come to the conclusion that sometimes, to invoke another 60s songwriter, a man will hear what he wants to hear and disregards the rest. Sometimes a writer starts with a certain intention but doesn't execute, so his motives are not well understood by the readers. That's his fault. But you can carry through exactly as you meant to and still not be understood, because as with opinions on ex-Beatles, levels of comprehension vary. I have learned to be happy simply that people are galvanized enough to say something, so again, I thank you.

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