Players for Sale: A Historical Analysis of

the Commercialization of Professional

Baseball, 1869-2006

By Anna Kathleen Konger

 INTRODUCTION
• Professional baseball was launched
in 1869 when the Cincinnati Red
Stockings played their first game.

• Professional baseball has grown

to become one of the most profitable
business ventures worldwide.

• Average salaries of players have

increased from $26,281 in 1882 to 1869 Red Stockings Team
$2,632,655 in 2005 (in 2005 dollars). © EMMA Online Ltd.

»
 THESIS
• Factors such as urbanization
and the mass media have
contributed to changes within
professional baseball.

• “America’s favorite pastime”

has shifted from a neighborhood
activity to a profit-based
bureaucratic industry where
rational calculations are made
in order to create a winning
team.

• This study examines the causes

and subsequent changes that
© Cornell University have led to the
commercialization of
professional baseball.
 PREVIOUS RESEARCH ON
PROFESSIONAL BASEBALL
• Urban Ethnic Socialization
– Riess (1989)
– Kahn (2000)

• Role of Media
– Rader (1984)
– White (1996)
– Zimbalist (1992)

Opening day of the Baseball Hall of Fame

• Commercialization June 12, 1939
– Kahn (2000) © 2006 baseballhalloffame.com
– Zimbalist (1992)
 URBAN ETHNIC SOCIALIZATION
•The movement of immigrants in
the late 1800’s helped to facilitate
large enough audiences to make
possible mass spectacles for
sporting events.

•All groups found that sports

gave them a strong source of
identity with the nation and a
hope of social mobility, especially
within the first American born The “creator” of baseball, Abner Doubleday,
generation. and one of the first homemade baseballs
© 2006 baseballhalloffame.com
 POST WORLD WAR I
• Urban political machines, local business
leaders, and organized crime used the
growing demand for entertainment to
further their own interests.

• As living standards rose and mass

transits made stadiums more accessible,
more people could attend sporting events
but the barrier between the rich and the
poor still remained.

• Private team ownership was part of a

President Woodrow Wilson throws out
the first pitch on Opening Day,
1916, in Washington, D.C.
© 2006 baseballhalloffame.com
larger capitalist system in which a few
received season tickets to luxury boxes or
behind home plate while others sat in the
bleachers, if they could afford to go at
all.
 ROLE OF MEDIA
• From 1903-1953, baseball was truly the
national pastime. (White 1996)

• It transformed from a working class,

rough, urban sport to a game that
embodied America’s urbanizing,
commercializing future.

• The alliance between sports and the

media can be traced back to the 19th 1918 Newspaper Headline
century when newspapers discovered © redwingsbaseball.com
they could boost circulation through
sports coverage and promotion of
sporting events.
 TELEVISION
• The popularity of the television
resulted in the “great sports slump of
the 1950’s,” when the ways that
Americans spent their spare time
shifted from “inner-city, public forms
of entertainment to private, home-
centered forms of recreation” (Rader
1984).

• By 1956, 75% of all homes had

televisions.

• Color images, instant replay, etc.,

enhanced the presentation of the game
Family watching television in the 1950’s
and both televised sports popularity
© sydaby.eget.net
and television royalties soared.
 COMMERCIALIZATION
• Kahn (2000) views sports owners as
a small group that bands together
and acts as monopolies.

• There is a progression of ownership

President of the Chicago White
Stockings (now the Cubs) from
1882-1891, Al Spalding, began his
career as a pitcher for the White
Stockings from 1871-1876. He then
went on to found a sporting goods
business, (Spalding), before coming
back to the team in an executive
position.
© 2006 baseballhalloffame.com
from men of great commitment and
knowledge, to business tycoons who
made their fortunes in trade but
then tried their hands in sports
ownership, and then finally on to
the corporate manager who bought
a franchise to publicize their
business enterprise.
 COMMERCIALIZATION
• Since 1976, franchise values have
climbed substantially.

• Introduction of free agency brought

on rapidly escalating salaries of
ballplayers, which pushed owners to
assertively expand baseball’s money-
making potential.

2005 World Series Artifacts

• New media and cable contracts, new © baseballhalloffame.com
stadiums with luxury boxes, growing
attendance, and licensing income
from Major League Baseball
properties have all been major new
revenue contributions during the last
decades.
 RATIONALIZATION THEORY
• Weber (1968)-examines the bureaucratization
and rationalization of modern society in
Economy and Society.

• Ritzer (2000)-applies Weber’s theory of

rationalization and bureaucratization to The
McDonaldization of Society.
– “The Western world has become increasingly
rational – that is, dominated by efficiency,
predictability, calculability, and nonhuman
technologies that control people” (Ritzer
2000:22). Detroit Tiger player, Ty Cobb,
c. 1910
– Measures of quality and standards have © 2006 basballhalloffame.com
spilled over into other aspects of everyday
life, including sports.
 EFFICIENCY AND
PREDICTABILITY
• The bureaucracy of professional baseball
has a hierarchy of officials that determines
the rules and regulations of franchises.
• This rational structure makes for greater
efficiency when trying to accomplish
specific ends and helps team owners use
the “sport” of baseball to create profit.
•
All Franchises are somewhat similar, so that
wherever a fan travels to see a game the field,
rituals, etc., are similar.
• Fans know what to expect when going to a baseball
game, which may make them feel more
comfortable with spending their money - the
driving force behind predictability.
• “Products and services [at the ballpark] will be the
same over time and in all locales” (Ritzer 2003:13).

Tom Yawkey, owner of the Boston Red Sox from 1933-

1977 and American League Vice-President from 1956-
1973
© 2006 baseballhalloffame.com
 CALCULABILITY

• Calculability is capable of being

of determined, limited, or fixed.

• Baseball franchises earn

significant revenue from
television contracts and
revenues are part of the
baseball industry’s calculability.
Coca-Cola advertisement featuring Ty Cobb
from 1907
© 2006 baseballhalloffame.com
 NONHUMAN TECHNOLOGIES
• The increase in popularity of
sports on television left
American society highly reliant
on this nonhuman technology as
broadcasts were of higher
quality than in previous years.

• During “TV time outs” fans

watching from home are left to
watch commercials while they © static.flickr.com
wait for the game to come back
on.
 METHODOLOGY

• Data was obtained through a historical analysis.

• Reviewed previous research on the topics of bureaucratization and its

effects on professional baseball from 1869 to the present.

• Analyzed several websites that were dedicated to professional baseball

in order to obtain relevant statistical information.
 FACTS AND FIGURES
• “A typical Major League
ballplayer has an average salary
ten times greater than the
average working person”
(baseball-almanac.com 2006).

• By 1994, the comparable salary

Lou Gehrig and Babe Ruth, 1927
© 2006 baseballhalloffame.com
rates of baseball players today
compared with the average
worker were closer to fifty times
higher than the national
average salary.
 FACTS AND FIGURES
Table I: Minimum and Average Salary Wages for Baseball Players, 1882-2005
(in 2005 dollars)
YEAR PLAYERS PLAYERS WORKERS PLAYERS
MINIMUM AVERAGE MINIMUM AVERAGE AS %
SALARY SALARY SALARY OF WORKERS
AVERAGE

1882 N/A 26,281 N/A N/A

1898 N/A 48,742 N/A N/A

1910 N/A 51,325 N/A N/A

1946 N/A 115,974 N/A N/A

1965 N/A N/A 14,040 N/A

1985 106,479 659,412 12,376 53.28

2005 316,000 2,632,655 10,712 245.77

 FACTS AND FIGURES
• In addition to players’ contracts, other sources of income have been available,
such as endorsement deals and sponsorships.
Table II: Famous First Salary Levels in Major League Baseball
PLAYER YEAR SALARY AMOUNT (IN %OF BABE
2005 $) RUTH’S
SALARY

Babe Ruth 1922 50,000 517,750

Hank Greenberg 1947 100,000 946,418 1.83

Nolan Ryan 1979 1,000,000 2,831,719 5.47

Kirby Puckett 1989 3,000,000 4,676,191 9.03

Ryne Sandberg 1992 7,100,000 9,615,232 18.57

Albert Belle 1996 11,000,000 13,352,065 25.79

Mike Piazza 1998 13,000,000 15,064,022 29.10

Alex Rodriguez 2000 21,000,000 (’01-’04) 23,321,299 45.04

25,000,000 (’05-’06) 25,000,000 48.29
27,000,000 (’07) 27,000,000 52.14
 FACTS AND FIGURES
• The calculability that television
contracts, advertising, and
longer seasons have made have
resulted in significant increases
in profits for franchises.

• The Yankees alone bring in

$175 million annually from
local TV contracts as a result of
being in a large viewer market.
© Yahoo! Inc.

• Smaller market teams may only

bring in $1-5 million annually
in television revenue.
 FACTS AND FIGURES
Table IV: Franchises and the Owners’ Costs of Purchase
TEAM OWNERS, BY YEAR SALE PRICE (IN 2005 $)

New York Yankees Colonel Jacob Ruppert and Colonel 8,474,362

Tillinghast L’Hommedieu, 1915-
1945
Dan Topping and Del Webb, 1945- 29,413,497
1964
CBS, 1964-1973 67,598,668

George Steinbrenner, 1973-Present 44,153,999

Boston Red Sox Harry Frazee, 1917-1923 6,780,716

Bob Quinn, 1923-1933 16,571,086

Thomas Yawkey, 1933-1977 20,319,461

John Henry and Tom Werner, 2001- 715,776,488

Present
Minnesota Twins Clark Griffith, 1919-1955 2,152,372

Carl Pohlad, 1984-Present 59,231,097

 DISCUSSION
• Efficiency of team owners, the
1968 World Series Tickets
© 2006 baseballhalloffame.com
predictability of ball parks, the
calculability of pre-determined
profits from mass media
sources, and the spectators
increasing reliance on the
nonhuman technology of
television and internet to get
access to sports has made
professional baseball the
lucrative business that it is
today.

• Players and teams have all

become commodities for sale.
THANK YOU!

© 2006 mets.mlb.com