Having already posted one law-related baseball story without being run out of Blogtown on a rail, here's another one: the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals rejected an appeal by Florida's Attorney General that baseball's antitrust exemption violates state antitrust laws. The judges did so reluctantly, however, finding that a good faith reading of the US Supreme Court's 1972 decision in Flood v. Kuhn required them to rule as they did. But Judge Gerald Tjoflat certainly made clear the panel's distaste for the exemption and their strong desire that somebody -- Congress or the Supremes -- get rid of it. MLB says this would mark the end of life as we know it in our galaxy, as well as the entire minor-league system. I almost believe them on the second part, but minor-league ball wouldn't die, it would just reorganize, probably for the better. It's a loss for the good guys, but a moral victory of sorts, I suppose.
MLB says this would mark the end of life as we know it in our galaxy, as well as the entire minor-league system.
The anti-trust exemption wouldn't bother me as much if most of the thirty clubs actually treated the game as if it actually were a "national trust".
I'm reading Roger Angell's "Ball Four", which I bought for cheap at This Aint the Rosedale Library. (Apparently, in addition to specializing in books for the Church and Wellesley crowd, they'd also go the city's largest collection of baseball books. Billy Bean would be in heaven. Check out their online catalogue. )
There's a great interview with former A's president Roy Eisenhardt, who ushered in the Sandy Alderson era back in the early 80s. Even then he expressed doubt that baseball could and even should be run as a traditional business operating in the black. He says, "An executive or a millionare can give x hundred thousand dollars a year to a charity, and nobody questions it or says, 'That's losing money.' But if you put it into an organization that's proprietary and capitalist in form but has its main goal a charitable purpose, which is to provide the game of baseball to as many people as possible, in as many forms as possible, then you have to put an intangible down in your income statement, which is the psychological value of baseball to the community.... Baseball is perceived almost as a public utility that has been granted a monopoly and is obligated to deliver quality servies, so a team isn't looked on with favour [by the fans] when it makes a lot of money. I don't see anything wrong with that. We have been given a monopoly--that's what each franchise is--and with monopoly comes responsibility. We are really the curators of this game. It's a public asset, and we are the guardians of that asset."
Now that's a man to wom I'd want to entrust a monopoly.
The anti-trust exemption wouldn't bother me as much if most of the thirty clubs actually treated the game as if it actually were a "national trust".
I'm reading Roger Angell's "Ball Four", which I bought for cheap at This Aint the Rosedale Library. (Apparently, in addition to specializing in books for the Church and Wellesley crowd, they'd also go the city's largest collection of baseball books. Billy Bean would be in heaven. Check out their online catalogue. )
There's a great interview with former A's president Roy Eisenhardt, who ushered in the Sandy Alderson era back in the early 80s. Even then he expressed doubt that baseball could and even should be run as a traditional business operating in the black. He says, "An executive or a millionare can give x hundred thousand dollars a year to a charity, and nobody questions it or says, 'That's losing money.' But if you put it into an organization that's proprietary and capitalist in form but has its main goal a charitable purpose, which is to provide the game of baseball to as many people as possible, in as many forms as possible, then you have to put an intangible down in your income statement, which is the psychological value of baseball to the community.... Baseball is perceived almost as a public utility that has been granted a monopoly and is obligated to deliver quality servies, so a team isn't looked on with favour [by the fans] when it makes a lot of money. I don't see anything wrong with that. We have been given a monopoly--that's what each franchise is--and with monopoly comes responsibility. We are really the curators of this game. It's a public asset, and we are the guardians of that asset."
Now that's a man to wom I'd want to entrust a monopoly.
Duh.
I meant Angell's "Season Ticket", not Bouton's "Ball Four".
I meant Angell's "Season Ticket", not Bouton's "Ball Four".
This Ain't the Rosedale Library is great. I picked up a bunch of old Baseball Abstracts there, in addition to a pile of other stuff. I must have spent a couple of hundred dollars. (And if there's something you want that you don't see on the shelf, ask somebody. They may have it in the basement.)
I'm reading Roger Angell's "Ball Four", which I bought for cheap at This Aint the Rosedale Library. (Apparently, in addition to specializing in books for the Church and Wellesley crowd, they'd also go the city's largest collection of baseball books. Billy Bean would be in heaven. Check out their online catalogue.)
Their baseball catalogue is great, but it's not up to date - they stopped stocking baseball books in about 1994 or so (understandably), and are just trying to clear out their back catalogue. Some of those old Who's Who in Baseballs look interesting (I own dogeared copies of the 1969 and 1970 editions).
I used to go there all the time in the 1980's and early 1990's, and bought stuff there that I never saw anywhere else, such as the 1989 Baseball Abstract (the one written by Robert O. Wood and Brock Hanke). They also stocked the Baseball Sabermetric (Hanke's successor to the Abstract), and lots of other interesting stuff.
This Ain't The Rosedale Library goes way back: in the late 1970's, they used to be on Queen East, about where Henry's is now. (They were next door to the Record Peddler, which is how I discovered them.)
You have to give them credit for surviving this long. Most independent bookstores in Toronto have been swallowed up by Indigo/Chapters/Coles (they ate the Lichtman's chain a few years ago). The only non-specialist independent bookstores I know of that are any good are Nicholas Hoare's on Front Street, and the Book City chain (several locations). Does anyone of know any others?
Nowadays, I order my baseball books online - I just got Moneyball, Rob Neyer's book of baseball lineups, and Roger Angell's latest collection from amazon.ca. Have any of these hit the stores yet?
Their baseball catalogue is great, but it's not up to date - they stopped stocking baseball books in about 1994 or so (understandably), and are just trying to clear out their back catalogue. Some of those old Who's Who in Baseballs look interesting (I own dogeared copies of the 1969 and 1970 editions).
I used to go there all the time in the 1980's and early 1990's, and bought stuff there that I never saw anywhere else, such as the 1989 Baseball Abstract (the one written by Robert O. Wood and Brock Hanke). They also stocked the Baseball Sabermetric (Hanke's successor to the Abstract), and lots of other interesting stuff.
This Ain't The Rosedale Library goes way back: in the late 1970's, they used to be on Queen East, about where Henry's is now. (They were next door to the Record Peddler, which is how I discovered them.)
You have to give them credit for surviving this long. Most independent bookstores in Toronto have been swallowed up by Indigo/Chapters/Coles (they ate the Lichtman's chain a few years ago). The only non-specialist independent bookstores I know of that are any good are Nicholas Hoare's on Front Street, and the Book City chain (several locations). Does anyone of know any others?
Nowadays, I order my baseball books online - I just got Moneyball, Rob Neyer's book of baseball lineups, and Roger Angell's latest collection from amazon.ca. Have any of these hit the stores yet?
The only non-specialist independent bookstores I know of that are any good are Nicholas Hoare's on Front Street, and the Book City chain (several locations). Does anyone of know any others?
I should add that I think that This Ain't The Rosedale Library is still a good bookstore.
And apologize I for order the word confusion in last my sentence. :-)
I should add that I think that This Ain't The Rosedale Library is still a good bookstore.
And apologize I for order the word confusion in last my sentence. :-)
I'm reading Roger Angell's "Ball Four", which I bought for cheap at This Aint the Rosedale Library.
This Ain't the Rosedale Library is great.
I'd kiss you guys, if I were in to that sort of thing. I live only a couple of blocks away from that store and never knew it existed until today. I guess I know what I'm doing tonight. Thanks!
This Ain't the Rosedale Library is great.
I'd kiss you guys, if I were in to that sort of thing. I live only a couple of blocks away from that store and never knew it existed until today. I guess I know what I'm doing tonight. Thanks!
The only non-specialist independent bookstores I know of that are any good are Nicholas Hoare's on Front Street, and the Book City chain (several locations). Does anyone of know any others?
BMV Books (there's a so-so location on Edward St. beside the World's Biggest and a better location at Yonge/Eg) isn't bad for used, non-baseball books. While you're up north, Pleasant Bookstore isn't bad (Bayview/Eg) for used and cheap new stuff.
BMV Books (there's a so-so location on Edward St. beside the World's Biggest and a better location at Yonge/Eg) isn't bad for used, non-baseball books. While you're up north, Pleasant Bookstore isn't bad (Bayview/Eg) for used and cheap new stuff.
I'm surprised nobody has mentioned BAKKA yet.
PS - here's a shout out to my homeboy Dave Till. What's up, man?
PS - here's a shout out to my homeboy Dave Till. What's up, man?
The only non-specialist independent bookstores I know of that are any good are Nicholas Hoare's on Front Street, and the Book City chain (several locations). Does anyone of know any others?
Yes.
I second the nomination of Bakka (science fiction, west side of Yonge near Wellesley). Also there's Pages (general/alternative, north side of Queen West between University and Spadina), Sleuth of Baker Street (mystery and related, west side of Bayview between Davisville and Eglinton; might as well stop in to the aforementioned Pleasant Bookstore (used, behind the supermarket at Bayview and Eglinton) while you're in the neighbourhood) and Eliot's (used, west side of Yonge near Wellesley). Okay, a couple of those are specialist bookstores; they're still worth checking out.
Yes.
I second the nomination of Bakka (science fiction, west side of Yonge near Wellesley). Also there's Pages (general/alternative, north side of Queen West between University and Spadina), Sleuth of Baker Street (mystery and related, west side of Bayview between Davisville and Eglinton; might as well stop in to the aforementioned Pleasant Bookstore (used, behind the supermarket at Bayview and Eglinton) while you're in the neighbourhood) and Eliot's (used, west side of Yonge near Wellesley). Okay, a couple of those are specialist bookstores; they're still worth checking out.
Oh, there's also a neat used bookstore at the corner of Queen and Spadina. Lots of pulp stuff.
http://www.davetill.com
PS - here's a shout out to my homeboy Dave Till. What's up, man?
Yo, dude! Are you still in Cleveland?
Most of what I've been up to lately can be found on my vanity web site (see the webpage link above).
PS - here's a shout out to my homeboy Dave Till. What's up, man?
Yo, dude! Are you still in Cleveland?
Most of what I've been up to lately can be found on my vanity web site (see the webpage link above).
I have been having a lot of problems with runaway italics lately. I've been feeding them and trying to give them a good home, and this is how they treat me.
I forgot about Pages - it's good. When I'm on Queen West, I usually check out both Pages and the monster Chapters down the street. I seldom escape without a lighter wallet.
Dave - yes, I'm still in Cleveland. I checked out your website,
nice pictures, sorry to hear about your car. BTW there are quite a few ghost signs in Cleveland.
To avoid the wrath of the ZLC I'll return to baseball. I drive past
Jacobs Field every day on my way to and from work. It's obvious somebody has performed a fan-ectomy on the Indians this year. I suspect the turnstile count is significantly below the announced attendance. A few years ago, on game nights, the traffic was badly backed up on the the highway that leads to the ballpark. Now, if the
stadium lights weren't turned on, you wouldn't know the team is playing. It took a concert by Cher a couple of weeks ago to get the traffic back to the Indians-in-the-late-90s level. In those days a lot of Cleveland fans traveled to Toronto because tickets here were in short supply. If the Jays really put on a good show this year, maybe the situation will be reversed.
nice pictures, sorry to hear about your car. BTW there are quite a few ghost signs in Cleveland.
To avoid the wrath of the ZLC I'll return to baseball. I drive past
Jacobs Field every day on my way to and from work. It's obvious somebody has performed a fan-ectomy on the Indians this year. I suspect the turnstile count is significantly below the announced attendance. A few years ago, on game nights, the traffic was badly backed up on the the highway that leads to the ballpark. Now, if the
stadium lights weren't turned on, you wouldn't know the team is playing. It took a concert by Cher a couple of weeks ago to get the traffic back to the Indians-in-the-late-90s level. In those days a lot of Cleveland fans traveled to Toronto because tickets here were in short supply. If the Jays really put on a good show this year, maybe the situation will be reversed.