In most cases, NPR is a fun station to listen to in the morning if you want to get a good overview of the news on your way to work. It’s usually best to cut it off around 10:30, before the Diane “The Crypt Keeper” Rehem scratches the airwaves.
Today there was an interesting story on the Florida Marlins professional baseball team based in Miami. According to the reporter, the Marlins play baseball like a conservative poker player — given a limited supply of cash, one waits to play their hand until everything is in good form, but folds every other time. Most good poker players would scoff at this kind of play, saying that you’ve missed a whole other side of the game: the psychological (bluffing, reading the man, etc.). In baseball management terms, this means fielding your best men (and giving more money, if you feel like your team can compete with any other in your league). The Marlins don’t play like this.
Why?
In the high-stakes incentives game, a major league baseball team doesn’t need to always succeed. In fact, sometimes it makes more sense to loose then win, especially if you’re the owner of a relatively new team, and you’re willing to be mobile — just like the Marlins. If things aren’t going your way (you don’t like your stadium, you don’t like the weather, you don’t like the fans), you can sell off your star players, field a crummy no-name team, thereby reducing your fan numbers, and effectively provide yourself a way out of your contract. (Most, if not all, contracts with cities/states have a minimum crowd attendance level clause). Once no one wants to see you, you’ve now got the privilege to shop for a new venue.
As long as stadiums are built by cities and states (in some form or another), there’s really no incentive to stay put if you’re an owner. If the Marlins succeed in jumping ship, I wonder what other, younger teams will do. Will they emulate the Marlins, or maybe they’ll see the other side to playing poker: the bluff.
