It's Good to be the King

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I'm bradley, and it's my job to keep you from being the sucker at the table.

When teams are playing poorly no one lets out the cry, "Fire the owner".  Wouldn't work even if you did. The owner is top dog - and whether you like them or not, they have all marbles. All you can do is sit, wish and watch.

Truth is owners can be great or owners can suck. You..? Nothing to do about any and all of it except hope they know what they're doing when it comes to putting together your favorite team. 

So it all boils down to this idea - teams can suck and managers get fired.  Or players get traded. Or both.

Take this year's Mets team. After over promising that they were going to compete for the World Series, the reality  set in that they were no closer to a World Series than Caitlin Clark is to winning the "Miss Popularity" award in the WNBA, as voted on by her fellow players. Nope. Yet, no one is screaming that Steve Cohen or his GM be replaced. They simply fired Carlos Mendoza and prepare for the next big search to find someone qualified to lead them to the promised land. Good luck with that.

A manager, unless they are gifted motivators, is usually just another guy. Most bide their time with average or better than average results and can last as long as their teams expectations aren't too high. Dave Roberts in L.A. and Aaron Boone in New York are two obvious exceptions - they will ALWAYS be on the hot seat because yearly expectations are, they should win it all.

Other sports are a bit more unforgiving for managers or coaches, and hockey has to be the most extreme.

There, you could get fired for losing four or five games in a row, regardless of what you've done or how good a record you have.

But baseball is different. Carlos Mendoza will land on his feet somewhere, just like most fired managers and coaches. They seem to recycle over and over, as owners seem adverse to bringing aboard any new blood or new ideas.

So when it comes to leading a team, the owners are very rarely held accountable. And, as I mentioned before, even if they were, they own the club. If the fan base gets a little too frisky, they begin the press releases about how other cities are interested in talking to them. Oh man, do the bells, whistles and gongs start to go off when that happens. All it takes is even the IDEA of moving to another franchise-starved city and that does wonders to quiet the torches and pitchforks crowds down. No one wants to stare at an empty stadium - after all, you may think your owners suck, but at least you have a team. That's why a firing or trade here or there calms things down.

In most cases. owners do not have the passion for their team or city the way  diehard fans do. Owners look at the bottom line, and as long as it shows they're in the black, they're happy. When things start to go south a little, even if it's THEIR OWN fault, they will take drastic measures. 

It's why Art Modell moved the Cleveland Browns out of Cleveland, to become the Baltimore Ravens. Ever wonder about that?

Modell had made a series of bad financial choices. But his team was successful and he knew NFL franchises will only continue to grow in value. So - instead of selling the team and cashing out, he decided to move the whole enchilada to Baltimore, where a sweetheart deal wiped out his debt, built him a new stadium  and kept his franchise in his hands. Bye bye Cleveland - thanks for the support all these years - suckers. 

Yeah, it's good to be the king. But it sucks if you're one of the kings subjects. Because even if you're loyal to the crown, the crown is not always loyal to you. But you pays your money - you takes your chances. .

I'm bradley and it's my job to keep you from being the sucker at the table.