Month: November 2010

millions of dollars. They’ve come a long way from the days of cut-rate hucksters, cheapskates, and charlatans who first sold tickets to curious spectators itching to catch a gander of this newfangled game of baseball.  Here in the 21st century, some team owners are still individuals, but most are either the leaders of investment syndicates, or large, faceless corporations.  Either way, they are not merely hawking tickets to some sideshow attraction.  Rather, they are sitting upon monstrous business organizations that reap revenue from a myriad of sources, game day tickets just being a small piece of the action.  Television broadcasting, product licensing, concessions, in-house advertising, and of course the dreaded public subsidies, all boost revenues into the billions.  And every dime of it, in one way or another, comes from you and me, the “customers.”  Let them thank us.

Simon says:

I am entertained by this sport despite knowing that it ravages my fellow human beings.  The men who play the game fall victim to serious disabilities at an alarming rate.  Recent attention has been paid to the severe brain damage that afflicts some former players.  From the team I follow, the Pittsburgh Steelers, Mike Webster and Justin Strzelczyk are just two examples of players whose lives were tragically short and mired in the erratic, confounding, dangerous, and self-destructive behavior that has marred the post-NFL days of men afflicted with serious brain damage resulting from years of tackle football.  They are but two of many.  And beyond closed head injuries, there are also the more traditional and mundane matters of broken bones and mangled joints.  Staring at a gathering of former NFL players is often like walking through a hospital ward; men, looking old before their time, and few of them ever becoming very old, are haggard and beaten, bent and broken, their limping, misshapen bodies a testament to the physical toll the game has taken.

State from their name, added a fancy new logo that looks something like an accidental paint smear from a semi-dry brush, and got themselves a slogan.  I think the latest one is Towson: Thinking Outside.  I guess the marketing firm that dreamed it up thought it would be clever to leave off “The Box.”  Nothing like turning a lame, business-speak cliche into a witty pun for the purpose of branding your university.