Beers and the BallPark

A few weeks ago, I was rewarded with 4 Rockies Tickets. I know ... seems more like a punishment, right? The game was this past Sunday. My kids didn't want to go to the game and I didn't feel like forcing them. My wife didn't think we should leave them at home alone. Plus, we had a church thing that at least some us of should be at.

Long story short, I ended up going to the game alone (is that as pathetic as it sounds to me?)

But, as I was going to be without children, I figured I might as well head downtown early and hit a couple of the breweries by Coors Field. What better way is there to prepare for a game than to sample some Denver Beers?

LA Dodgers

This morning, I heard on the radio that the L.A. Dodgers are in danger of being unable to make payroll this month. According to this article on MLB.com, the L.A. Times has reported that this is indeed the case. I guess MLB will have to bail out the team like they did for the Texas Rangers last year.

Obviously, Frank McCourt (owner of the Dodgers) is having problems. He's in the middle of a very public and nasty divorce, and that is expensive. Even before the divorce proceedings started, it sounds like his wife was expensive. He has an expensive mansion, an expensive private jet, and many other expensive things that he must pay for.  He has a very large debt load, which is pretty expensive as well.

But, even so, I'm not sure how the L.A. Freeking Dodgers get into so much financial trouble.

According to this article on forbes.com, the L.A. Freeking Dodgers are worth 800 million dollars.  Only the Bo-Sox ($912 million) and the Yankees ($1.7 BILLION) are worth more.  L.A. Freeking Dodgers' debt to value ratio is 54%, which is high, but not anywhere close to teams like the Chicago Cubs (75%) or the Texas Rangers (66%).  The same article says that the L.A. Freeking Dodgers have the 4th largest revenue in the league ($246 million) behind only the Cubs ($258 million), Red Sox ($272 million), and Yankees ($427 million).

According to this USA Today.com article, the 2011 salary of the L.A. Freeking Dodgers is $104,188,999.  There are 11 teams above them in total payroll.  Some teams with higher payrolls are the world-champion Giants ($118,198,333), the perennial pathetic Chicago Cubs ($125,047,329), the Phillies ($172,976,379), and of course the New York Yankees ($202,689,028).  So, the L.A. Freeking Dodgers pay a bunch in salary, but compared to the rest of the big boys in the league, not too much.

As far as operating income (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization), the L.A. Freeking Dodgers are ranked 3rd in the league at $32.8 million.  I have no idea how much profit the L.A. Freeking Dodgers make after paying off debt interest and pay their taxes, but their high operating income (compared to other teams) makes me think that the Dodgers should at least be doing OK.

If the L.A. Dodgers are in such financial difficulty that they cannot make their May payroll, some teams I would be more concerned about are:

• The Chicago Cubs: who have a 75% debt to value ratio and "only" have $23.4 million in operating income, and an annual payroll of $125,047,329.
• The Texas Rangers: who have a 66% debt to value ratio and "only" have $22.6 million in operating income, and an annual payroll of $92,299,264.
• The St. Louis Cardinals who have a 53% debt to value ratio and "only" have $19.8 million in operating income, and an annual payroll of $105,433,572.

And of course what about:

• The Boston Red Sock: who lost $1.1 million before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization.  Their annual payroll is $161,762,475.
• The New York Mets: who lost $6.2 million before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization and have a real high debt to value ratio at 62% and an annual payroll of $118,847,309.
• The Detroit Tigers: who lost $29.1 million before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization and have a real high debt to value ratio at 55% and an annual payroll of $105,700,231.

One team we don't have to be worried about is the New York Yankees.  As I stated above, they are worth $1.7 BILLION.  Their debt to value ratio is a tiny 4%.  They have a ridiculously high payroll at $202,689,028, but even with that huge expense, their operating income is a pretty healthy $25.7 million.

So, I guess the point of this blog post is for all you baseball fans out there to beware.  If the L.A. Freeking Dodgers can get to the point of not making payroll, it seems like there are an awful lot of other teams that could expect the same fate. Don't forget that the MLB uses revenue sharing to help the smaller market teams survive.  According to this article on bizofbaseball.com, the total redistibution of wealth was $404 million in 2010.  If teams like the L.A. Dodgers can't pay their fair-share of that total, I'm not sure what will happen to those teams that receive that count on those dollars to remain "open for business".

But, even so, at least the MLB isn't in as much trouble as the NBA.  (according to Forbes.com, over half of the NBA teams are losing money). The MLB is also not in as much trouble as the NHL (see this article on Forbes.com more than half of those teams are losing money as well).

Sort of makes you wonder why the NFL is having such a hard time figuring out how to divide up its money ... doesn't it?

Happy Cinco De Mayo, everyone!

Rockies game

We got some tickets to tonight's game. Row 9 from the field. I have never been this close at a professional baseball game.

The way the Rockies played makes me hesitate to call it professional.

The kids got to bed pretty late. Hope they get up ok tomorrow.

Rocks Win!

If you follow baseball, you probably know that the Colorado Rockies went to the world series in 2007 after an incredible winning streak to end up the regular series, which went right on into the NL playoffs.

The 2008 season brought Rockies fans back down to earth. The Rockies stunk again.

This year, it looked like another year like 2008 until the team fired the head coach. All of a sudden the Rockies are in a race again. They are winning the wild card race and not that far behind the Dodgers for the division. Let me tell you, it is pretty rare for that to be the case in August.

The giants (who were one game behind the Rockies for the wild card) came to town this past weekend. Saturday, we had a "Boys Night Out" at Coors field. So far, this year, we have had good luck going to baseball games. The Rockies have won every game we've been to in dramatic come-from-behind fashion. I think partially because of the great games that we have seen, the boys are really big Rockies fans this year. Tyler and Connor were really excited to get to go to the game.

We got there early enough to watch batting practice. We stood up on the left-field concourse and got to see some of the long bombs. Made me nervous and watchful because of the danger of flying baseballs. I think if I had the opportunity to catch a ball, I would have been busy shielding Connor rather than even making an attempt at the ball. But, it was pretty cool for the boys. It was the first time they have seen batting practice.

Eventually we got to our seats in section 205, which is the right field mezzanine. Not great seats because we could not see the entire outfield, but not really horrible seats either. And, boy did we get a show. The Rockies were down 6 to 1 in the 4th. We actually went for ice cream at the top of the 4th and got back to watch the Rockies score a couple of runs to get within 6 to 3. At this point, I was thinking that it would be great if they could come back, but maybe our great luck had worn off.

Nothing happened in the 5th. But, all of a sudden, the Rockies started hitting in the 6th. 7 runs later, including a grand-slam, the Rockies were winning 10 to 6. Even back in the days of the Blake-Street-Bombers, I do not think I've ever seen a 7 run inning by anyone, and let me tell you, Coors Field ROCKS when something like that is happening.

The game ended up 14 to 11, which made for a very late night for the boys, but going home they were pretty wired. I had no problems with a tired Connor walking back to the train at all, and Tyler just could not stop about how cool the game had been.

As I write this, the Rockies are 3 games up on the Giants for the wild card and only 3.5 games behind the Dodgers for the division lead. LA is coming to town this week, so now would be a great time to get hot. It would be awesome to see the Rockies leading the division in a few days.

It would be great to drink my Rocktoberfest Ale while watching the Rockies in the World Series this year. It could definitely happen.


note: when playing this video, you might want to turn down the sound on your computer. it is LOUD.

Chi Cubs beat the odds

The Cubs have not won the world series in 100 years.

0 world series 100 years.

I believe that there are 30 teams in the league.

If you do a simple Binomial Distribution on 100 trials each with a 1/30 chance of success, you have a higher statistical chance of coming up with 1,2,3,4,5 and 6 successes over those 100 trials. Just by dumb, random luck, it would be easier for the Cubs to have won 6 world series (6.7%) championships than 0 (3.4%) in the past 100 years.

And, of course, there have not been 30 teams for most of that time. I do not want to go through the effort to calculate the actual odds, but winning 0 times in 100 years is even harder than my simple little calculation.

Don't worry, Cub Fans. By my calculation, it is nearly statistically impossible (odds are only about 1 in 1000) for the Cubs to make it to 2108 without winning one.

Of course, if any team can do it, it is the Cubs.