The Economics of Baseball

Prof. Ranjit Dighe (click here to send me an e-mail)
Fall 2009
    Eco 383-800: T Th 9:35-10:55 in Mahar 102
    Eco 383-810, T Th 11:10-12:30 in Mahar 102

The most relevant links for this course, including the syllabus and a link to all of the outside readings, are on ANGEL.
Click here to log into ANGEL.

Required texts for this class: Andrew Zimbalist.  May the Best Team Win: Baseball Economics and Public Policy. (Either the hardback or the paperback is fine.) J.C. Bradbury.  The Baseball Economist: The Real Game Exposed.  (Either the hardback or the paperback is fine.) (The many additional course readings are posted on the ANGEL page for this course.)

Salary arbitration and related information:

• Cot's Baseball Contracts -- amazing source of data on current player contracts, service time, free-agent eligibility, and more
• MLB player and pitcher stats, courtesy of ESPN
• Results of recent salary arbitration cases and settlements

Some baseball and general links that may prove helpful in researching your debate topics 
(but keep in mind that they are complements to, not substitutes for, the course textbooks and reading packet):

• The Sabernomics blog, by J.C. Bradbury, author of The Baseball Economist
• The Sports Economist blog touches on nearly every topic we cover in this class
• The Biz of Baseball might be the most comprehensive website about the baseball business
• Forbes.com has key financial estimates for every major-league team
• Team Marketing Report:  average ticket prices and "Fan Cost Index" for teams in MLB and other sports leagues
• ESPN baseball news
• CNN / Sports Illustrated baseball news
• The Baseball Archive's "Business of Baseball" page -- includes comprehensive team financial info for 1990-96
• Lexis-Nexis Academic Universe -- full-text articles from hundreds of newspapers and magazines
• Google.com gets my vote for best Internet search engine

• Cot's Baseball Contracts -- amazing source of data on current player contracts, service time, free-agent eligibility, and more
• Sports Business Journal 
• Chris Isidore's "Sportsbiz" column on the CNN/Money magazine web site 
• Field of Schemes thinks stadiums are lousy public investments, but keeps close tabs on them
• Baseball Prospectus: Stats, Analysis, Commentary, and Projections 
• Baseball Hall of Fame 
• Major League Baseball (MLB.com) 
• John Skilton's Baseball Links 
• Baseball America magazine 
• Birds in the Belfry: a Baltimore Orioles fan site

• Some suggestions for improving the World Series and by extension the game's long-term customer base, from Tom Verducci of Sports Illustrated (cover story, 10 Nov. 2008)
• C.C. rides the gravy train, but a lot of people expected the recession to ultimately take its toll on free agents in winter 2009 (ESPN, 11 Dec. 2008)
• Baseball salaries increased to $2.9 million in 2008, but the rate of increase was the slowest in four years (5 Dec. 2008)
• The Mitchell report on steroid use in MLB, one year later (ESPN, 26 Nov. 2008)
• The supposedly privately funded new stadiums for the Yankees and Mets will cost taxpayers about $1 billion in infrastructure improvements, tax breaks, etc. (New York Times, 4 Nov. 2008)
• And that's not all, says Neil deMause (Village Voice, 30 Nov. 2008)
• A list of the Top 50 free agents of last winter (2008-2009)
• Many of the free agents on this Top 50 list from 2004 could be used as lessons against giving out big multi-year deals to free agents.  (There are some success stories in there too, though.)
• Commissioner Bud Selig tells the owners not to get too "cocky" in raising ticket prices
• Jim Caple of ESPN.com (aided by a lot of quotes from Ball Four author Jim Bouton) says Marvin Miller belongs in the Hall of Fame
• Michael Lewis of Washington University says MLB's revenue-sharing plan has backfired and says he's got a better alternative ("Baseball's Losing Formula," New York Times, 3 Nov. 2007).
• Tom Verducci of Sports Illustrated has a great idea about how to tweak MLB's wild-card system to make the game's playoff races more meaningful, which could only help the demand for the game down the stretch ("Pure Fiction: Debunking the Biggest Myths of MLB's Wild-Card Era," SI.com, 25 Sept. 2007).

• Yankees Ensure 2003 Pennant by Signing Every Player in Baseball (The Onion - news article or radio clip)
• Congress Threatens to Leave D.C. Unless New Capitol Is Built (The Onion)