To argue that baseball and all the ancillary costs of professional sports are part of a free market system is to believe that the US has such a thing.

Think of automobiles versus trains. Amtrak has to buy land, lay tracks and support the entire operation out of its own pocket. If car owners and manufacturers had to pay the cost of building and maintaining roads, bridges and for the effects of burning fossil fuel, there would be very few cars. As it is we are all taxed for this very large expense because we more than agree to it, we demand it and authorize bonds for it.

Baseball is a legally authorized cabal with special tax breaks and the financial support of the areas in which teams play. Yet MLB is not accountable to anyone, as recent steroid hearings illustrate. More to the point, unlike real businesses, even rotten teams are worth multi-millions because the market is artificially restrained by restricting in the number of teams and by making the creation of another professional league illegal.

Payroll is an expense as are operating costs like clubhouses, field maintenance, insurance, and PR. Of the many ways to recoup expenses and make a profit, ticket prices are one of them. To analyze how ticket prices have changed is not the same as investigating whether or not the change, especially the rise, is necessary.

MLB has been moaning about the loss of its fan base to basketball and football. Meanwhile, all but the most desperate teams raise ticket prices so only a few families – you know, groups with children who might be or become interested and grow into the game - can afford to attend games. I can’t think of more effective way to undermine baseball’s log-term goals of increasing their fan base other than keeping them out of the ballparks.

Oh, yeah, associating baseball with illegal drug use.

To use the excuse that costs are what people are willing to pay is to go against basic business principles. MLB wants people to pay to see the team, to buy gear and hot dogs, yet they make games more and more prohibitive to individuals in favor of courting corporate sponsorship in the form of naming rights and season ticket plans. At whatever damn phone company ballpark here in San Francisco, games are routinely listed as “sold out” when more than half the seats are empty.

When Bonds is no longer the big draw and the Giants stink, how many seats will companies buy? How many seasons will it take for the ownership to scream about moving the team out of Frisco to get more tax breaks? How much gear will The Dugout store sell? I’m a Giants fan, but I go to far fewer games than I used to, from forty a year to about ten, because I just can’t afford it. Meanwhile, I go to A’s games because there’s more to baseball than waiting for a Bonds home run.