Abstract
Proximity matters to Major League Baseball teams concerned about player development. Optimal player movement between minor league baseball teams can lead to maximizing player development opportunities, so proximity between levels of a Major League organization matters in building the best possible roster of Major League players. Perhaps more than any other matter that arises in the business of baseball, proximity to other professional baseball teams is a concern that has uniquely shaped professional baseball in North America. It is this unique component in how professional baseball is organized that suggests a proximity-based approach to studying the economics of minor league baseball.
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Notes
- 1.
Beginning in 2015, Oklahoma City’s Triple A team will be known as the Dodgers, not the RedHawks.
- 2.
Billy Beane’s comments appeared in “Change is all the rage in affiliation shifts,” by Benjamin Hill and accessed at http://www.milb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20141002&content_id=97205032&fext=.jsp&vkey=min_bus&sid=milb on October 9, 2014.
- 3.
Many other books offer descriptions of the Federal Baseball case and how it leads to Major League Baseball’s antitrust exemption. Andrew Zimbalist’s take on the ruling in his 2003 book, May the Best Team Win: Baseball Economics and Public Policy, offers clear insight into this matter. I refer the reader to Zimbalist’s book and others like it to get a better sense of how Major League Baseball received such a favorable Supreme Court ruling.
- 4.
Accessed http://atlanticleague.com/about.html on October 23, 2014.
- 5.
Accessed http://atlanticleague.com/about.html on October 23, 2014.
- 6.
Before Roger Clemens pitched for the Skeeters, a federal jury in the summer of 2012 found him not guilty of lying to Congress in his 2008 testimony regarding his alleged use of performance-enhancing drugs. Pitching for the Skeeters was perhaps as beneficial to Clemens in confirming the jury’s finding as it was for the Skeeters in bringing more fans to the ballpark.
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Rhoads, T.A. (2015). Proximity and Minor League Baseball. In: The Call Up to the Majors. Sports Economics, Management and Policy, vol 7. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-8924-5_1
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