Tuesday, January 22, 2008

Two Wrongs

Ray Ratto believes that as punishment for their turning a blind eye to steroids, the Giants should be forced to forfeit their territorial rights to Santa Clara County. Added bonus: it would give the A's more leverage as they negotiate with Fremont over their ballpark deal by adding San Jose into the mix.

I don't read Ratto enough to know how he feels about PEDs in baseball, but I am hard pressed to imagine that any sane person can believe that's a good idea. Yes, the Giants' willful blindness was embarrassing, but in terms of harm caused, it pales compared to baseball's ridiculous, anti-competitive territorial scheme (which would only be further legitimized if employed to punish the Giants) or the way teams play one municipality off another in order to extract more tax dollars for their cash-cow ballparks, both of which would be encouraged by Ratto's proposed solution.

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