Baseball’s antitrust exemption gives team owners something no other American sport enjoys: a government-enforced monopoly — and Matthew and returning guest Paul Hoppe use the start of a new season to ask what that power actually costs the rest of us.
The conversation moves from stadium blackmail to the Oakland A’s’ deliberate self-destruction, to the Green Bay Packers as a model of what public team ownership could look like. Matthew arrives having previously argued the defensive fan’s case; Paul brings his default skepticism about private corporations extracting public goodwill. Neither comes out with clean hands — and that’s exactly what makes the conversation worth having.
A Texas Rangers statue honoring a figure associated with enforcing post-Brown v. Board segregation, the legacy of Satchel Paige’s 1965 appearance at age 58, and a cameo from the Moonlight/La La Land Oscars incident round out an episode that uses baseball as a lens on money, community, and what we owe the things we love.
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This episode is a production of Superhero Ethics, an Ethical Panda podcast and part of the TruStory FM Entertainment Podcast Network. Check out our website to find out more about this show and our sister podcast Star Wars Generations.
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