Kike Hernandez #14 of the Los Angeles Dodgers (Photo by Norm Hall/Getty Images)
Dodgers infielder Enrique Hernandez went after Cardinals owner Bill DeWitt for recent comments.
St. Louis Cardinals chairman Bill DeWitt has come under fire for recent comments suggesting that baseball is a failing business model. While the owners are scheduled to lose a lump sum of cash over the shortened season due to the COVID-19 pandemic (assuming a season happens at all), overall DeWitt’s comments have been proven incorrect in a short timespan.
If there were a way to get Twitter ratio’d in public, DeWitt would’ve succeeded in doing so.
“The industry isn’t very profitable to be quite honest, and I think they understand that. But they think, you know, the owners are hiding profits, and you know there’s been a little bit of a distrust there,” DeWitt told St. Louis sports radio station 590 the Fan.
Kiké Hernandez went in on Cardinals owner Bill DeWitt after his comments on baseball’s profitability.
DeWitt misses the mark here, in part because the Cardinals’ expenses over the past few years include adding several ballpark amenities. He also bought a Hollywood mansion for $8.25 million in the last calendar year. The man is not struggling by any means.
When DeWitt bought the Cardinals in 1996, he paid $150 million. Now, the MLB franchise is worth over $2 billion. The Cardinals value has increased tenfold, making DeWitt’s “woe is me” stance all the harder to understand and a clear ploy to put pressure on the players to fold on their rather understandable financial expectations.
Yes, losing money hurts, even when you’re a billionaire like DeWitt. But his $4 billion net worth suggests he can afford to lose a little bit of money for the greater good.
There is no way for the generic baseball fan to side between millionaires and billionaires, and some players and owners make more money in a year than we’ll see in our lifetime. By making this battle public, however, DeWitt isn’t doing his side any favors.