The world according to Jim:
• Major League Baseball’s owners have launched their (latest) campaign to install a salary cap, and so now it’s official: The Dodgers are the sport’s villains. …
Read more Former Southern California mayor pleads guilty to secretly acting as agent of Chinese government
• Some of the graphics produced by management at the outset of negotiations on a new collective bargaining agreement – and helpfully posted on social media by ESPN’s Alden González – attempt to portray “payroll disparity.” They note that the champs’ 2025 payroll commitment, listed as $515 million with the competitive balance tax (i.e., luxury tax) included, was more than the payrolls of six teams combined: Cleveland ($104 million), the White Sox ($88 million), Pittsburgh ($87 million), the West Sacramento A’s ($81 million), Tampa Bay ($81 million) and Miami ($69 million).
Conveniently omitted: The luxury tax money the Dodgers paid – $169 million, in itself more than the payrolls of 16 teams combined according to another of the charts – is distributed to the supposed have-nots. How many of those teams use that luxury tax windfall, or revenue-sharing money, on their own payrolls? The obvious answer: Not nearly enough. …
• Maybe the figure that should be highlighted is this: The MLB proposal calls for a $245.3 million salary cap and also a $171.2 million salary floor. (And keep in mind that those figures include player benefits.) Twelve teams didn’t reach $171.2 million in 2025, according to Spotrac, and 12 teams are short of that figure this season as the calendar turns to June.
So, under the current system, who’s really making an all-out effort to win? Silly question. …
• Keep this in mind, as well: The Lords of Baseball appear to be pushing a salary cap less because of any so-called “payroll disparity” and more because of lagging franchise valuations. The perception is that teams in salary cap sports are worth more, and consequently sell for more, than those in baseball.
In other words, billionaires being jealous of other billionaires. Yep, that’s a good reason to provoke a work stoppage. …
• Worth noting, while we’re on the subject: Arte Moreno was prepared to sell the Angels a couple of years ago but pulled back, presumably because the offers weren’t to his liking. The Angels’ major league payroll last year according to Spotrac was $221.3 million, 13th in the sport. This year it’s $194.8 million, 17th.
So while it’s easy to chant “Sell the team,” it’s harder to do. …
• The owners insisting on a salary cap must reckon with this, as well: Players come and players go, but the MLBPA’s institutional memory remains strong. Today’s players are reminded of the labor battles their predecessors went through, and the resistance to any sort of salary limit is just as unyielding.
In other words, don’t make plans to buy 2027 tickets just yet. …
• Those who are waiting for that column with reader responses to the question, “What would I do if I were sports’ Commissioner of Everything?” It’s coming, in the second week of June.
Believe me, there were plenty of responses. And if you haven’t weighed in yet, there’s still time. …
Read more Ex-Arcadia mayor pleads guilty to working as agent of China
• Here’s one additional gripe that I didn’t think of at the time: Teams that have giveaway nights but limit them to the “first 25,000” or “first 40,000” who show up. How difficult is it – especially when many of these giveaway items are co-sponsored – to assure that everybody who shows up gets one? …
• This is strange. The Dodgers promoted a seven-part series looking back at the 2025 drive to their second straight championship on their YouTube channel, but the episodes were only up for a few hours Thursday and then were taken down, along with the promotional material on the team’s social media accounts. …
• It resonated the other night during the Oklahoma City-San Antonio series when NBC’s Reggie Miller described a pass to Victor Wembanyama for a basket as “leaving it for the Big Fella.” That phrase has a long, storied history in the NBA, and it’s appropriate that Wemby inherits it – especially since he resembles a modern version of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar every time I watch him play. …
• The only difference: Kareem’s career 3-point shooting was 1 for 18 in the regular season and 0 for 4 in the playoffs. Wembanyama is 27 for 76 beyond the arc in this series alone. Then again, if Kareem were playing in this era, he’d likely be shooting 3-pointers as well.
• This week’s quiz: When did Kareem make that lonely 3-pointer? Answer below …
• Was the move of USC, UCLA, Oregon and Washington to the Big Ten better for those schools or that conference? Consider that Big Ten schools have won 12 national championships so far this school year, five from the legacy Pac-12 schools: UCLA men’s water polo, women’s basketball and beach volleyball, USC women’s water polo and Washington men’s soccer. And there’s the possibility of more in baseball and softball. …
• But I still miss the old Pac-12. That’ll never change. …
• Meanwhile, college baseball continues to tilt toward the Southeast, and I’m not absolutely convinced it’s on merit. Seven of the top eight seeds are from the SEC, 12 of the 16 regionals are in that part of the country, and the one non-power conference school winning the right to host a regional was Southern Mississippi. Successful skewing of schedules, or further disrespect toward West Coast baseball? You judge. …
• Can we start a campaign to make the Dodgers’ new blue jerseys – the ones with Los Angeles on the chest – their actual City Connect uniforms? They are as classy as the Funfetti uniforms (the current City Connects) are tacky. …
• Quiz answer: Kareem’s only career 3-point basket came Feb. 24, 1987, in a 97-93 victory at Phoenix. Michael Cooper missed a jumper from the free-throw line. Kareem chased it down in the corner, did a bit of a tightrope act to stay inbounds, then turned around and drained it with near-perfect form.
And, as Chick Hearn noted moments later: “That’s all you’ll hear tonight on the bus and the plane going back to L.A.”
Read more Capistrano Valley High’s new stadium to host 2026 graduation, future games