Business vs Play

[KG Erwin]

In reading "Forever Blue", a new biography of Walter O'Malley, I'm beginning to understand my own motivations a bit more. I eschew using finances in PS, as I'm like Branch Rickey in this aspect -- the men on the field are being paid to play a game. However, Rickey loved making money, so his view was somewhat hypocritical. He was undoubtedly a baseball genius, as he basically invented the farm system as it's now understood.

O'Malley, by contrast, was strictly a businessman. He had the guts to actually declare major-league baseball to BE a business, and dedicated to making a profit. In PS terms, this means making the money to attract fans, sign top-notch players, and putting a winning team on the field. Under his watch, the LA Dodgers were very successful, winning the WS in 1959, 1963 and 1965. In my opinion, he fully deserved induction into the Hall of Fame.

For many years, O'Malley was vilified for two things: (1) moving the Dodgers to the west coast and (2) breaking down the mythology of professional baseball being anything other than a business proposition.

I could go on and on, but in PS one can embrace both the mythology AND the business, without unnecessary minutiae. Shaun is/was brilliant in distilling both aspects to their essentials. Easy to learn, but difficult to master. This is why PS is one of my all-time favorite games.