What defines a good clubhouse guy? Who knows? He makes a little over the league minimum. He doesn’t take a bat to the clubhouse thermostat, Kenny Lofton’s boombox, or cuss out Hannah Storm. He doesn’t throw water on Tim McCarver. He doesn’t bring a gun to work as a joke. He’s probably a short, white, weakling, overachiever who grinds, hustles, and never gives away an at-bat, probably because every MLB per diem could be his last. He’s not very good at baseball, but he won’t cause trouble. His most reliable quality is being reliable.
Places are inanimate, except in the cosmic sense. A place can speak to you, for sure. The individual, though, must take responsibility for finding the beauty in any location.
Consider this scenario: your friend is 25 years old. In an open market he could demand any salary he wanted. Unfortunately for him, his business has a ceiling on salary. His job is so specified, only 30 cities in the United States have franchises fitting his skill set.
His employment possibilities are slimmed even more considering the cap on what franchises can spend on labor costs. Five cities are reasonable options: Cleveland, New York, Chicago, Miami, and Los Angeles.
Your friend has global appeal. He is known worldwide, but has only lived in a 30 mile radius of Cleveland throughout his life. He never went to college. His hard work and prodigious talents put him straight into the workforce at 18. He’s a bazillionaire and he’s never left home.
He spent seven years working in Cleveland, is raising a few children and supporting his extended family. His job performance is better than anyone in Cleveland, ever. People travel from all over the WORLD to Cleveland just to see him work.
His business has a rule: if an employee stays with their present employer, the present employer can offer one more year on a contract and more total money, though the difference is marginal considering what he may be able to make up in product endorsements, benefits, etc.
Also, he can only choose his employer a few times throughout his career. The business has very, very strict contract law. He’ll probably sign a contract for 3-5 years then be allowed to test the open market again. If it turns out bad, he can’t go back.
His job has a high burnout rate. Luckily the contracts are guaranteed. If there’s a job site accident, which is very common, in fact he’s a little banged up at the moment, he’ll still be paid but has no chance at maximizing his earning potential. His career can end at any moment.
Would you tell your friend to stay in Cleveland, to forego the unknown?
Jim Thome didn’t stay. Manny Ramirez didn’t stay. Albert Belle didn’t stay. Art Modell didn’t stay. C.C. Sabathia wasn’t going to stay, neither was Cliff Lee or Victor Martinez.
LeBron tried long enough. He has no interest in carrying Cleveland’s agony, and I don’t blame him. Nobody knows what happened to the Cavs between Games 4-5. I’m just saying it doesn’t matter. Let the man go. The conditions of the NBA coupled with where he’s at in life? I want a championship in Cleveland more than anyone, but I would council LeBron to get out.
Emotion is the only logical reason, if emotion can be considered logical, I can provide for why he should stay.
LeBron James may be playing his last game for the Cleveland Cavaliers tonight. If the Cavs fall to the Celtics I’m not holding a grudge at LeBron. Pack up to the Chicago Bulls, New York Knicks, or wherever. You’ve had seven seasons to make it work here. Happy trails.
I’ll also never watch a Cavs game again. Wont take my nephew to the Q for his birthday. So Dan Gilbert has that to think about.
The Cavs are listed by Forbes as the 5th most valuable franchise in the NBA.
Yet Gilbert is highly leveraged, with a Debt / Value ratio of 42%. To make things worse, if the Cavs don’t make it to the NBA Finals the team will LOSE money this year.
The potential economic impact on the franchise and city is hyper-intense. If LeBron leaves? Fire up the Doomsday Machine.
The final relevant NBA game involving Cleveland may be played in about 3 hours. Downtown businesses relying on the Cavs to push them through the lean winter: cross your fingers.
I’ve written here about the danger of nostalgia for businesses and sports fans. It took a lot for me to grow and realize the 1986 Browns just weren’t good enough. The 1995 Indians just weren’t good enough. It didn’t matter if Skinner sent Lofton, the 2007 Indians were going to lose to Boston anyway.
Perhaps the 2010 Cavs just aren’t good enough either. Instead of thinking about tonight’s game with doom I remembered this–
Without laughter we die.
A huge concern for late adopters of social networking, or non-adopters for that matter, is that Twitter and Facebook are distraction comedy for teenagers. Someone who’s paid a mortgage since 1964, a home presently worth its 1986 value, has every reason to be skeptical.
They were sold on the following life path:
Survive through college / wartime. Find a job. Get married. Have a few kids. Raise them. Send them to college. Work some more. Spoil grandkids. Retire.
This American archetype, of course, does not account for the Vietnam War, the 1970s oil shocks, Carter’s recession, Volcker’s monetary policy, Reagan’s faux militarization of space, or any other potential macroeconomic shift that can kink a hard working American family into monetary trouble.
When LeBron came to town Cleveland fans expected something simpler:
LeBron arrives. We win titles.
This generalization didn’t account for Carlos Boozer’s handshake deal with Jim Paxson, the overachieving 2007 Cavs, Andy Varejao’s holdout, Hedo Turkoglu playing like Jerry West, Shaq’s broken finger, Mo Williams forgetting how to score, or LeBron’s mysterious elbow injury.
In life and business, the thing you can’t see will get you. One way to get over it is to tastefully laugh.
The subtext of Twitter hatred, in a business sense, is that social media marketing is nothing more than anecdotal silliness.
Well, that’s kind of the point. My anxiety this afternoon is calmed by checking in on one my favorite Tweeps: LeBron’s elbow which is clearly not written by LeBron’s elbow–but a tech savvy kid who knows about the relationship between humor and commerce.
I imagine the Twitterer responsible for comedy gems like “BTW I feel fine today. Nobody has shocked, rubbed or drugged me for awhile so I’m feeling less n less like Courtney Love everyday” will enjoy the game tonight with friends, owns a few Cavs t-shirts, likes to watch the game at the bar, all things good for the economy (and the Cavs).
I doubt Dan Gilbert has this Twitterer on his payroll, but he should. The 2010-11 Cavs could be a comedy troupe.
MLB is trying to be preventative. Milton Bradley with a Twitter account? Entertaining for me. Scary for MLB.
