First pitch: 7:10 Central

Weather: Very nice, starting temperature 77°

Opponent SB site: Camden Chat

TV: BS North, MLB Free Game of the Day (where available). Radio: Just as annoyed as you are

The Orioles will start starting pitcher Cade Povich, who won’t reveal any on-air paternity tests about his guests. He’s a lefthander and has about one lousy start per month.

The Twins start Pablo López, who was not good in his last outing.

With Minnesota having exactly 3 GB of the Wild Card spots occupied by Detroit and Kansas City, only a series sweep of the Twins combined with three losses to either of those other teams will get them a spot in the playoffs.

Kansas City plays against Atlanta, which is fighting for its own playoff spot. Detroit plays the White Sox, who are fighting over who hates Jerry Reinsdorf the most.

We’re going to wrap up our Friday coverage this year with a nasty little story about how billionaire giveaways work.

So the Orioles wanted more than half a billion dollars to “renovate” Camden Yards, which, as you can guess, is in no danger of falling. Maryland Governor Wes Moore was ready to hand them this money. Until it became known that the team was in negotiations to sell it to a new owner.

So Orioles CEO John Angelos called Governor Moore to assure him the team wasn’t selling. Gov. Moore believed him; and the team received a million dollars in public money.

Then it was promptly announced that they had been sold.

(Which means the governor was fooled, but that’s his problem, and that of his constituents.)

What is extra annoying is that the team is not sold in one go. It is now being partially sold and will be sold completely once aging team owner Peter Angelos passes away. Why is this?

It’s perfectly legal tax evasion.

You see, Peter Angelos bought the team before Camden Yards opened. That means if he sells it now, he’ll have to pay taxes on the increased value of the team. That would be a lot of taxes.

But after he dies, the team’s fiscal value isn’t what Peter Angelos paid for it; it’s what the team is worth if its children inherit it. AKA, the team’s value resets to today. They can then sell it and pay NO capital gains tax.

They still have to pay some other taxes, but they avoid about $300 million. And that’s just federal. They also avoid state taxes. All completely legal.

What is the moral of this story? There really isn’t one. Precisely because teams are constantly asking for more and more public money, municipalities and states must negotiate better. For example, the Pohlads can’t sell the Twins before 2040 without owing Hennepin County, regardless of the team’s increased value thanks to Target Field. (Which would mean a fun lawyer fight, and no one wants that.)

Since this is the last Friday preview of the year, I’ll leave you all with a song that represents how I feel about baseball right now:

There’s a line at Jim Bouton Wrong ball (about trying to save a historic minor league ballpark); “Baseball is like religion – a great game with bad owners.”

What I enjoy is separate from the annoying things behind the scenes; it’s in things like reading box scores, or listening to games on the radio (even though Atteberry is a mess sometimes).

It’s less about who wins and loses, except that it makes what’s happening at any given moment more interesting.

No, it’s the game itself, and the often strange, but likable boys who play it.

And that will probably continue for a while.

So if this site is still around next year, you’ll probably see me back writing about weird baseball characters. And if not, maybe our paths will cross again, somewhere else.

It was fun, even if those owners can be frustrating sometimes!

And for less of an annoyance than sports owners avoiding taxes, here’s a nice FanGraphs article by Michael Baumann about foreign soccer players visiting American sports stadiums, including Camden Yards. Here’s a women’s team player who really knows baseball as she tries to explain it to her European teammates:

Hey, I made that face when explaining baseball to people who didn’t grow up with it… and now that I think about it, I made those faces for the Twins on the radio this month!