How much do I love baseball? Neither of my teams — the Houston Astros and Baltimore Orioles — made the playoffs this season, yet I’m still watching.
And it’s definitely been worth it.
Take last night’s/this morning’s 18-inning almost masterpiece. It would have qualified as a full-fledged masterwork, at least for me, if the Toronto Blue Jays, my third favorite team, had won instead of the Los Angeles Dodgers.
But the game was perfectly scripted for the Hollywood-adjacent National League champs. The marathon was full of record-breaking moments, including its ending.
The Dodgers took game 3, the first of this year’s Series in Dodgers Stadium, thanks to a walk-off homerun in the bottom of the 18th inning by Freddie Freeman.
With that solo shot, Freeman, last year’s reigning World Series MVP, became the first MLB player with two walk-offs in World Series history. He did the same in 2024’s first championship game against the New York Yankees.
The beauty of baseball: Beyond the myriad records set during last night’s game, it was a highlight reel of why I love baseball.
Baseball is a wonderful combination of individuals skills and match-ups in a team setting. So many of the plays are completed in a split-second fashion that boggles the minds of mere, unathletic mortals like me.
And underscoring the players’ athleticism are the jaw-dropping hits and catches and throws that players at all positions pull off with amazing ease.
To me, baseball is the true beautiful game.
Changing times, more dollars: It’s also a pastime at a crossroads.
As in all sports, money has become the dominating factor. And the Dodgers have mastered working within the rules with some creative financing in their quest to become the first team to win back-to-back MLB championships since the Yankees.
The Yankees actually took the title back-to-back-to-back, winning three consecutive World Series from 1998 to 2000. Before that, the Blue Jays were the last team to win two in a row, back in 1992 and 1993. (Thank you, Joe Carter!)
Financial finagling: But is the Dodgers’ financial finagling good for the game? Or has the team broken baseball?
Patrick M. Judd, an associate with Phelps in New Orleans, asks and attempts to answer that question in his recent post at the law firm’s website, “The Billion-Dollar Question: Are Deferred Compensation Contracts in the MLB Legal, or Have the Dodgers Broken Baseball?”
“No MLB team has used deferred compensation contracts more than the Dodgers, with the next closest team being over $800 million behind. In recent years, the Dodgers have garnered the most headlines for this type of compensation structure. But nothing the Dodgers are doing is improper or unusual — in fact, it is regularly used in the corporate employment world. And it has a history in the MLB,” writes Judd.
He then elaborates on the Dodgers’ current payroll, before diving into how deferred compensation works. I’ll let you read it at your leisure, or when your team falls behind tonight, but here’s a quick tax bit.
Deferred compensation decisions: At the federal level, notes Judd, compensation generally is governed by the Internal Revenue Code, and payment to employees is generally taxed in the year it is constructively received.
But, adds Judd, IRC section 404 “creates a special set of tax rules to govern deferred compensation.” Deferred compensation, under these regulations, falls under two categories: qualified deferred compensation plans and non-qualified plans, writes Judd.
Judd notes that the Dodgers use nonqualified plans, which are far less regulated.
“This grants more freedom to the parties but comes with more risks,” he writes. “These plans are essentially written agreements made between an employer and an employee wherein the employer withholds the employee’s pay until a later date.”
Fans of the other MLB teams immediately decried the Dodgers’ widespread use of deferred compensation. However, Judd says we shouldn’t be so judgmental.
While the Dodgers have been one of the most, if not the most, successful franchises in the last 10 years, Judd says the team’s winning ways can’t be directly attributed to the club’s use of deferred compensation contracts.
But that’s not going to keep us fans of other teams from urging our clubs’ owners to give the tactic a try. And Judd offers us some support.
“Considering the freedoms provided by the Internal Revenue Code for unqualified deferred compensation contracts, other teams might benefit from emulating the Dodgers’ strategy,” he writes.
Now, I’m off to watch Game 4 and see if the Jays can even up the Series.
