5 Things That Are Wrong With Major League Baseball

Even though I'm a big fan of Major League Baseball (actually all baseball), a true fan is able to look at the sport and spot the problems that need fixing. To think your favorite sport is perfect, is either being blind to its pitfalls or ignorant to the negatives within it. Every sport has things wrong with it and here I present to you, the five things wrong with the MLB.

1. The Home Plate Collision Rule: MLB attempted to prevent injuries to catchers by creating a rule that forces the runner to avoid the catcher. Injuries in the past to all-stars such as Buster Posey and Ray Fosse led to the creation of this rule. The problem is that the rule is left with too much of a gray area for the umpires to interpret the rule. When players, managers, and fans can't tell if the rule is broken and many times the replay crew in the New York headquarters has to make the call, there is a flaw in the rule. A rule in baseball must be clear cut and as close to black and white as possible.

2. The Los Angeles Dodgers' Television Deal With Time Warner: In a sport that needs to capture the enthusiasm from a youthful generation to grow, the Dodgers deal alienates a lot of their local fans. Only people subscribing to Time Warner Cable are able to watch the games on live television. The biggest problem with this is that in an industry that is almost monopoly like, with cable companies owning rights to particular cities, many fans don't even have that choice to switch over to Time Warner. Long Beach, the second largest city in Los Angeles County is a city in this category. Five hundred thousand residents, but their city utilizes Cox Communications, meaning that Dodgers fans have to leave the city and find a bar or family member's house that is in a Time Warner city, to watch a game. This alienates current Dodgers fans and either creates future Angels fans in the youth demographic or even worse, hurts the future of baseball in general by taking away the ability for fans to grow up with the game. What's worse is that Time Warner raised their prices by $10 a month to compensate for the deal they made.

3. The 2nd Wildcard Spot: To create even more hype and build revenue that the MLB pulls in during the playoffs, they expanded the amount of teams to make the playoffs to five in a league. Three division winners and two wildcards. The two wildcard teams must play each other in a one game, do or die to play in the rest of the playoffs. It's too many teams. The MLB needs to revert back to four teams a league, which would only include one wildcard team. If there is ever another expansion, the MLB can create four divisions in each league consisting of four teams and still have four teams in each league in the playoffs.

4. The Ban of Shoeless Joe Jackson: Linked to the Black Sox scandal, eight White Sox players who played in the 1919 World Series, were banned for life for throwing the Series. Believed to have been bribed by professional gamblers and mobsters including mob boss Arnold Rothstein, the eight players were part of a conspiracy to throw the Series to supplement their low income. The MLB Reserve clause back then, allowed a team to offer any amount to a player and if the player rejected it, they would not be allowed to play in the MLB again. Charles Comiskey, the owner of the White Sox was notorious for lowballing his players. Eight players were accused of throwing the Series including Jackson, but Jackson's stats didn't appear to be those of a man throwing any of the games. He his .375, hit a homerun (in a time when they weren't hit that often), three doubles, and six RBI's. Teammates of his also went on to tell those who listened that he never accepted any money, nor was part of the scandal. Also no physical evidence ever showed that he was guilty.

5. Ban All Tobacco: In a sport that named the area where pitchers warm up (the bullpen), after the advertising signs of Bull Durham Tobacco that adorned them, baseball clearly had a long association with tobacco. One of the stereotypes of a ballplayer is the wads of chewing tobacco they shove in their mouth. As far back as 1909, players such as Honus Wagner demand the American Tobacco Company to refrain from releasing his baseball card along with packages of chewing tobacco. Unfortunately as far back as the conception of the sport, tobacco had already become common place on the field. The MLB eventually banned players from smoking in baseball facilities and furthered the prevention by banning tobacco companies from giving players free product in the clubhouses of the stadiums. In 1993, professional baseball took it a step further by banning players, coaches, and managers from using chewing tobacco on the field or in the vicinity of the stadium. Unfortunately it is still allowed in the Major League level. Former all-star baseball player Lenny Dystra, an addict to chewing tobacco, once stated, "They call me "Nails" because they say I'm as tough as nails. But I'm not tough enough to beat the spit-tobacco habit. Copy my hustle, copy my determination. But don't copy my spit-tobacco habit." Other Hall of Fame legends such as Babe Ruth and more recently, Tony Gwynn, were all diagnosed with cancer in the oral regions, attributed to their chewing tobacco use.

Millhouse Mid-season 2014 MLB Awards

With the season just over half done, I announce the Millhouse Mid-season 2014 MLB Awards...

AL MVP: 1. Mike Trout, 2. Victor Martinez, 3. Jose Altuve
AL Cy Young: 1. Felix Hernandez, 2. Masahiro Tanaka, 3. Chris Sale
AL Rookie Of The Year: 1. (tied) Jose Abreu, 1.(tied) Masahiro Tanaka, 3. Yordano Ventura
AL All-Star Team: C-Kurt Suzuki, 1B-Miguel Cabrera, 2B-Jose Altuve, 3B-Adrian Beltre, SS-Alexei Ramirez, OF-Mike Trout, Nelson Cruz, Jose Bautista, DH-Victor Martinez, SP-Felix Hernandez, Masahiro Tanaka, Chris Sale, Scott Kazmir, Garrett Richards, RP-Dellin Betances, Wade Davis, Jake McGee, Closer-Greg Holland, Fernando Rodney

NL MVP: 1. Troy Tulowitzki, 2. Andrew McCutchen, 3. Giancarlo Stanton
NL Cy Young: 1. Adam Wainwright, 2. Johnny Cueto, 3. Julio Teheran
NL Rookie Of The Year: 1. Billy Hamilton, 2. Chris Owings, 3. Chase Anderson
NL All-Star Team: C-Jonathon Lucroy, 1B-Paul Goldschmidt, 2B-Dee Gordon, 3B-Todd Frazier, SS-Troy Tulowitzki, OF-Andrew McCutchen, Giancarlo Stanton, Carlos Gomez, SP-Adam Wainwright, Johnny Cueto, Julio Teheran, Zack Greinke, Clayton Kershaw, RP-Will Smith, Zach Duke, Tony Watson, Closer-Francisco Rodriguez, Craig Kimbrel

R.I.P Tony Gwynn

Today, Tony Gwynn passed away from cancer, related to his chewing tobacco use in his playing days. At the age of 54, baseball lost one of their legends and one of the more recent inductees to the 3000 hit club.

Tony Gwynn's career contained feats such as winning the NL batting title eight times, fifteen time all-star, five gold glove awards, and 2007 first ballot inductee into the Hall of Fame. His career batting average was .338 and never dipped below .309 in any one season. After his career was over, he continued to remain connected to baseball by taking over as the head coach for San Diego State baseball. He took leave in March for medical reasons and unfortunately never returned to his role.

One of the more unknown things about Tony Gwynn was that he almost didn't become a baseball player. He was recruited by San Diego State out of Long Beach Poly High School as a highly touted point guard. In his freshmen year, he only played basketball. During his sophomore, an bicycling accident that injured two of San Diego State's outfielders, left the college baseball team in need. Jim Dietz gave Tony Gwynn a chance to try out and from there, everything is history. He won All-American honors in his junior and senior years, playing leftfield and designated hitter. In basketball he won Western Athletic Conference all conference awards twice. In the 1981, he was selected in the third round by the San Diego Padres with the 58th overall pick. On the same day, the NBA held their draft and the San Diego Clippers selected him in the tenth round.

He was the definition of a player that was self made. He consistently used video of his at-bats to study his own flaws and to study the tendencies of the pitchers he would face. Without this ability, he could not have been the consistent .300+ hitter he became. He constantly made adjustments to improve his hitting. One such adjustment was when joined the Padres minor league system, he had trouble converting over to wood bats from the aluminum bats college used. He made the adjustment to drop to a 32" inch bat that weighed only 31 ounces to mimic the weight of the aluminum bats. Despite losing a couple of inches on the length of the bat, he was able to control his swings better.

He created the term "5.5 hole" because he often would drive the ball to the opposite field between the third baseman (5) and the shortstop (6). Earlier in his career he was able to run, including stealing 56 bases in 1987. Eight knee surgeries slowed him down towards the end of his career.

In summation of his career, fellow major league all-star outfielder Joe Carter said he played with or against three of the games greatest "game changers" and listed them as 1) Kirby Puckett, 2) Paul Molitor, and 3) Tony Gwynn.

The Gwynn family had an odd knack for dates too. Tony Gwynn obtained his 3,000th hit on his mother's birthday. Exactly twenty-four years to the day after getting his first hit (a double), Tony Gwynn Jr. obtained his first hit as a member of the Milwaukee Brewers, also a double.

After the end of his career, the Padres retired his number 19 and unveiled a statue of him at Petco Park with the term "Mr. Padre" inscribed into the base of it. It was fitting as he spent his entire career with the organization which became a rarity in his generation. Despite player during the "steroid era", he was one of the few all-star hitters not to be accused of any wrong doing. His career often paralleled fellow hitters Wade Boggs and Kirby Puckett. In his fifty-four years, he displayed 100% class which is hard to come by in sports today. 

R.I.P. Don Zimmer

Normally a ballplayer, manager, or someone else involved in Major League Baseball has to hit certain milestones to be considered a Hall of Famer. For a hitter it could be five hundred homeruns or three hundred wins for a pitcher. For a manager, usually it means you have to have a World Series ring or two. Otherwise, if you make it to the Hall of Fame, it's because you did something to revolutionize the game such as breaking the color barrier.

But when should someone be elected to the Hall of Fame, despite not hitting any of the these career milestones? How about a player with these stats....

12 Seasons, .235 career batting average, 773 hits, 91 homeruns, 45 stolen bases, and 1 All-Star appearance

...or manager stats that look like this?...1 first place season, 1 manager of the year award, and a career record of 885 wins and 858 loses.

Not very Hall of Fame like at first glance, right?

Normally I would agree, but in this case, these stats belong to Don Zimmer. He spent sixty-six seasons in professional baseball, playing with World Series winners ('55 and '59 with the Dodgers), and coaching four more ('96 and '98-'00 with the Yankees). He had been involved with the MLB so long that he was the last member of the Brooklyn Dodgers franchise to still be working on the field (Vin Scully is technically the last, but he never played/coached/managed).

Zimmer had also been involved in several other notorious moments in Major League Baseball history. Because of Zimmer nudging Billy Martin to ask about George Brett's bat, the famous "Pine Tar Incident" in 1983 took place. Also in 1953, after being struck in the head by a pitch, the MLB began to adopt the practice of hitters using helmets. Lastly, during a brawl on the field, Zimmer, a coach for the Yankees at the time, charged Red Sox pitcher Pedro Martinez, only to be tossed to the ground. It became one of the most famous fight moments in baseball history.

He also has the dubious honor of being only one of four people to be ejected from a game in six different decades. The others are Casey Stengel, Frank Robinson, and Leo Durocher. He also was the first New York Met to wear the uniform.

As the bench coach for the Yankees, Zimmer was the person to convince Torre not to make it mandatory for the players to wear ties when traveling on road trips. During his tribute in Tampa Bay, it was revealed that his wife Soot used to tie his ties during home games, but on the road, without his wife, he couldn't tie the tie himself. His wife was part of Zimmer and baseball as far back as 1951. They were married at home plate in Elmira, New York in between two games of a doubleheader.

At his tribute, his family mentioned that no funeral service would be performed because the baseball field was his church. Over the years he touched and molded many players and legends of the game from Derek Jeter to Jackie Robinson. Mark Grace to Roberto Clemente. Willie Mays to David Price.

The game won't be the same without him there. With sixty-six years of professional baseball experience under his belt, it's hard for anyone to recall a time the game had been played without Zimmer being part of it. Despite his lack of milestone numbers, his influence superseded what most players have ever achieved in their lifetime.

Most Unbreakable Record In Baseball

56, 511, 4256, 383, 5714, 2632, 130.....All these are milestones in baseball that some believe are unbreakable records. All of these records are held by legends of the game and in some cases, are the reasons why they're considered legends. The game has evolved over the 150+ years it has existed and with the way it is played today, are these records unbreakable?

56...Out of these records listed above, I believe the one that could fall the easiest is 56, as in consecutive games with a hit. Held by Joltin' Joe DiMaggio, he set this record in 1941. In 73 years since he set the record, the closest players to come to it were Pete Rose in 1978 with 44 games and Paul Molitor with 39 in 1987. Both of them hall of fame caliber players in their own right, but still miles away from Joltin' Joe.

So why do I think this record is breakable? First off it was accomplished in a single season. I believe that most single season records are easier to beat than career long records. Especially in this case where a player on a hot streak could try to go after the record. Also, it technically has been beaten before, but on other levels of baseball. Robin Ventura hit in 58 straight games in 1987 for Oklahoma State. Plus the game hasn't changed so much, that the number can't be hit.

130...The most stolen bases in a single season is held by legendary leadoff man, Rickey Henderson. If he played today, fantasy baseball players would draft him first overall because he could single handedly win you the stolen bases category. Since he broke the record in 1982, the next closest was Vince Coleman with 110 in 1985 and 109 in 1987. Since that 1987 year, no one has even had over 100 stolen bases in a season and the most since Rickey and Vince is Jose Reyes with 78 in 2007.

Baseball changed. "Money Ball", power hitters, and stolen bases being more evenly distributed among teammates have caused the running game to change. The Money Ball method cites that your team has a better chance to score if the game is played straight up, without trying to bunt or steal bases. Ironic that the team that has employed this tactic is the Oakland A's, the very team that employed Rickey Henderson for much of his career including his record breaking 1982 year. The "Steroid Era" also is a reason for the drop. Power hitting became gold in the MLB and even if one of your faster players is on base, you would hold him off from running so you wouldn't bug your power hitter who is at-bat.  Finally teams seem to spread out the stolen bases these days. You'll have more players on a team with ten or more stolen bases, but none with very high individual numbers.

4256...The all time hits record held by Pete Rose, a player who played for 24 years. He had ten seasons with 200 or more hits and several more that just finished just short such as 198 in 1972. He also led the league in hits for seven different seasons. Is this record breakable? I think so, although it would take the right circumstances to do so.

The current active leader is Derek Jeter, who is on a farewell tour. Unfortunately, he won't break the record because he ONLY has 3363 hits as I type this blog out. He's ninth on the all-time hits list, but as long as he stays healthy for his final season, should be able to move past the sixth spot currently held by Cap Anson with 3435 hits. He could even move past Tris Speaker for fifth, who has 3514, but that would take some great hitting by Jeter.

If star Japanese player, Ichiro Suzuki came to the MLB earlier, he could have had an outside shot. He broke the single season record for hits and despite having only fourteen seasons under his belt (the last three which haven't been too productive), he currently has 2768 hits. He too has ten 200 hits or more seasons (all of them in a row) and also like Pete Rose, has led the league seven times. Unfortunately, he didn't come over to the MLB until he was 27 years old, spending his younger years in the Japanese baseball league. He currently has 4046 hits between the two professional leagues, but that takes into account that even though he hit 1278 in Japan, they only play 130-140 games a season. He too is currently playing, and by the end of his career, should have more hits overall than Pete Rose, but unfortunately for him, it won't count.

Currently playing, with a small outside shot of getting near the record, is Miguel Cabrera. He currently has 2058 hits in twelve seasons, but has spent the last couple of years dominating the MLB in not just average, but overall hitting. He won the triple crown in 2012. He also plays in the American League, which will allow for him to hit as a designated hitter, long after his fielding days are over.

2632...This was achieved by Cal Ripken Jr., breaking the Iron Horse Lou Gehrig's record of 2130. The closet since the record being set in 1998 was Miguel Tejada with 1152 games, but that ended in 2007. The most recent streak was at 547, broken this year by Prince Fielder. Unfortunately a herniated disk in his neck forced him into a season ending surgery. Can this record be broken? There is a small chance that it can, but with managers being overly conservative with players, especially star players, Cal Ripken Jr. was a member of a dying breed.

383/5714...Nolan Ryan's records for strike outs in a single season and in a career, in the modern era. In 1973, Ryan broke Sandy Koufax' record of 382 and since then, the closest was Randy Johnson in 2001 with 372. Both Koufax and Ryan accomplished the feat when teams ran with four man rotations. Ryan had pitched in 40 games when he had 383 strikeouts, giving him an average of 10.6 per 9 innings pitched. When Johnson threw 372, he average 13.4 strikeouts per 9 innings, but he did it in the five man rotation era while only pitching in 34 games. So why is this record harder to break than the all-time hits record? With five man rotations sometimes giving way to six man rotations, innings limits being set by teams and player's agents, and pitch counts rarely going 100 pitches, star pitchers are sometimes only limited to 30 starts in a season now. This means they would have to average nearly 13 strikeouts a game, when they now rarely go over seven innings a game.

With the career record, Ryan accomplished this in twenty-seven seasons and quite frankly was a durable, freak of nature. Several other players of the same makeup have followed since (Randy Johnson, Roger Clemens, Dwight Gooden), but various factors prevented them from breaking Ryan's career record. Johnson never pitched a complete season until he was 26 years old and by the time Ryan was 26, he 1205 career strikeouts, including two seasons with over 300. Clemens had 1215 by the time he was 26, but retired by age 44, had two seasons shortened by injury, and two more seasons that he didn't start playing until midseason. Of this bunch, Gooden had the most strikeouts by age 26, with 1541, but injuries and drug problems proved to be road blocks in his career, preventing him from being a future Hall-of-Famer.

Currently, CC Sabathia is the active leader with 2437, but that's in fourteen seasons and his body has been breaking down the last few. The three current players with the best shots are Felix Hernandez, Justin Verlander, and Clayton Kershaw. At age 28, Hernandez has 1786 strikeouts, fairly close to Ryan's pace. Verlander has 1721, but is 31 years old. Both Hernandez and Verlander have been solid when it comes to health as well. Finally at age 26, Kershaw currently has 1252 strikeouts, 47 more than Ryan at the same age and the season still isn't over. By the time all three retire, it's easy to believe that they'll all be in the top twenty-five of all-time, but to break the top five, they'll have to prove themselves to be freaks of nature like Ryan, Johnson, and Clemens.

Finally, the record that will be the most impossible to break, is 511 career wins. Set by Cy Young himself, he averaged 22 wins a season for his entire 22 year career. In Cy Young's days, he often would pitch as much as 50 games in a season, starting around 45 in a season at his peak. Today, a reliever that pitches in 50 games in a season, is considered to have pitched in a lot of games, at that's usually around 1 inning at a time. Cy Young started so many games, that he lost 316 games.

The closest in recent years has been Greg Maddux (355) and Roger Clemens (354) and both of them retired in their 40's. Greg Maddux pitched for one of the longest dynasties in baseball and Clemens was a freak of nature. In his time, Cy Young had over 815 career starts, but the closest active leader is CC Sabathia with 440. As with the strikeout records, with limited innings/pitch counts, five/six man rotations, and the wear and tear of pitching a whole career, this record is the most untouchable in baseball.

Expansion Time

With everyone in Major League Baseball trying to find ways to improve or change the game in some form, I wonder why it hasn't occurred to someone to suggest another expansion? In the "Expansion Era" (1961-present), fourteen teams were added to the MLB. Now baseball has gone longer without expanding since the era started.

The last expansion draft was in 1998 with the Tampa Bay Devil Rays and the Arizona Diamondbacks being added to the MLB. That's sixteen years without adding a new team. Since the era started, the MLB has had expansions in 1961, 1962, 1969 (4 teams), 1977, 1992, and 1998. The biggest gap as you can see was fifteen years.

So why is expansion needed? First off, the AL and NL both have fifteen teams now. Because of this, every game day, there is an interleague matchup happening. Now I'm not exactly against interleague play, but it was supposed to be something special. Now it's common place and because of this, TV ratings and fan attendance will drop slightly. It takes the fun and mystique out of it. Adding two more teams in an expansion will create equal sixteen team leagues, which can be divided to into four team divisions. That's four first place teams that can go to the playoffs.

Second, there are markets that can flourish with MLB teams. San Jose has been trying to steal the A's from Oakland or Giants from San Francisco, but they're so close to the Bay area, that I think that they are best served by hosting a Triple A level team. Markets I think can handle a MLB team include Las Vegas, Indianapolis, Louisville, Oklahoma City, Memphis/Nashville, Portland, and Charlotte.

Third, with team's payrolls raising up so high, two more teams can spread out the cost to pay the players. The highest cost players would be spread among thirty-two teams instead of thirty. This would leave more room for teams to play/sign lower cost players, thus lowering their payroll.

I would split the divisions like this....
AL North: New York Yankees, Boston Red Sox, Toronto Blue Jays, Baltimore Orioles
AL South: Tampa Bay Rays, Texas Rangers, Kansas City Royals, Houston Astros
AL Central: Minnesota Twins, Chicago White Sox, Cleveland Indians, Detroit Tigers
AL West: ANAHEIM Angels, Oakland A's, Seattle Mariners, LAS VEGAS BANDITS

NL East: New York Mets, Philadelphia Phillies, Washington Nationals, Pittsburgh Pirates
NL South: Miami Marlins, Atlanta Braves, Charlotte Moonshiners, St. Louis Cardinals
NL Central: Milwaukee Brewers, Chicago Cubs, Cincinnati Reds, Colorado Rockies
NL West: LA Dodgers, San Diego Padres, San Francisco Giants, Arizona Diamondbacks

So as you can see, my expansion team cities would be Las Vegas and Charlotte. I think these areas would be most appreciative of an MLB team. Las Vegas is dying for a professional sports team in general and if they built a stadium similar to where the Arizona Diamondbacks play, it could work with the extreme temperatures. Also Las Vegas is larger than teams that already have teams such as Atlanta, Cleveland, St. Louis, and Pittsburgh.

In the case of Charlotte, I believe that Charlotte can grow as a sports city. With teams like the NBA's Bobcats, NFL's Carolina Panthers, and NHL's Carolina Hurricanes, why wouldn't this be a city to host the MLB? Also many banks call Charlotte their headquarter city. It should be easy to find corporate sponsors for a stadium and with a growing population, a growing fan base can provide an even better financial backing.

So in what baseball historians still term "The Expansion Era" why has baseball still yet to expand? There's no reason not to. It could give the American and National Leagues a form of symmetry as both leagues could have an equal amount of teams and divisions could be split into an even 4 teams a piece. Baseball should start now since it tends to take several years for an MLB to set up. They need to find/build a stadium, develop a minor league system, and the season before, hold an expansion draft.

In my opinion, it's time to expand.

A Tangled Web

Was it really a shocker when the audio tape leaked out of Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling basically confirming to his girlfriend V. Stiviano that he's a racist? No. He's been accused of it before and even though his cases were "settled" out of court and in Elgin Baylor's case, thrown out for lack of evidence, it had been pretty much known that Sterling was racist. He is a slumlord who would often refuse to rent out his properties to people of African-American or Latin descent.

Money Talks

What baffles me is why would the NAACP even decide to give him a lifetime achievement? Money talks. He has donated money to the NAACP before and in the words of Leon Jenkins, president of the Los Angeles chapter of the NAACP "The Los Angeles NAACP intention to honor Mr. Sterling for a lifetime body of work must be withdrawn, and the donation that he's given to the Los Angeles NAACP will be returned." In Sterling's own words on the leaked tape, he gives his players "food and cars and clothes and houses." In Sterling's mind, money is the ultimate power and he treats his employees and players as property or charity cases. He doesn't "give" his players all the luxuries he claims. They earn him millions of dollars through their playing. They aren't "charity cases", they are his money makers.

Girlfriend/Wife

And what of his girlfriend V. Stiviano? She's African-American and Hispanic. She's also pretty, so as far as Sterling probably thinks, as many plantation owners in America's slave days did, as long as she's pretty, it's okay to overlook her ethnicity. She's everything racially that he hates. From her standpoint, her attorney released on Sunday night, "Neither Ms. Stiviano, nor this office has ever alleged that Ms. Stiviano is, or ever was, Mr. Sterling's girlfriend." Funny, because Donald Sterling bought her a $1.8 million duplex, a Ferrari, two Bentleys, and a Range Rover, along with being given thousands of dollars in spending money and jewelry that belonged to Rochelle Sterling, Donald's wife.

That's right, his wife. He's still married. Despite publicly dating Stiviano, and her appearing on his side at the Clippers games, he's married to Rochelle Sterling still. Rochelle Sterling sued Stiviano to return the property because she is claiming it's community owned property due to her marriage with Donald.

The Recording

Now Stiviano is claiming that she never leaked the tape, nor did she intentionally try to make it. So it was "accidentally" recorded and someone "stole it"? Listening the audio recording, it almost seems as if the recording was a set up by the girlfriend. The questions that she asks Donald Sterling almost come off as scripted and more closer to the manner of an interview than a natural conversation a person would have with someone they're dating. Did she do it on purpose? I'm betting yes, but what was her reason? The Los Angeles Clippers President Andy Roeser is claiming she embezzled millions of dollars. Was this her way to blackmail Sterling? Maybe, although she had been still by Donald Sterling's side at the most recent games (before his ban). Did he know he was being recorded? I highly doubt it otherwise I don't think he would have been so blunt about his beliefs to her.

1st Amendment

One argument being made on Sterling's behalf or at least in his defense is that it's his 1st amendment right to believe and say anything he wants. While that's technically true, the 1st amendment doesn't protect someone from the consequences of saying something that could be potentially damaging to their own self. While you are allowed to say anything you want, you aren't given a license to say anything you want without public opinion judging you for what you say.

The NBA bylaws for the owners also have extreme scenarios for when one of the owners hurts the reputation of the league so badly, that he or she can be forced to sell their share of the team. When Sterling purchased the Clippers, he was aware of this.

The Future

The NBA owners are putting it to a vote to force the sale of the Clippers. It takes seventy-five percent of the owners to do this, but with all the momentum this has, I have a hard time believing an owner would put his own reputation on the line by voting to keep Sterling as the owner. Mark Cuban has already expressed his belief that this could lead to a "slippery slope" of owners voting other owners out for reasons such as not liking their fellow owners, but I believe this is more of the exception to the rule, rather than the new standard. This is an extreme case and needs to be dealt with swiftly by the owners getting rid of Sterling. The NBA has taken over the ownership of a team in the past (New Orleans Hornets), so a precedent has been set and I belief would be a better solution than to let Sterling continue to own the Clippers. Commissioner Silver has already banned Sterling for life from the NBA and fined him for $2.5 million (the NBA maximum), but it's still not enough.

It's time for the NBA to show the public that racism needs to be eradicated. It's time for Donald Sterling to leave the NBA and let someone else take over. It's better for the Clippers and better for the NBA. Game three against the Warriors was a disaster as the team seemed to be playing with a weight on their shoulders, but they turned it around in time for game four. I hope that this will unify the Clippers during their playoff run and motivate them to play harder for themselves.