Rahimi, Harris & Grote Show
Transition: Looming baseball labor dispute should be a lesson in self-worth
13 Feb 2026
Chapter 1: What lessons can we learn from the looming baseball labor dispute?
I've been playing tackle football since I could f***ing walk. Thanks to our guests. Thanks to Herb Howard. Thanks to Nick Friedel. That's it, right? That's all we had today. Herb Howard and Nick Friedel.
Yes.
But we had a lot of Herb Howard.
Herb Howard was amazing. He stuck around for an hour plus.
Fill out the survey that the bigs are conducting online. You can check it out on Twitter. You can check it out in their social media. It is in conjunction with Medill at Northwestern.
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Chapter 2: How does self-worth play a role in sports negotiations?
And that survey will stay anonymous. Oh, I see what you did there. Yeah. Timely.
Very.
That's why they pay me the medium bucks.
You're saying the Jets owner won't get that taken out of circulation?
I'm hoping not.
Yeah. I don't know if you guys saw what happened with the NFL ruling.
God forbid your employees would like some upgrades on the facility. Or better lunch.
You know, that's a thing. The Diamondbacks went through this, too. It was just like Moneyball.
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Chapter 3: What challenges do players face under billionaire ownership?
Why are my guys paying for soda? It's really weird.
Like, guys having lunchrooms outside in tents probably isn't the way the NFL should work. Nope.
Not at all. By the way, that's Russ Dorsey. Hi, everybody. If you're like, wait, that's not Speaks. That's Lawrence Holmes. That's true. I'm here. Speaks is not. Where's Speaks? I don't know.
Thanks to Ray Diaz, Tyler Beterbaugh, Brandon Fryer.
Chapter 4: How does the NFL handle labor disputes differently than MLB?
Thanks to Connor O'Donnell, Jacob Stutz, and Max Curtis. And yeah, it's nice to see you, Russ. Same. The Cubs signed Shelby Miller.
Yeah, that's a thing.
That's a guy I've heard of. So he's not playing next year. So there's a good chance, based on the 5 o'clock segment you two did yesterday. Are we putting that in the atmosphere? No, they just might be paying him for fun.
Like, Russ, when you say putting in the atmosphere... As somebody who makes his living off of baseball, I'm just saying I don't like hearing that. I am also very realistic and have been hearing that for years. That doesn't mean that I just want that to happen, though.
No one wants it to happen. We would like to have baseball next season.
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Chapter 5: What financial realities affect baseball team owners?
I would like to have baseball in 2027. But the realities are, you've got billionaires fighting with other billionaires and non-billionaires, and...
the salary cap is a thing and it sounds like the heels have been dug in in a way that they have not been before and we know the most powerful union in sports they can withstand a lot and they can probably withstand an entire season going away that's the point NFL would never have this problem because, you know, they get them.
They would cave before the season even was scheduled to start.
Not only that, but the owners would agree with each other. I think that's the biggest point for me is like, it sounds like the owners don't agree with each other. And that may be a bigger reason this stops than anything else.
There is so many different layers and angles of this that go way beyond the which is what most people would say, oh, it's not fair. The Dodgers, this is so far beyond they get all the good players.
And when you really start to break it down, and we're going to get into it today, it's almost like you're taking a finance class because you're talking about the difference between net worth, right, the number that you see online of something, point something with a B next to it, and what's actually liquid, right? And I think there's a big difference.
Now, nobody's trying to hear that because you have a billion dollars or a billion dollars worth of assets. You got it somewhere.
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Chapter 6: How do private equity firms impact sports teams?
But some of these owners don't have it as much as people think they do. And I think that's the bigger issue.
We talk about this as it pertains to the Bears. The McCaskey family, they have a... asset that's worth $10 billion. But when you start to break down the people who own shares in the Bears, there's one billionaire, it's Pat Ryan. But then there's a whole family of people who, this is their gig. They're not bringing money from manufacturing or from oil or from trade. They're not doing that.
This is the family business. So you go, yeah, it's not maybe what you think it is.
They're asset rich. Like, you can borrow against that, but the implication is you're still borrowing. In fact, I can't believe it took me this long to remember this. I was working with Comcast Sportsnet in Houston at the time when the Astros sale went through.
Chapter 7: What insights can we gain from the Cubs' recent signings?
And Drayton McClain... Famous for food distribution. The Astros was a side hustle for him. It was not his main hustle. But Jim Crane, who was a businessman, also well-established, there was a lot of discussion. It was more rumor than anything in Houston. But talking about how many different minority owners he had to bring in to get enough money to complete the sale. There is that.
There's the organization. Then there's the money that the owners have individually, which is different. And then there's how many people actually have shares in the team, too.
It was why... Many owners were afraid of Steve Cohen becoming the owner of the New York Mets, right? It's why many owners are already afraid of what the Dodgers have been doing with not only their TV revenue, but now they have the best player in the world and can generate goo gobs of money, to borrow a word from my parents. And then there's another layer of this of like,
Chapter 8: How do personal experiences shape perspectives on sports economics?
There's this fear out there of what happens when private equity starts getting into sports. That's the real thing that's out there. Now, that might be five to ten years down the line.
I don't think it's going to be that far down the line. I think it's closer than that. We're starting to see it in college sports now.
But that's another layer of this where it's like, that's liquid cash. And if those people start throwing around that type of money, now you have some other issues. Because it wouldn't just be one Steve Cohen. It would be a lot of Steve Cohens.
I think it's inevitable. They're in everything else. Why wouldn't they go to this as well? We just heard a pitch from an Indiana mayor in Portage who said yesterday that private equity would finance the stadium.
Isn't that basically why the Lakers are getting sold? They can't keep up. Private equity gets involved in these billionaires who have teams as side hustles. And they're just like, we just have the team. And it's the way the prices are going up.
And you're going to give me $12 billion? Yeah. Awesome. Yeah. Thank you. Yes. Although sometimes what happens is you have some regret. And then you're like, can I buy my team back? Hi, Mark Cuban. Hi, Mark Cuban. Because that's what's happening now with Mark Cuban.
He's like, I need to get my lick back. There was a time where Mark Cuban wanted to buy a baseball team.
Yeah, there were a lot of Cubs fans that were hoping that he would buy the Cubs.
He wanted to buy the Rangers, too. That was something that was considered.
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