A look at a formative sports moment in Bernie Sanders’s history, one that speaks to what he believes, what he hopes to accomplish, and what happens when his ideals conflict with the often gnarled and mean world of capitalism. williamfleitch writes
Then-mayor Bernie Sanders before throwing the first pitch at the Vermont Reds’ home opener in April 1984 in Burlington, Vermont. Photo: Toby Talbot/AP/Shutterstock/Toby Talbot/AP/Shutterstock When the origin story of Bernie Sanders, the increasingly clear favorite to win the Democratic nomination for president, is told, inevitably, the Brooklyn Dodgers come up.
Shortly after becoming mayor of Burlington, Vermont — famously winning by only ten votes — Sanders decided that he should try to bring a minor-league baseball team to town. True to form, Sanders at first wanted the team be publicly owned, imagining a system like Green Bay’s Packers, which is owned by the city’s citizens. It turned out, though, the league the team would have played in didn’t even allow this, so he and others in Burlington had to retreat from the original plan.
He found the answer, like many mayors who want a team, in public subsidies. A man named Mike Agganis owned the Lynn Pirates, a double-A affiliate of the Pittsburgh Pirates in Lynn, Massachusetts, and, hearing that Sanders was desperate for a team, met with the young mayor. Agganis told Carpenter in 2015, “He was very aggressive.” Sanders now lambastes public financing for sports teams, but in the ’80s, eager to get a team, he bent over backwards for Agganis.
But here’s the thing about persuading a rich guy to move his team to your town: He can always just move it somewhere else. And that’s exactly what Agganis did. After just four seasons — the minimum time span he committed to stay in Burlington — Agganis moved his team to Canton, Ohio, for “a better market and a brand new stadium,” which the city of Canton built for him. ”Our attendance has averaged out to about 85,000 over five years in Burlington,” Agannis told the Times in 1988.
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