Commissioner calls Forbes report 'pure fiction' 
By JANIE McCAULEY
AP Sports Writer 
April 2, 2002 


SEATTLE (AP) -- Commissioner Bud Selig criticized a Forbes magazine report that major league teams had 
an operating profit of $75 million last season -- a marked difference from the $232 million in operating 
losses that he detailed to Congress in December. 

The magazine reported in its April 15 issue that 20 of the 30 teams were profitable last season -- more than 
double what Selig said. 

``There is no way. Those numbers are fiction, they are pure fiction,'' Selig said of the magazine's 
statistics. 

Forbes senior editor Mike Ozanian said Tuesday he stands by the report. 

In testimony to the House Judiciary Committee in December, the commissioner said the industry 
had $232 million in operating losses last year and only nine teams had an operating profit. 

Rob Manfred, baseball's executive vice president of labor relations, discussed baseball's finances with 
the magazine, Selig said Monday. 

``I don't give any validity to it,'' Selig said of the Forbes report. ``It's so disappointingly wrong, and 
they knew it. I think it's a very sad day for journalism in America when somebody knowingly writes 
something that is not only not true but has been told it is not true.'' 

Forbes has none of baseball's financial information other than what was publicly disclosed to 
Congress, Selig said. 

Ozanian said the Forbes figures ``were compiled by the teams themselves in some cases.'' 

The sources included documents filed with the Security and Exchange Commission by teams 
who have public debt outstanding, the editor added. 

``For many of the other numbers, we relied on those supplied by major league baseball and those 
supplied by bankers and professional consultants familiar with teams' finances,'' Ozanian said. 
``And we came to major league baseball's office at their request and found that our revenue numbers 
were very close to what they had. The big difference was on the expense side. 

``We adjusted our expenses based on their numbers, but we couldn't take all of them at face value.'' 

Forbes reported baseball had $3.57 billion in revenues last season, almost identical to the $3.55 
billion reported by baseball. 

For expenses, baseball reported $3.78 billion to Forbes' $3.495 billion. 

Ozanian said baseball told Forbes it accrues all expenses associated with minor league operations 
and that the big league teams don't profit from the minor league systems. 

``We found that simply not to be the case when we checked with other people inside baseball,'' 
Ozanian said. 

Ozanian quoted former MLB president and chief operating officer Paul Beeston when he was an 
executive with the Toronto Blue Jays: ``I can turn a $4 million profit into a $2 million loss and I can 
get every national accounting firm to agree with me.'' 

Selig said baseball would have more to say about the matter in the next few days. He reiterated that 
baseball's financial statements were audited three times by three different groups. 

``It's the same information the Blue Ribbon Committee (baseball's economic study commission) has 
worked off of and the players' association has, everybody has,'' he said. ``It's very disappointing 
and just plain wrong. It's one thing to be wrong and it's another thing to know when  you do it that 
you're wrong and you just go ahead and do it anyway. I find that hard to believe.''