On his watch, MiLB has experienced unprecedented prosperity.
- 106 new stadiums since 1980;
- Year-over-year attendance records with a topping 42.8 million in 2007;
- Gross revenue expected to exceed $600 million in 2007 of which $175 million was ticket sales, up from $168 million in 2006.
He noted that he was going to be "the last president who started school in a two-room brick schoolhouse with outdoor plumbing."
The trip down memory lane was not without its point. Moore recounted a tale about Bob and Queen, the two plow horses which he worked on his family's farm. Even when he barked out commands, they would not always do what he wanted them to do.
"[B]ut at the end of the day, we all plowed the field together."
Pacific Coast League V.P. George King characterized the closing remarks as "very positive."
While the morning was reserved to pay respect to Moore's legacy, which is substantial, Moore's homily, along with ones repeated and amplified by Vice Presidents Pat O'Conner and Stand Brand, was curious.
O'Conner has been presumed to be the heir apparent at the MiLB Kremlin. A vote began today, but it has been thought by most sources to be little more than a rubber stamp of Moore's pick. The commentary suggested either a concern about some voting rebellion, which seems unlikely, or, more probable, that forces within the leagues are gathering for a show-down with O'Conner over how MiLB will represent itself to its nearly 43 million strong audience on the internet.
That some change is in the air was evident when O'Conner signaled a kinder, gentler governance style than the forceful Moore might be in MiLB's future, quoting President Eisenhower: "You do not lead by hitting people over the head. That's assault, not leadership."
Yet assault, under Moore's leadership, has been the NA's style of doing business for more than a decade. Moore and his lieutenants have managed to harnass a lot of fiercely independent leagues that have long histories of resisting or outright defying MLB, which, in fact, was the original purpose of the organization when it was founded in the fall of 1901. (See Band of Brothers, SZ.)
While most of that kind of rebellion is long gone from the farm systems, Moore has wrestled with the fact that many of these independent businesses run by independent league organizations still consider the NA an umbrella organization that produces guidance, not law.
Vice President Stand Brand, the legal and polical arm of the NA in Washington, whose speech followed Moore's, was equally blunt in reminding attendees that success has come from being "stuck to our knitting" and told young turks who might want to alter the status quo:
"I leave you with some very simple, but I think irrefutable, advice based on the last 16 years; ...
