You may have noticed that The Sporting Class — a.k.a. Rich Guys OnlyFans — has been gone for most of this summer.
So please indulge the pent-up market forces of Meadowlark co-founder John Skipper and Nothing Personal’s David Samson, whose brains I have been meaning to pick for weeks.
David is just back from the 2025 Baseball Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony in Cooperstown, N.Y., where he was the honored guest (!) of none other than Ichiro Suzuki.
Ichiro, in case you didn’t know, is an iconic Seattle Mariner, erstwhile Miami Marlin, and actual style icon:
Ichiro burned David, by name, during the most momentous English-language speech of his life. We’ll get to that. (And David’s own sense of style, too.)
But the meat of this episode continues PTFO’s exploration of labor relations, and owners versus players, all of which — as American sports fans should know well by now, and perhaps uniquely — can be both vastly important and truly ridiculous.
The latest case study is the Women’s National Basketball Association, whose collective bargaining agreement expires at the end of October 2025.
The WNBA is no longer some alleged social cause, but a surging business. And its best players broadcast the following message, a few weeks ago, at All-Star Weekend:
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