3/6/05 -- Wake vs. Mussina

It’s time for Jose Melendez’s KEYS TO THE GAME.

Let’s talk about corporate consolidation. Come on… it beats talking about yesterday’s crummy outcome.

Corporate consolidation is a big deal. As big companies buy other big companies, corporate stalwarts fall by the wayside, jobs disappear and local ownership becomes a hazy memory of a distant age – like the .400 hitter or Tom Gordon’s curveball.

Boston has been hit particularly hard by corporate consolidation. The most recent examples are the purchase of Gillette by Proctor and Gamble and the purchase of Filene’s by Macy’s, but it’s nothing new. Remember when Macy’s bought Jordan Marsh or when Bank of America bought FleetBank, which bought BankBoston which bought Bay Bank? (Note: Jose predicts that within 15 years, there will be only one bank and it will just be called “Bank.”) Even our beloved Red Sox have out of town ownership, though thankfully, they have yet to merge with the Pittsburgh Pirates.

The great fear, of course, is that Boston will become a mere “outlet town,” where our fate is completely controlled by robber barons in Charlotte. But let’s not fret. We are not alone. Even a world capital like New York suffers from the same problem. Yes, some of the Big Apple’s most cherished institutions are owned by out of towners. A Japanese company bought Rockefeller Center in the 1980s, Charlotte-based Bank of America ATMs are everywhere and now, as of yesterday, Mariano Rivera is wholly-owned by the Boston Red Sox.

For the full KEYS visist wallballsingle.com.