Carl_Pohlad.jpgVenerable New York Times sports columnist Murray Chass reports that Twins owner Carl Pohlad (estimated net worth: $3.1 billion) is the richest of all baseball team owners. I knew, of course, that Pohlad was wealthy, but I didn’t know that he was three times richer than Yankees owner George Steinbrenner.

This stuff usually drives me crazy when I think about the decade-long Twins campaign to get taxpayer subsidies for a new stadium. Chass puts it into a different context, in which the Twins are usually excused for letting the Torii Hunters and the Johan Santanas move on to teams in bigger markets because they can’t afford to pay the big bucks. I get Chass’ point, and even (being a Twins fan myself) agree with it. But I can’t bring myself to waste too much of my available hand-wringing over the moral problem of whether the billionaire owners are paying the millionaire players enough.