Sixty-six bucks for a beer? That's not very sporting, Walt

Arturo Moreno is neither a shortstop nor a jockey. At 56 years of age, Moreno is a little too old for either. He wears a suit and tie, not a ball cap or racing silks. But Arturo is a sportsman.

He caught the corporate mouse downsizing and in the process became the first Hispanic to own a Major League Baseball team when he bought the World Champion Anaheim Angels from the Walt Disney Company last week.

That's impressive in itself, but it was his first act as team owner that cemented him in the pantheon of greatness. 'Beer in the bleachers cost US$8.50. I can go around the corner and get one for a buck-and-half,' Moreno said at his introductory press conference. When asked if he was thinking about lowering the price, he said, 'I'm not thinking about it. I'm going to do it.' The man has vision. I mean, that's HK$66 for a beer! Not even those pirates in Lan Kwai Fong have that kind of nerve.

Now that Disney Co has managed to rid themselves of the Angels, they are looking to pawn off their hockey team, The Anaheim Mighty Ducks, as well. Those same Ducks are currently playing in the Stanley Cup Finals against the New Jersey Devils in a most unlikely ending to their season.

With their stock price plummeting over the last few years and at $66 a beer, it's probably a good thing that the corporate mouse is downsizing. Well, certainly not here in Hong Kong, where the government gave Disney Co about 25 billion reasons to upsize, but in the world of sports. Frankly, it won't kill us to say goodbye to Goofy and Mickey as well as Donald and Daisy.

For better or worse, Disney Co has come to embody the essence of corpo-sports. They got into the game looking to integrate their entertainment package with sports teams to complement movies like Angels in the Outfield, the story of heavenly angels helping the baseball Angels out on the field, and The Mighty Ducks: The Movie, a trilogy about an overachieving tyke hockey team coached by the Olivier of hockey movies, Emilio Estevez.

Now, isn't that cute? Sure it is. Cute is what Disney does. But sports should be more passion than cute. Unfortunately, it's not that way any longer and because of it we end up paying $66 a beer.