Welcome to Axis ProRata, where we take just 10 minutes to get you smarter on the collision

of tech, business, and politics. I'm Dan for Mac. On today's show, We Work hits the small

screen and one big thing about ice cream. But first, a battle over baseball.

So last month, Major League Baseball announced plans to end its parent club relationship

with 42 minor league teams.

And since almost all of those teams are subsidized by Major League Baseball, the announcement

basically meant that the 42 clubs would be forced to close their gates forever at the end

of next season.

Now, the move has shocked many of the minor league teams and people in their home markets,

which often are small cities that rely on these franchises for local business development and civic pride,

places like Elizabethtown, Tennessee, and Bluefield, West Virginia, and Lowell, Massachusetts.

Two most important teams here on the chopping block, maybe the Vermont Lake Monsters,

which play in Bernie Sanders' home base of Burlington, Vermont, and the Lancaster Jet Hawks,

which are based in House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy's district.

Sanders and McCarthy have become unlikely political allies and fighting this,

arguing that it's about little more than corporate greed

by a sports league that generates more than a billion dollars in profit and is gifted a federal

antitrust exemption. For its part, Major League Baseball says that its current minor league system

is bloated and antiquated, particularly given today's advanced analytics. Cutting the teams,

Major League Baseball says, would strengthen

baseball in the aggregate. But clearly, it is worried about the growing political blowback.

In 15 seconds, we'll go deeper with Axios Sports Editor Kendall Baker. But first, this.

...