MLB Confidential: The Financial Documents Baseball Doesn't Want You To See, Part 1

We've obtained financial statements for a number of baseball teams — containing perhaps some of the most closely guarded information in sports — and they offer a rare glimpse at how MLB franchises do brisk business in the modern era.

We'll have some analysis later, not to mention another set of statements. For now, take a look at the documents below, paying close attention to the teams' operating income, their revenue-sharing figures, the size of their TV deals, and the amortization of player contracts ( a neat trick of accounting pioneered by Bill Veeck that allows an owner to turn his team into a lucrative tax shelter). If there is a thread running through all of these financial statements, it is the incredible ability of baseball teams — whether they're winners or losers, big market or small, "rich" or "poor" — to make their owners a fat pile of money.

MLB CONFIDENTIAL: The Financial Documents Baseball Doesn't Want You To See Part 1: Pittsburgh Pirates, Tampa Bay Rays, Florida Marlins, Los Angeles Angels of Aneheim Part 2: Seattle Mariners Part 3: Texas Rangers