On the eve of the first World Series game ever to be played in Texas, there is much consternation at the House That Special Purpose Entities Built. Major League Baseball has announced that if the weather is nice, it will intervene and order the roof open for game 3. While I have major problems with a sports league making such a mandate, there is a case to be made for it. Essentially, we're caught in a prisoner's dilemma.
Let's assume, for the sake of argument, that every team in Major League Baseball has a retractable roof. If you accept the premise, which is tough to refute, that baseball played outdoors is better than baseball played indoors, then the best situation for everyone is for all roofs to be open all the time. In any given city, however, the best situation is to keep your own stadium's roof shut for home games because it will allow your team's fans to have a greater effect on the game. So while optimizing overall utility, or happiness, or whatever, for all baseball fans requires roofs to be open, teams acting in their own interests will always act unilaterally to maximize individual payoffs, leading to a suboptimal outcome.
If its participants maximize their own utility, the prisoner's dilemma must end in a suboptimal outcome, unless there is an outside authority to enforce cooperation. Enter Bud Selig. John Nash would be proud.
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