I'm as big a sports fan as anyone. I love the rivalries, the heart, the determination and the effort that athletes put into the game. That being said, Baseball just plain sucks. We should rename Bug Selig, The Don and replace the National Anthem with each team passing good ol' Bud to kiss his pinky ring. This is not to incriminate The Don; however, the obese amount of money being spent on players these days is shameful. Ever wonder why terrorists hate America? Perhaps it's because we live in a society that pays players an absurd amount of money to trot onto a mound every 5th day and throw a ball. I make $9 an hour working a crap part time job. The Yankees signed C.C. Sabathia to a 7-year, $161 million dollar deal. This means that Cool Cash Sabathia will make on average $23 million dollars a year. During the 2008 season, C.C. averaged 113 pitchers per game and only pitched in 253 innings which comes out to 28 complete games. If these statistics remain somewhat the same, this means that C.C. will "earn" $821,428 per complete game, $90,909 per inning and $7,269 per pitch. I would have to work 807 hours (33 entire days) just to make what C.C. makes per pitch! I'm not chastising C.C., if someone offered me that much money to sell my soul to the devil (play for the Yankees) you better believe I'm taking it. The problem lies with the "brain" of the operation. People like George Steinbrenner who spent $423 million dollars this past off season in the signing of three free agents. Are athletes really worth this much money? If those depressing TV-ads are true and you can really feed a kid in a poor country for 15 cents a day, we could make every day a Thanksgiving feast. The perfect silver lining is the fact that this is taking place during one of the worst depressions in America's history. Who knows, maybe while you're standing in that bread line C.C. will drop by in his helicopter and throw a couple pennies at you, then maybe Mark Texeira will park his jet-pack and give a compelling speech about perseverance and unity . You can make the argument that it's their money they can spend it however they want. True, but it seems strange that most other major sports have a salary cap so the Davids' can contend with the Goliaths'. Either way, that's alotta jack.My beef is not with baseball alone. In the NFL, players who go in the first round of the draft receive ludicrous contract offers laden with incentives, this before they even play one snap of a game. A rookie could sign a $22 million dollar contract, like Brady Quinn, and not even start, much less have any impact on the team what so ever. Overseas, Cristiano Ronaldo, one of the world's best soccer players, is reportedly for sale at 120 million euros. That is just to buy him, that doesn't even include the contract the player will receive.
My aim is not to cry like some tree hugger about kids with flies on their face or that wood used to make the bats is destroying the ecosystem; rather, my aim is to conserve the purity of sports. Baseball is one of the most corrupt organizations on the planet. It's more common to see a tiny-testicaled, biceps bigger than my head, cartoon of a man stumbling on his words more than W. in front of a grand jury then it is to actually see real criminals. Professional sports used to be fun. When did the money become more important than the game?
It's just sports, entertainment, monkeys dancing around for our enjoyment, but Planet of the Apes seems to be rapidly approaching. The next time you attend a ball game, keep an eye out for Charlton Heston, we may need him.
Sources:
http://www.goal.com/en-india/news/222/transfer-zone/2009/01/19/1067722/inter-to-fight-real-madrid-for-cristiano-ronaldo-reports
http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/players/stats?playerId=4553
12 comments:
Good points B.
Commercialization is rearing its ugly head in college sports now too. Not too long before they take those from us as well.
This is true bro. I think paying someone this amount of money is ridiculous. Especially when you look around the world and the conditions that exist. Another ridiculous thing is Paris Hilton spending 5 grand for a sweater for her dog!
However, this is how things are now a days, and its a sad realization. To be honest about the whole conversation though. The Yankees had the money to spend and spent it to try and build the best baseball team in the Majors. If they didn't spend it, another big market team would have. Looking at it this way you can go many different routes. Is it Bud's fault? The owners? The GMs? The fans?!?! The fans could be hold accountable because they are willing to pay ridiculous amounts of money just to see a game. I imagine you could look up stats on prices fans paid for a single game in all sports. The blue-collar fan making $35 grand a year is willing to pay $5000 or more to see one game of the world series.
The fan is willing to pay crazy amounts to see a game, why can't the owner pay a bunch of money for them to continue coming and paying crazy prices?
I understand where you are coming from by saying that players get paid too much, but what does it matter if you are an avid sports fan. The players are still going to play to win which would hopefully produce a watchable game in any sport. Not to mention the ridiculous bonuses the players could receive if they produce results for their team. This would drive the players to want to win. In most cities...here in cincy we just love loosing. I understand this money could be put to better use but sometimes seeing a good game on tv can make people forget about economic problems or any other problem for that matter. So really, the athletes that that are getting paid to make the crazy catches and throw the 100 mph fast ball are earning that money by giving people something to look forward to.
Some really great points Brando. I agree that athletes get paid entirely too much for a game they are suppose to love to play. What happened to playing for the love of the game? The economy sucks too bad right now for athletes to being getting paid ridiculous amounts money.
Well put. Even for kids now to say their role model is some over paid, whiny athlete urks me. It's just ridiculous. How are kids suppose to aspire to this? It's no good either that consumers support it by buying apparel and overly priced tickets. Screw pro sports
I think this is a very well written article, and i agree with basically all of it. This may be because we get drunk and have these conversations quite often, or because we just have similar views on things. Either way there definitely needs to be a salary cap in baseball. Maybe, if this salary cap is enforced, the Reds will actually have a chance to compete. HaHa just kidding about that one. Yes, sports definately need to go back to the way they were when they started. Take Philosophy of Sports at UC. It goes real in depth about exactly what you are talking about. All in all, I feel ya.
I like it B, very well written. Much better than I expected from someone as short as you. Seriously though, I couldn't agree with you more. The money these jokers are making is ridiculous. But what would be so bad about the late great Chuck Heston showing up at a ball game?
You make a great point...It's sad to see the amount of money thrown at these guys that they will never need when there are greater issues in the world...as far as the purity of sports goes, we are really starting to lose some of the fun that used to come with rivalries. The fans still care, but after the Steelers kick the Bengals' asses year in and year out it's disheartening to look on the field and see all the Bengals players laughing and sharing hugs with the Steelers...i realize some of them are friends and that's okay but you certainly didn't see players back in the 80's and 90's doing that stuff because they really cared about playing. You see the same thing in the NBA...the other night Kobe killed Lebron in the 4th quarter and they had a big hugfest after the game...if jordan got beat like that he would have been in the locker room screaming and throwing stuff. we've come to a point where the fans care much more than the players.
So Brandon, I understand the points that you bring up. The only problem I have is that who is actually to blame? It isn't the teams fault, the players fault, the owners fault, or the leagues fault, it's the fans fault. The reason they have all this money to give the players is because we buy that first round draft picks jersey, we buy those expensive season tickets to see C.C. Sabathia. So if we pay to see these players and pay to get their merchandise, then why shouldn't they get the most money? These are the players that we all come to see. If we don't want to see all this money spent on sports, then we shouldn't give them the money to spend in the first place....
Well said, Brandon. You used really good diction in your writing, and proved your case. I've always felt this way about professional sports, but after reading your article/blog, I've found myself to be even more aggravated with the whole situation. Even though pro sports are an important aspect to American life, and the players as well, it is also important to realize that their paychecks do not exactly reflect the work they put in. Especially when we see Griffey on the bench nearly 2-3 months every season, but still getting paid to sit there and wear the uniform.
Good points. The yankess spend over 400 million dollars on 3 athletes and then turn around and ask the city of New York for money to help build their billion dollar stadium. Athletes do make a ridiculous amount of money but so do many individuals in the working class. There will always be people making more money than they should. CEO's already making millions and millions of dollars get "MUCH NEEDED" bonuses from government bailouts while I can barely buy 3 double cheeseburgers because they raised the price to 1.19. This is just a fact of life sir. The rich get richer and we eat ramen noodle packs.
I agree 100% that athletes are tremendously over paid, over glorified, and that the Yankees are in deed a form of Satan. Having said that, even in this troubled economy, isn't sports one of the few things not suffering? Think about it. Sports bring in an insane amount of money. The yankees payroll may indeed be 400 million, but how many more millions are they making? Each ticket sold at Yankee stadiums for 162 games is sold out (Especially this year because its the new stadium) ESPN pays the YES network and arm and a leg to put them on TV every other night. The yankees create jobs for people, not just the players, but the staff, vendors, food personel, parking lot employees, etc etc. So maybe we should thank the Yankees?
I don't think we should at all, but it is worth something to think about. Even know the players are severely over paid, and not just the Yankees but everywhere, why do we support it so heavily? Why are people willing to pay 3M dollars for a 30 second slot for an ad during the superbowl? Why do we complain for 7 dollars per beer at the game, but yet continue to buy the beer, and even tip on top of that. Just something to think about!
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