Before you go off on me for writing about baseball in January, I have to ask you to stick with me. There is a bigger point to the story and it’s all about money. As a kid growing up in central Minnesota, I was a fan of the Brooklyn Dodgers. Keep in mind that this was before the Twins came to Minnesota and the Dodgers left Flatbush for the west coast. Over fifty years later I can still name the starting line up for the Dodgers. Duke Snider, Pee Wee Reese, Roy Campanula and Gil Hodges to name a few. They were my hero’s and I could bet when the season was over, they would be back in Ebbet’s field the next spring playing for the Dodgers.
Then came the players association and then the agents and then came the end of baseball as we once knew it. It is true for all of the teams and for sports in general that today it’s a whole new ball game no pun intended. Players are signing contracts for more money in one year then it cost to build Ebbet’s field. There is no allegiance to any club, they’re all out, for who will pay them the most. In effect they and their agents have dehumanized professional sports.
What is lost? Let’s look at some of the effects. Let’s start at the grass roots level. Colleges who invest in recruits for collegiate teams with scholarships, be it basketball, baseball or football, more often than not are going to lose that player to the professionals after one or two good seasons. Education and a degree are not the reason they were there, but they knew that. Once in the big leagues they will have to tough it out on a few hundred thousand a year and a signing bonus that would set most people up for life and then if they hit it big. They will play for the club for a few years and then become a free agent, and then, there off to the races. You say, “Yes but few make it to the majors.” I say yes,” but had they stayed in college they would have a four-year degree to fall back on and the college would have been compensated for that.”
There are some clubs with lucrative markets for television and broadcasting rights who are going to end up with most of the talent. Some of the players will stay with those clubs but It’s not allegiance to the clubs, its allegiance to the money they pay them. The rest of the clubs serve as a farm system of sorts for these clubs. So, if you’re a Yankee fan or a Dodger fan you might have someone to cheer for, for more than a season or two. Right now, the Yankees are in the process of trying to sign Gerrit Cole for a reported 324 Million for 9 years. Think about that.
I once went to a Twins game and spent good money on a jersey of my favorite player and they traded him two weeks later because he was going to be a free agent and they couldn’t afford him. That was the last jersey I will ever buy. I have some 10-dollar ticket stubs, from the Twins, for good seats I sat in back in the late sixties. You can’t get a hot dog and a soda for that kind of money now days at Target Field, let alone a decent seat. Not blaming the club, they have to do something to stay in the game because they will never have the money to compete with New York and L.A and most of us have already seen that beautiful ballpark paid for by taxpayers.
Most of the clubs are losing money and they are propped up by rich owners who aren’t really losing money because they will make it all up when they sell the club for much more money than they paid for it, to some other city that will offer them incentives, no other business could dream of getting and oh yes, another new ball park.
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