Modern ballplayers (I think the minimum MLB salary is $250K per year now) have no idea, and even less appreciation, what their prececessors went through.
I recently finished a wonderful book on the 1960 World Champion Pittsburgh Pirates called Kiss It Goodbye.
Just s mere 50 years ago, players were expected to work full-time in the off-season to supplement their seasonal baseball salary or find other ways to economize. Vernon Law, the Cy Young pitcher for that year, lived in an apartment with a shared kitchen and walked to the ballpark. ElRoy Face, the premier relief pitcher in the league, worked as a carpenter in the off-season. Everyone else on that great team had similar gigs or stories to tell to make ends meet.
“I recently finished a wonderful book on the 1960 World Champion Pittsburgh Pirates called Kiss It Goodbye.”
First, I have to say that George Steinbrenner is the owner every fan of baseball would want to have for their favorite team. Compare him to a genuine, world-class, grade A scumbag like Bob Nutting who seems to use puppet GMs to routinely trades away anything resembling talent for things like boxes of rocks or washed up 1st round draft picks so that he’s eligible for MLB welfare collection every year. Nutting uses Pittsburgh’s beautiful “Taxpayer Park” year after year to vacuum up cash luring “fans” with fireworks, bobbleheads, and anything else made in China so that he can avoid having to pay to put a good team on the field. Red Sox fans can trash Steinbrenner all they want ... if they want to see what garbage is, however, look at the ownership of the Pittsburgh Pirates. The Pirates are as old as any team in MLB yet their name is a downright joke anymore. Seriously, 18 consecutive losing seasons (not all Nutting’s fault, be he’s had sole control of the franchise since 2003)? It pains me to say it, but I’d prefer to see the team move or contract anymore. This is what you get when you cry poor for so many years and do NOTHING to help fix the problem.
Now for the 1960 WS ... I’m only 36. If I had a chance to go back in time and witness anything in baseball history, it would be watching Maz hit that game 7, World Series winning home run against the Yankees. From what I gather, there wasn’t a soul on the planet that thought the Pirates would beat the Yankees in 1960. I’ve talked with so many people that were alive to see/hear that HR. It sure beats talking about modern Pirates baseball :-).
You make it sound like ballplayers don’t contribute far more to humanity than farmers, doctors, truck drivers, scientists, etc.
When Mickey Mantle was young, he worked as a lead miner in the off season.