Posted on 08/16/2002 1:18:47 PM PDT by Recovering_Democrat
My opinion? The entire lot of you: owner and players are idiots. You're dumping on your own product, do you know that? Both groups have plenty of blame to go 'round.
You haven't had the guts to get a real commissioner since Bart G. died. My instinct is you wanted to run the show: a show in which you've been given anti-trust exemption. Instead, you gave the job to a fellow owner.
You guys rake in billions, yes, but have you noticed your market share? Among most Americans, if I recall my Gallup Poll readings correctly, you're running 2nd place to the NFL and among the urban youth, you are probably behind the NBA.
So you've added intra-league regular season games and added a team per league to the playoffs. Great. You've also expanded the league to preposterous proportions: how many non-competitive markets are there now? Too many. You're not the only idiots though.
Your league minimum is $200,000. Your average salary, if the cable news show I saw is correct, is $2.4 million. The stars among you CHARGE FOR AUTOGRAPHS. Your pension isn't an Enron-styled black hole. The celebrity you enjoy is rare.
How much more do you need to be happy? Believe me, I am all for the individual getting what he can for his work. I do not begrudge A-Rod his millions: he negotiated it, and you all should get what the market will bear. So why do you need this union garbage anyway? How about letting your talents determine the salary, and not some union suit? Forget about the lack of loyalty between a team and a player or a city and a player: I'm not even going to ask for that--how about just all of you negotiating your own deals without the union structure? Then you can get paid as much or as little as you're worth. Here's a crazy idea: negotiate a deal where your pay is equal to your performance. Insane, eh?
I just think you guys, like the owners, are spittin' on the fans for the sake of a few more million. Most of the people who pay your salary are baseball fans who just like watching a game. You're doing your image a real disservice by whining "it ain't enough!"
Actually, I'm convinced that both sides know exactly how much "Go ahead and strike, but when you come back, we won't!!!" sentiment is out there...and the players union is thinking they can use this to their advantage for the very reason you stated above.
The players "short sightedly" think that the owners are still going to pay their salaries, even when you'll be able to fire a cannon through any major league park and not hit a soul.
Somebody needs to explain the concept of Chapter 11 and Chapter 13 to these guys.
An owner with any brains, (and trust me, most of them are pretty sharp...I know Colangelo is) will shutter the doors and file bankruptcy in a heart beat.
If they do strike, I suggest they work on their people skills.
They'll need it for when they are trying to "supersize" my soda & fries at my local fast food outlet.
As others have said--players unions, what a crock. Oh, the poor exploited baseball player, working 100-odd games a season, earning 2.5 mil a year. Waaah! Please, can I pay more than 50 bucks a ticket to support them, plus my added taxes for the new ballpark? Where's doug from upland when you need him: "take me out to the fleece game...take me out to the crooks...buy me some overpriced crackerjack, when will I get my wallet back...etc"
Take me out to the con game,
Take me out to the crooks
Buy me some overpriced crackerjack
When will I get my wallet back?
For its loot, loot, loot for the hometeam,
If they dont winall the same,
For its $one, $two, $three mil
youre rich at the old con game
When I was a boy back in the sixties, my buddies and I would take our shiny new 6 transistor radios to school to listen to games at recess. Baseball was exciting all the way to the World Series. But baseball, like most of pro sports, has become perverted by the money. The ownwers have no control over their spending.....and the players think they are the owners and deserve the bulk of the money. Players are shifted from team to team every year. And in MLB, the team with the richest owner buys up the latest batch of stars and wins a series. With 9 strikes in the last 30 years, the players prove to the fan that it's all about the money. Maybe I'm older now, and I can see what MLB is really about. But it just seemed more real....more interesting back in the sixties...when I was a boy.By the way...this is true now of all pro sports. That is why I like college football. It's big time sports....and it is much more fun than MLB!
Also, if I had control of any pro sport, I would cap a players salary at $1mil. Period. That would be the tops. That is all any player is worth. If a player complains about all the money the owners make, I would tell them to save up a couple hundred million $ and buy a team. The owners risk their capital....they should make most of the money! The owners have blown it. They need to fix it.They need to get together and tell the players...in all pro sports....that the gravy train years are over. And if they want to quit...so be it. They can go get a job in their college major.....communications.
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