[JohnHuang2]

Saturday, August 24, 2002

Quote of the Day by Grampa Dave

[Andy Ross]

The players and their union are entirely in the right here. They are on the side of the free market, and the owners are on the side of protectionism.

The players simply want the freedom to be payed the market price for their talents. Nothing more, nothing less.

When a player and a club agree on a wage; it is just that: an agreement. There is no coercion on either part. Therefore, the agreed wage can only be fair. If it isn't, then the owner wouldn't pay it, or the player wouldn't accept it.

So, the union's single demand, if it can be called that, is for things to remain as they are at present. That is, a system where a player earns a wage determined by the market.

To throw up examples of overpriced players is to miss the point (Vinny Castilla and Albie Lopez!). These players were offered a wage by stupid owners, and they accepted the offer.

And greed? Were forced to do a job worth $15M for $10M, I would be mad too. Any money saved on wages remains with the owners.

I don't want to see a strike, but I will understand if the players do strike, and I'll be watching as soon as things start again. The owners are the ones who have brought about this state of affairs, and anger should rightly be aimed at them.

Andrew

[Aeronaut]

I quit following ML baseball after their last strike. We got a Single A minor league team here that's fun to watch and a reserved seat behind home plate costs 5 bucks.

[Caipirabob]

Sadly, the game has come from a time where players were loyal to their managers, teams and teammates, to a day and age of greed – and it has nearly come to a point where money is the only tangible factor that comes into play when players makes decisions on which team to play.

Pretty much sums up why I refuse to subsidize baseball and why football is rapidly losing it's appeal to me.

I think once the teams became a group of hired contractors the concept of them being a "team" didn't really click with me. I'd like to think of a team like the Chicago "Bears" being a group of guys who love Chicago, play out of pride and provide a real and tanigible return to the community that supports them. How? By being decent citizens for starters.

But now that I've returned from fantasy-land, I know it just doesn't work that way anymore. Still, it just feels dirty watching a group of hired contractors rather than a team. I don't feel like subsidizing a known felon who'd sell his mother for another 200G and doesn't give a damn about the city and people his team allegedly represents.

Maybe a lot of people feel that way.

I used to be so into the tactics (my love was football, but the same thing is happening there so it's a valid point for discussion), but the other aspects of what was happening with football began to taint how I felt about it. Man, there used to be only a few things that felt better than whopping a guy at full speed in full pads on the field. Who the hell cared where the ball was? Nowadays it takes an effort to get involved, which is sad. I really loved the sport.

The current financial structure of both football and baseball have not helped to make them any more appealing to fans.

[thesharkboy]

Baseball's greedy players: Williams vows to boycott major league games if players strike

Ted Williams won't have a problem boycotting games from now on. He has frozen his position on this issue.

[ASDFGHJK]

I would call the unions greedy before I called the players greedy. But then, making distinctions like this seems to be a dying art in the world of media-mind.

[Valin]

A small ball is thrown up to and sometimes over 100 miles per hour to a batting plate 60 feet away, where a batter with a thin bat has to move his hips, bring the bat around, find the ball, and generate enough bat speed to meet the bat with the ball – this is all done in less than a second.

True this is a very special skill, but I wonder if anyone has pointed out that the job market for it is (to say the least) limited. Last time I checked the want-ads I didn't see many ads saying "Wanted shortstop must be able to go deep in the hole and still turn a double play. Experence preferred, but will train the right candidate."

[Founding Father]

1. How can anyone criticize the players for wanting a free market system? I'm not aware of a single instance where an owner had a gun to his head forcing him to pay out the big bucks.
2. If the clubs were losing so much money, they woludn't be paying out the big bucks.
3. Any government that shelled out $$$ for building new stadiums did so at its' (taxpayers) own risk---to the stupid don't go the spoils.
4.Is there a single one of us that would turn down a huge salary, of course not.
5. These negotiations are the same, in concept, as before, the owners want the players to agree to limit their salaries to protect the owners of small market clubs from large market clubs.
6. Several of the small market teams took their luxary tax receipts and gave their executives raises and didn't spend a dime on players.
7.Since Henry Aaron was my favorite player from the time I was a little kid, I hope the players strike this year and next so Bonds, Sosa and ARod never reach 756.

[NorCoGOP]

If indeed, the baseball players do strike, I vow that as of the strike date, I will never watch, read, or have anything to do with Major League Baseball until this generation of players are gone.

I've BEEN boycotting since 1994 already...this just deepens my commitment all the more - besides, it's football season already, and the REAL sport of hockey will be starting soon as well - I've never even missed baseball....

[jjhunsecker]

Sad to say but MLB is a dying game and has been. It is boring , the games are too long and the players and owners have gotten greedy and money has destroyed the sport beyond repair. Baseball was king during the years when society was slow moving and in a more charmed age. In today's fast paced age baseball just doesn't fit in. Baseball will continue to exist I think more in the local venue little league, AAA ball clubs, etc. But I think the long slide down for MLB started a long time ago and will just continue to accelerate caused by greed and a lack of common sense by players and owners. Perhaps it's time congress revisited MLB Baseballs anit-trust exemption and revoke it and let the free market sort it all out for better or worse.

[Young Werther]

"There is no joy in Mudville...."

[LaGrone]

The strike will send more fans packing; me they lost years ago. Baseball was fun because the old time players stayed with the same team for their careers. Then as a fan you could see the loyalties on both sides which made it fun to live and die with the team you rooted for (Brooklyn Dodgers in my case).

The free agency changes of the sixties began the change in baseball for the worse. And I say this without regard to legal arguments on either side, but rather a personal comment on how it made me not care about the game I loved as a kid.

[hunyb]

In this era, some people find themselves without jobs, while these baseball players are making hundred's of thousands, if not millions, of dollars (A-Rod). I find it appalling that they are striking because they feel they are not making enough........What would they do if they had no job? Beg on the street corners for money, wearing their thick gold necklaces, and diamond earrings? They want sympathy from me? I lost my job in the travel industry because of what happened on September 11. I am barely getting by right now. These retards want me to give up my hard earned money to watch them prance around in their gold and diamonds and they have the NERVE to say they aren't making enough money??????? HUH??????? I'm sorry, but I never intend to pay MY money to feed their need for another thick gold necklace to parade around in..........they all make me sick......(especially A-Rod, who makes 250 mil) I just have one question for those greedy jerks.............There are people on the streets dying of starvation, and you want more? Makes me sick.