Steve Breen for March 04, 2022

And the greediest will be blaming everyone else. “I had to take it before they did.”

Um. Okay? I’d argue that it’s actually not, except for the obscenely rich and their wannabes. In fact, if you pay attention after a storm or worse, you’ll likely find yourself thinking that the national pastime is HELPING.

sooner or later people are going to get tired of overpaying ‘adults’ to play a kids game.

I thought it was getting obese and dying from heart attacks was the national pastime

I think it’s the global pastime of ALL mankind, unfortunately.

Baseball is a game played with a ball. Players deserve high pay but the amounts are almost obscene. Players spend years earning their place and one injury can end it all, so yes, they earn a good contract. But the amounts most players in most sports get are outrageous even for a lifetime’s earnings to be made in the few years that they can play and still retire in good health.

That said, team owners aren’t on baseball trading cards are they? And for the most part owners are not on the tip of the tongue of every school kid in the team’s hometown (at least not in a good way).

A day at the ballpark (sorry, but night games with kids just ain’t the same as a bright sunny afternoon now, are they?) just shouldn’t cost the average family a week’s wages for four tickets, drinks, hotdogs, and a big ol’ bag of in the shell peanuts.

Teams that want a new ballpark should not expect the entire community to pay for it. They shouldn’t expect multi-year breaks from taxes either. The poor slob driving a 15 year old car should be able to afford to see a game once in awhile without having to skip a few meals that week to pay for it. And if that same poor slob hates sports, they shouldn’t have the team and its stadium added onto his tax bill.

Fair pay should be fair for everybody. But that works two ways both for reasonable demands and for billionaires not getting away with robbing a community and not working players to death for peanuts either.

The players need a reality check as much as a paycheck. And the owners need to pay for what they want to invest in – and not lay the burden in the community. Let the owners pay their way like everybody else. They’re the ones getting obscenely rich on the backs of others.

A persons personal outlook often depends upon those around him.

… the moral flabbiness born of the exclusive worship of the bitch-goddess Success. That—with the squalid cash interpretation put on the word success—is our national disease. —William James, 1906

The owners are attempting to bust the players’ union. Much of the dispute is the disparity between the small market teams such Pittsburgh/Cincinnati and the mega markets such as LA/NYC. The owners want to set a hard cap on how much the mega markets can spend, thus limiting the number of very large long term contracts that go to the superstars. While the players want a floor on how much the small market teams have to spend, thus forcing them to increase salaries and compete on signing their star players.They are also in dispute over the # of years a team can control their players before they can go to arbitration or free agency.

a site that tracks the thievery in stadium subsidies

https://www.fieldofschemes.com/

Hardly surprising as our free-enterprise competitive capitalism has — with the help of our [wannabe/multi]millionaire Congresses taking care of their monopolistic/oligopolistic billionaire buddies — morphed into an untrustworthy kleptocracy. It would be nice if the 99% got the attention the 1% does … instead of being deliberately pitted against each other so the closed-door/back-door deals can continue unnoticed.

Seems to me that the salaries of today’s gladiators is as reflective of our willingness to support sport entertainment over education as it is of wage discrepancy. Players spend time honing skills on the farm teams (A-AAA) – sometimes for many years – are paid very little. These great hope is to be raised from farm teams to “the big show” (MLB level). And the salaries being paid to all sport team participants is out of control…as is for college sports programs support.

Working hard for a living and taking care of your family is not greed.

Interesting to see Detroit made the cut!

It’s multi-multi millionaires demanding higher pay from billionaires for playing a game that is about exciting to watch but less satisfying than raking autumn leaves. Certainly the game causes less brain damage than football but …

My apologies to those of you who actually enjoy baseball. For your sake I hope the children on one side of this battle will soon give in to the demands of the other.

I thought it was “Stupid.” Oh well…

Agreed!

What will MLB do if they cancel or postpone the season and few notice? I attend Oakland A’s games in the 70’s as a kid the entire day cost under $10, Big Leage Ball has lost its heart as a Past Time.

Has the NFL/AFL ever had a strike? Or such bad times at the bargaining table?

Well…definitely applies to Congress

Somewhat too simple to be, but it really gave me the impression of a Mad magazine back cover fold in.

Typography nerd here: G (SF Giants) R (KC Royals) E (Boston Red Sox) E (???) D (Detroit Tigers)… can anyone place that second “E”?

An over abundance of one thing ruins everything. And in this case, It’s MONEY.