BASEBALL
HAS CHANGED!
(Milwaukee
Journal-Sentinel, Detroit Free Press, ESPN)
(James
Strick, Yahoo, Thomas Barrabi, USA Today, Frazer Chronicle)
Here
I am, sitting in my easy chair, channel changer in hand, ready to watch another
Detroit Tiger ball game when I start hearing about another drug scandal over on
ESPN. What the hell is going on, are these players that insulated from reality
that some actually figure that they can game
the game.
I
understand that a baseball player’s career isn’t very long, although longer than
a football players, but far shorter then a golfers, or some hockey players who
somehow play into their early forties. So there is an emphasis on making as
much money as you can in the shortest possible time…..because you never know
when the skill level will desert you.
Most
professional athletes can make a decent living during their productive years,
and if they’re smart, they can salt away enough to live comfortably after
retirement. Endorsements public speaking engagements, business or coaching
opportunities are the usual after career possibilities that tend to keep a
players post major league career a pretty busy time as well as lucrative.
Being
a professional baseball player, on any level, is an exciting proposition…..at
first. But the daily grind, and the constant pressure to succeed I’m sure can
be overwhelming, and probably take much of the fun out of the game.
The
money that can be made from playing at an elite level can instigate all sorts
of efforts to achieve the ultimate goal. In the old days, players needed spring training to regain
their physical edge lost over the winter of inactivity and self indulgence. It
wasn’t until the 1970’s that baseball players realized that their body was the workshop, and that they’d better
start taking care of it or careers would be short.
TODAY
EVERYTHING’S A PHOTO OPP
I
have watched every Detroit Tiger’s baseball game that has been on television, I
watch the players, listen to the announcer and his side-kick color guy, and sometimes cringe at how they chop up the analogy, how umpire
calls can be blown, and how some of the simplest attributes of playing the game
can be mystifyingly almost impossible for some of the players to accomplish.
The
camera goes into the dug-outs, into the locker rooms, onto the field for pre
and post game interviews, catching players every move, attitude and mannerism
right down to scratching their butts, adjusting their cups, and picking their
noses, talk about being under the (looking glass).
In
many instances what a player makes isn’t enough, when you consider how a player
is dissected into small pieces and examined by the media who in turn write
about what they’ve gleaned from an interview, and sports fans who read the
newspaper, figure it makes them experts, and they question the players at
length from the bleachers, or in a restaurant or at a chance meeting on the
street.
Today
pitchers make stress pitches,
or pivotal at bats, according
to announcers and their color experts.
Hell I played amateur baseball for years, and for me, every pitch was a stress pitch, because I
struggled with control, and didn’t have much of an arsenal of pitches, and every at bat was a pivotal at bat because I couldn’t hit…..a lick.
Today’s
baseball players are better equipped, are in better physical shape, have a
clearer picture of what they want to accomplish on the field as well as off,
watch what they eat as well as drink, and actually are better players than
ever. However that said, there is usually one ingredient that many lack today
that wasn’t lacking years ago…..a true love of the game…..an us against them attitude, at
least that’s my opinion.
Today
you really need a program to know which player is playing what position, and
for which team, today is the age of free agency, player agents, and the Major
League Baseball Players Association. The MLBPA, the player agents and Marvin
Miller are responsible for the average player salary of $3,213,479 a season.
The
minimum salary of a Major League Baseball player, a rookie, or lower tier
player is $490,000 a season, up from $480,000 in 2012. Since 2004 the minimum
salary has jumped from $300,000 to the present $490,000, this on the heels of
the biggest percentage jump in the history of professional sports, from
$414,000 in 2011 to $490,000 in 2012…..a .16% raise in wages!
There
is almost no ceiling for a player’s salary; it depends on his ability, his demeanor,
his attitude and his performance on the field as well as off. Some of the top
salaries illustrate the (no ceiling) opinion that I have:
Alex
Rodriguez, New York Yankee, 3rd baseman, $29,000,000 annually, and he’s been injured all season
Cliff
Lee, Philadelphia Phillies, pitcher, $25,000,000
Johan
Santana, New York Mets, pitcher, $24,644,708, injured all season
Vernon
Wells, New York Yankees, outfield, $24,643,857, .240 Ba. 10 home runs, 24 RBI’s
C.C.
Sabathia, New York Yankees, pitcher, $24,285,714
There
you have the top money makers for the 2013 regular season, there are several
criteria that each of these players share, each is either at their middle 30’s
or are fast approach it, four of the five listed players play in the Big Apple, and Cliff Lee might
become a Yankee.
ONE
MIGHT WONDER
The
average guy…..like me, sitting in his easy chair, preparing to watch a baseball
game, would think of a baseball player cheating in my game. Well to be
perfectly frank, I don’t really care that much, will Berry Bonds ever make the
Hall of Fame, probably not, will Mark McGwire, or Sammy Sosa make it…..doubtful,
has Pete Rose got a chance….not really, at least not in the 21st
century.
All
of these guys are accused of cheating, and Roger Clemens mis-remembered, they all belong to the fraternity of
baseball, not the best, and actually not the worst. Probably each in his own
way cheated through the use of performance enhancing drugs, or a quick recovery
elixir from an injury.
The
thing that I don’t get is how much is enough, how many cars can you drive, how
many ladies can you be with at the same time…..and why would you want to make
as much money as some small emerging countries do?
The
answer probably lies somewhere between I
don’t have a clue, and because
I can, how else could you explain Ryan Braun, Milwaukee Brewer left
fielder being in the cross hairs of the commissioner’s office with regards to a
possible 100 game suspension. Braun has one of the sweetest swings in all of
baseball, and would appear not to need an additive…..however!
First
it was the BALCO scandal involving the use of banned, performance-enhancing
substances by professional athletes. The Bay Area Laboratory Co-operative was a
San Francisco Bay area business founded by Victor and Aubry Conte, created to
keep food on the table for the Conte’s but evolved into a supplement company
that catered to professional athletes and made millions.
We
now move forward from the late 1990’s into the early 2000’s to a little weasel
looking fellow by the name of Tony Bosch, founder of Biogenesis, some sort of
anti-aging clinic, a place that I intend to visit just as soon as I can refill
all of the medication that I’ve been prescribed to keep me above ground.
Bosch
and his bag of happy pills
are really nothing more than the traveling Medicine-Man that would come around
to frontier towns peddling his elixirs that would cure everything from a
hang-nail, to Lumbago, to a broken arm.
Very
little has changed from those early days of frontier life in America, the
Medicine-man was trying to make a living from a concoction of water, whisky
with a dash of Tabasco sauce, and a little salt and pepper. Today’s modern
Medicine-man has just added ingredients that can actually alter all sorts of
bodily functions.
Of
course the wild-west medicine-man didn’t have the ability to use today’s
mixtures of wonder drugs; he was confined to water, whisky, and some other
roots and seeds.
The
use of these either legal or banned substances for some has sullied the game, making the statistics
cheapened, worthy of an asterisk next to the record. Perhaps in 20 or 30 years,
those people that keep Major League Baseball records will be commissioned to create
a whole new category to define which era hitting and pitching records should fall
under.
One
could be pre-enhancement, the other enhancement, the two categories might
at least placate the baseball purists. Personally I blame the owners and their
attitudes about a dollar bill, and its value for allowing doping and juicing to
have been allowed for so long. It’s going to take decades before fans will get
over the silly antics of both the players and the owners.
HAVE
A NICE DAY!
