Gulping, choking, spewing coffee all over my screen this morning. This kid is getting $50 mil to pitch a baseball. Ok. So that's pretty cool...something given the time and opportunity others could accomplish. But $50 mil? I realize why baseball is called a business. The stakes are higher when you pay that kind of money to occupy a mound in the middle of the diamond.
C'mon. Take a lesson from college football. College football has fans that would rather paint their face red and yellow than not attend the game at all. They have no pride. They mark up their SUV's, drive an ungodly amount of time to get to the game, and will sleep in said SUV because they spent their last buck on the gas getting there. College ball has devoted fans from moms and dads to television personailities. Don't mess with Regis Philbin's Notre Dame. Why are these fans so crazy? Because they see these college kids out there giving it their all for *FREE*. Nobody pays them. True, many go on to play pro-ball and most hope that is what happens. It still takes nothing away from the game.
Now you have pro-ball fans. RARELY do they paint their faces. If they do, it ends up on the big screen for all to see. If a fans team loses, what do you hear the grown men fans saying? 'For the amount of money they're paid to play, they shouldn't have lost'. A win is expected. A win is demanded. An injured player needs to play anyway. After all, he's making how much? Which is too much to be sitting on a bench. Oh, I've heard them all.
Do you know what kind of hunger could be diminished in the stomachs of children with $50 mil? Do you know how many diapers, cans of formula and car seats could be provided to new moms for that? How about how many new homes could be built for Katrina victims?
So while I'm choking on this $50+ mil this kid gets for pitching, I wonder how he'll get paid. Raise the price (yet again) for tickets to the game? You know, with television, people will end up staying home and watching for free. Then, how will The Boston Red Sox pay up? This insane amount of money paid to athletes needs to come to a halt. After all, no one is sitting around paying me to type this blog. Heck, I could come up with some pretty good stuff for $50 mil. Nah. I'll do it for free. Why take the fun out of it. If I got paid, you might actually expect something. The pressure......
