MustangWorks.com : Ford Forums - View Single Post - Baseball strike...does anyone really care??

Mr 5 0 · 08-29-2002, 07:39 PM

I'm not a real sports fan and no expert so I may have this wrong but I understand that the owners of teams in the smaller cities can't compete with the N.Y., L. A. and Chicago teams for money (TV mostly) and can't pay the huge salaries to obtain the big names so they keep losing money - they claim. I have my doubts as they never open the books to prove their case.

The owners want to put a cap on player salaries, naturally, but the players don't want that, naturally,and so we have the impasse that may well lead to a strike, which is really dumb.

It's easy to castigate prima donnas playing a kids game for millions of dollars but who would turn down millions a year to do that...really? Not me. Hey, the players of old were real men, granted, but Babe Ruth was paid $50,000. when he joined the Yankees in 1921 and that was probably worth close to a millon or more in buying power then, when a new Ford cost $450. Babe loved the game but he wasn't playing for chump change, either.

I may have missed something here but it seems as if baseball has been ruined - mostly - by owners with their greed; expansion teams and ever-higher salaries to young men who naturally believe they are above everyone else when they are constantly praised as kids, as soon as it becomes obvious they have some talent, held up as 'special' by peers, courted by pros in high school and at 20 years old or so, paid millions to hit a ball with a stick while millions watch them do it on TV. It's hard to be humble with that kind of background and the players show that.

The old days of baseball were certainly better in many respects but even then, players were stars and owners got rich.

As I said, I'm not a real sports fan and I may have this wrong but as a casual observer of the baseball scene, I think both owners and players are equally at fault here but since most people don't even know who the owners are, we blame the high-salary players who we DO know. They may deserve the blame they get and the disgust expressed by many for their greed as well as their arrogrance but I don't give the owners a lot of slack, either.

If the players do strike and the game suffers, so be it. Unfortunately, following the last few strikes, attendance has risen, not fallen. Go figure. This could be different as fans seem to be really disgusted but we'll see. Soon.

.

08-29-2002, 07:39 PM	#9
Mr 5 0 Conservative Individualist Join Date: May 1997 Location: Wherever I need to be Posts: 7,487	Baseball I'm not a real sports fan and no expert so I may have this wrong but I understand that the owners of teams in the smaller cities can't compete with the N.Y., L. A. and Chicago teams for money (TV mostly) and can't pay the huge salaries to obtain the big names so they keep losing money - they claim. I have my doubts as they never open the books to prove their case. The owners want to put a cap on player salaries, naturally, but the players don't want that, naturally,and so we have the impasse that may well lead to a strike, which is really dumb. It's easy to castigate prima donnas playing a kids game for millions of dollars but who would turn down millions a year to do that...really? Not me. Hey, the players of old were real men, granted, but Babe Ruth was paid $50,000. when he joined the Yankees in 1921 and that was probably worth close to a millon or more in buying power then, when a new Ford cost $450. Babe loved the game but he wasn't playing for chump change, either. I may have missed something here but it seems as if baseball has been ruined - mostly - by owners with their greed; expansion teams and ever-higher salaries to young men who naturally believe they are above everyone else when they are constantly praised as kids, as soon as it becomes obvious they have some talent, held up as 'special' by peers, courted by pros in high school and at 20 years old or so, paid millions to hit a ball with a stick while millions watch them do it on TV. It's hard to be humble with that kind of background and the players show that. The old days of baseball were certainly better in many respects but even then, players were stars and owners got rich. As I said, I'm not a real sports fan and I may have this wrong but as a casual observer of the baseball scene, I think both owners and players are equally at fault here but since most people don't even know who the owners are, we blame the high-salary players who we DO know. They may deserve the blame they get and the disgust expressed by many for their greed as well as their arrogrance but I don't give the owners a lot of slack, either. If the players do strike and the game suffers, so be it. Unfortunately, following the last few strikes, attendance has risen, not fallen. Go figure. This could be different as fans seem to be really disgusted but we'll see. Soon. .