Major League Baseball has
done it again. While a great season is occurring on the field, the
owners and player’s union leaders manage to get everyone’s
attention on a pending labor strike.
The labor strike, scheduled for Aug. 30, is over one key issue:
“Who has bigger testicles?” The union and the owners want
you to believe it is over the salaries of the players, steroid testing
or even a worldwide player draft. This is nothing more than an overblown
pissing match, with each side trying to prove they own the biggest
bat.
The average salary for major leaguers this year was at 2.38 million.
2.38 million? I believe I could live quite nicely for thirty or
forty years on that kind of salary. They only go to work 162 times
a year, they have off from the middle of October to the end of February,
and they play a child’s game for that outrageous salary.
The players are not completely at fault though. The owners did start
paying these kinds of salaries. If they had decided to keep salaries
at a tolerable level, say an average salary of only a million per
year, they could have. Guys like George Stienbrenner, the owner
of the New York Yankees, and Tom Hicks, who rewarded Alex Rodriguez
with a 10-year, $252 million deal, are the problem. They do not
care about parity, or the good of the game, only what will make
them happy. Stienbrenner cares nothing of the Pittsburgh Pirates,
the Tampa Bay Devil Rays or the Montreal Expos and their respective
fans. He cares just about what will make the Yankees a contender
for the World Series, even if he ruins baseball in the process.
As far as I see it, each side needs to give in here. The players
must realize their salaries are enough and soon no fans will be
able to pay their salaries (which they do by going out to the ballgame).
The owners probably need to give in a little on their luxury tax
and revenue sharing plans. They are right about what they have proposed,
but it’s all about baby steps with baseball, and giving in
a little now will help them next time to get even more out of the
player’s union.
Will any of what I mention as a solution happen? Likely not. Since
1972, Major League Baseball has had nine work stoppages. In fact,
every time a labor agreement comes up for renewal, there is some
type of stoppage. Those facts alone give me almost no hope for a
last second agreement on Aug. 29.
Perhaps a fan should be involved with these negotiations. We do
pay the salaries of all these players. The owners would be broke
if we did not watch the games on television, go out to the ballpark
or buy a hat of our beloved hometown team. In fact, we are owed
a spot at the bargaining table.
I am not saying that I should be the one to handle this; I would
be clueless as to how the economics are handled really. Perhaps
a George Will or Bob Costas should go though. They both love the
game and know more about it than anyone I have ever seen.
This October, I want to be watching a pitcher’s duel between
Arizona’s Curt Schilling and Atlanta’s Tom Glavine, and
not yet another pissing match between Rob Manfred, chief negotiator
for the owners, and Donald Fehr, head of the player’s union.
I watched the U.S. Championship of the Little League World Series
the other night. The team from Kentucky won 4-0 over the team from
Massachusetts, but the score did not matter to me.
What mattered was, at the end of the game and the announcer was
interviewing the third baseman from the Massachusetts team, the
young kid responded, “Well, if it wasn’t for that one
inning when they scored four runs, we would be scoreless right now.”
Pure simplicity from the mind of a child. Major League Baseball
would do good to follow his example. |
Hugh Kellenberger
Staff Writer
CRSA / Housing Beat |
