Baseball: Spring Training News Is More About Problems Than the Game.
Posted: Thursday, February 19, 2009
by Mike Fak
http://mikefak.com
I remember clearly the day the Chicago newspapers carried the story that Mickey Mantle was going to be paid $100,000 by the Yankees for the season. I recall my dad, a hardworking $5.00 an hour engineer, saying that was crazy. He asked how anyone should be paid ten times more than a working man just to play a game. I didn't have an answer then. I sure don't have one now as salaries in all pro sports went past ludicrous a long time ago.
One of my favorite holidays is a day that really isn't on anyone's calendar as a real holiday.
It is the day that pitchers and catchers report' day.
The reason I so thoroughly enjoy that day is because no matter what it is doing outside my window or how cold it is, the day is a sign that winter is beginning to release another year's icy grip on all of us.
During the winter, sports news about baseball is generally called the hot stove reports'.
It is where players get traded, released, resign with a team or tell the world that they have had it and are retiring.
It is a great time for a baseball fan, a statistics fan, and the 'This is the year my team wins' fan.
At least that is the way it should be.
At my paper, I have popped the hat of sports editor on along with some others and have tried to bring a small batch of baseball reports into each day's edition.
It was harder than I imagined. Now the AP has hundreds of sports stories every day and although it isn't baseball season in the winter, there have been plenty of stories.
The problem is most have been about steroid use. Or about not getting any respect from a team because they only offered a player $25 million to play a game for one year.
There are always going to be stories of someone holding out for more money but in this day and age where some people have no jobs or are working two jobs or are wondering how to keep the heat on, it makes me shake my head at how insulated from the real world some of these players are.
Baseball and all of sports is supposed to be fun but reading some of the stories the point seems to have been lost with many ballplayers. The game should be fun: fun to watch, fun to read, fun to listen to as well as fun to play. It seems for many baseball teams and the players that the world of sport has left the playing fields and has moved over into the world of heavy-handed capitalism.
Too many have forgotten the joy of the games they play. Too many don't realize that they don't make huge sums because they are good at playing a sport. They make huge sums because we the fans pay to see them play. The moment we all stop coming to the games and don't care about them anymore, their jobs are in as much jeopardy as a Detroit autoworkers. The minute we decide $50 tickets, $9 beers and $6 hot dogs are just too much, the players can say goodbye to their yachts and mansions.
Of course there are some great players who are in fact outstanding role models. They play hard, they are accessible to their fans and they keep their gripes to themselves. But there are too many players who just don't get it. Until the real world slaps them in the face, they won't.
In the meantime, I will keep hunting every day for those sports stories that are fun to publish and fun to read. Not enough of them right now. I keep hunting and hoping. After all, spring training for a baseball fan is all about hope.
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Top-level comments on this article: (1 total)Mike, I may not state this properly but will give it a shot. You stated they players do not realize it's the fans who are responsible, in part, for the salaries they receive. Fans pay those atrocious ticket, food and beverage prices. Far too much has changed, in a bad way, since I was a kid. You've written about them before; our values, morals, priorities etc. I didn't like desegregation but even in our small town, The Ward's were respected by everyone because of our parents' integrity. They taught us how to win friends and influence people. All people.
I'm inclined to feel if some of the fans were players, the headlines would still be the same. Given the chance, they would behave as the players do. You would still have to search high and low, deep and wide to find news for conscientious fans reading your paper; giving them hope for the new season.
I am unable to accept the lack of morality and common decency displayed today. It's sad. A game is no longer just a game.
I enjoyed reading this because you penned it but it is really a sad piece. It's well-written and you pulled me in emotionally, as you always do. Enjoy a lovely weekend, Fak.
Hopefully, I made sense.Thanks Avis. Yep, you make a lot of sense. You are correct that ballplayers are nothing more than a fair sampling of the population in general.I have a friend who is security at a ballpark. There motto is "never turn your back on a idiot who got drunk on $9.00 beers."There are of course some terrific players who understand completetely how lucky they are...but there are some.Anyway... you too have a great weekend.Mike
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