Major League Baseball Is Dead: Whatever Happened to the Love of the Game?

When I look at the Yankees and how they spend without a thought, I feel a bit sorry for other teams in the league. How can you have parity when one team clearly has a monopoly on free agency?

Now, some might say, obviously the spending hasn’t worked, the Yankees haven’t appeared in a World Series in seven years, and despite their $275 million, incentive-laden contract to Alex Rodriguez last offseason, they still managed to miss the playoffs completely.

But here’s the thing, they are still managing to quell all the best players off the market. Sooner or later, the money will win, and the Yankees will reign.

Why is any of this a problem, you might ask? Well, for one, not all of us are Yankee fans. We don’t all cheer for the pinstripes. Some of us are Red Sox fans, Cubs fans, Braves fans, Indians fans, Marlins fans, etc.

Some of us would like to know that as the season begins, our team has a shot at a playoff appearance. Teams like the Rays of last year make us feel hopeful that it’s not all about the money. You can build a franchise from the ground up and make something happen.

However, look how long that takes. If you are a Royals fan, you know your franchise has a ton of talent in the farm system, but you can’t help but wonder what it would be like to have a little success in the here and now.

But, unlike the Yankees, the Royals, and teams like them, don’t have endless profits to make major financial moves without handicapping their future, so those teams have to be a lot more careful who they give their money to and even with that caution, you still can never be sure.

Look at the Dodgers.

Last year they signed Andruw Jones to a two-year, $36 million contract. He went on to hit a paltry .158 with three home runs. He was benched long before the end of the season and has since been released. The Dodgers will be paying him $22 million not to play on their team, of course that’s pro-rated over the next six-years, but still, I know a lot of teams who can do a little something with an extra $3.5 million in their budget each year.

If this had been the Yankees, they could take the hit and still manage to find a suitable replacement at a comparable cost. Why? Because their checkbook doesn’t seem to have a cap. Sure, baseball has a luxury tax, but the Yankees have no problem paying that penalty. It’s both frustrating and perplexing to the fans.

Baseball, of all the sports I know, seems to have the biggest ego. They still believe that they are “America’s Past time”. The truth is, overpriced and overpaid players are ruining the game. The Yankees are the biggest contributors to the madness and are the reason that I feel a cap should be installed in MLB.

No one team should be able to control the market like the Yankees have this season and in seasons prior. It’s unfair and it makes the game miserable to watch. The thing that is so great about the NFL is that you can prognosticate all you want, but you never know what the outcome will be by the time playoffs roll around.

I mean, honestly, who thought the Cardinals and Eagles would be in the NFC Championship game at the beginning of the year? Parity is what makes the game so much fun to watch. Baseball lost it’s parity a long time ago.

Personally, I think that players should be paid based on performance. Not potential. Alex Rodriguez has great lifetime numbers, but is he really worth $275 million so he can hit .300 and smack 40+ homers a year? If you think he is worth that, then isn’t Todd Helton?

He hits for a higher average, with less strikeouts per season, than Alex does. And please don’t mention the Coors field element, he hits it just as well, if not better, on the road. Better yet, how about Chipper Jones? He has one thing that Alex Rodriguez has yet to attain, a World Series ring. Even better, when the playoffs roll around, his bat doesn’t go silent.

The madness isn’t limited to the hitters either, the pitchers are just as overpriced. If you think CC Sabathia was worth the cost, then you haven’t seen his playoff numbers. Sure, he pitched well last season, statistically his best, but in four postseason appearances he has managed a record of 1-3 with an ERA of 7.92. The postseason is the only thing that matters to the Yankees.

So, why pay CC? Wouldn’t a seasoned vet like Pettitte be better to re-sign at a lesser cost? And, then there’s AJ Burnett, someone please tell me the last time he pitched an injury free season prior to last year; his contract year?

Even more, why would you want to pay a guy $80+ million to win you, maybe, 13 games a year? That’s AJ’s average, last year notwithstanding, he’s no better than Oliver Perez. Some say he has finally turned the corner, but with only one good, injury free year to refer to, why take that chance?

As a fan of the game, I have been turned off by the tarnish that players like Alex Rodriguez, Barry Bonds, Manny Ramirez and the Yankees as a whole have brought to the game.

There was a time not so long ago, when the game meant something to its players. It wasn’t so much about the money and the power. It was a time when players didn’t loaf in the the outfield or slow down on the way to first because they assumed an out.

Players played through minor injuries and didn’t quit on their teams because things weren’t going their way.

It was about wins and losses and playing the game. Players these days won’t get on the field if their toe hurts, imagine if Kirk Gibson had felt that way in the 88’ series.

Where have you gone Joe Dimaggio? Indeed.