"Watch your thoughts; they become words. Watch your words; they become actions. Watch your actions; they become habits. Watch your habits; they become character. Watch your character; it becomes your destiny." -- unknown

Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results - Albert Einstein

a game
2001-12-16 - 10:19 pm

sure, sure the economics of the game dictate that they can be paid that much, but, and i can't stress this enough, the money to pay these salaries comes from grossly inflated ticket prices and food prices. show me anyone who thinks a beer or a hotdog is fairly priced. they arn't. they are so inflated to cover those salaries. of course as long as people go and buy, the prices won't change.

baseball is by far the most absurd at least in football they have a salary cap to try and stop the insanity from growning AND it keeps the leagues interesting. in baseball a team like pittsburgh is nothing more than a farm team for big markets. it's a joke to really think a small market team could ever compete over a whole season with a major market team for more than one year. if they do, it's because some unknown star develops. you can rest assured that star will soon be gone to someone who can pay more. it's all about the benjamins. i don't blame the players, i'd want all the money i could get to play a game (yes a GAME) that i could.

normally, it's what can you do? thats the way sports have developed in this country and so be it. i get mad though when i see a guy like chris brown. he kicks for the steelers, about the only football team i watch. in 2000 he was paid $275,000. he's one of 28 starting kickers in the league. that's pretty elite. only 28 people do what he does at a professional level. how many poeple in the country do what you do for a living?

my problem is this. i have to assume he's make the same or more this year...so i'll stick with 275K. this guy makes big bucks, perhaps not in sports terms, but to me that's a huge chunk of change. he's elite in his field, 1 of 28 starting kickers and...he shanks kicks. he misses point after attempts. he misses 4 field goals in one game. he misses to damn often to do what he does. i don't pretend i could kick a five yard field and thankfully i don't have to even try. my point is for that kind of money, get a guy who can kick the freakin' ball. i think he has something like a 84% average before this year.

i have no idea if it's good or not, but i wish i could get by at my job with only succeding 84% of the time. i'm _damn_ glad pilots land safely a hell of a lot more than 84% of the time. i'm even happier that professions like paramedic, police officer and firefighter don't have fuckup rates like 16% of the time and they don't get paid anywhere near what kickers do.

taking my personal view of mr brown out of the picture, what i'm saying still stands. it's a shame, a real shame..that sports players make a hell of a lot more than professions that really matter.

i say, put a cap on what they can make...like a million is the MOST in anyone year, take all the extra money (and you'd have millions upon millions) and fix schools, buy new firetrucks, fund airport security, fix social security...you know, something that really fucking counts.

and don't tell me the 'quality' of the games would go down. a million bucks should be more than enough money for someone to play a freakin' game and that's all it is. a game.

how much did babe ruth make? bart starr? ted williams? shoeless joe jackson? joe nameth?