ࡱ;  Root Entry F 3G@CompObjbWordDocument&+ObjectPool³G³G  FMicrosoft Word 6.0 Document MSWordDocWord.Document.6;  Oh+'0  $ H l   DhC:\WINWORD\TEMPLATE\NORMAL.DOTwhowho@iFG@ܥe= e &+(j(jj(j(j(j(j((((((( ((*1())))))) )")")")=))i**T +*j()))))*)j(j()())))j()j() )~( (6j(j(j(j() )))Schmidt, Kevin English 100 McGrath date01/18/96 Dollars in the Dugout (revised) Should I be pro-life or pro-choice? Should I vote Republican or Democrat? Should I work for a union? Should gays have rights in the military? Is "money" now the new name of the game in the major leagues? That seems to be a question to which the majority of Americans can answer "yes". Baseball has always been known as "America's national past-time" and now this game of innocence has become obscured by dollar signs. In the last fifteen years baseball has become more than an ordinary business. It has evolved into a business of owners, managers, and players whose money-thirsty claws are ripping into as many money-making schemes as possible. Inevitably only the fans lose when the owners and players bicker over salaries. It is this bickering that causes the owners and players to forget about the fans. Certainly baseball is more than a sport; it has become a business with greed lurking in every corner and is out of control. Why does major league baseball find itself in this embarrassing position? One reason could be that TV networks give millions sometimes billions of dollars to baseball clubs. Those clubs that are in major cities make comparatively more from networks than do the ones in the smaller cities (Rosin 80). Owners assumed that television money would never run out, especially after CBS-TV bid $1.06 billion for major league baseball (Rosin 80). But that was before baseball was reduced to taking a percentage of television profit, based on how well it performed in the market place where the all important ratings are the judge. When that $1.06 billion became public knowledge, players and their union wanted to be generously compensated (Rosin 80). -1- Schmidt Another factor is that most ballplayers work under a system that ties them to one club, which pays as little as it can get away with until it has no further use for them (Kiss it... A:26). The natural reaction to this treatment is to try to make as much as one can as soon as possible. But how? Free agency players are able to bargain with the owners for big salaries. The average salary in 1970 was $25,000 and it soared to $1.2 million in 1994 (Rosin 81). With an average yearly salary of $1.2 million, baseball players make "more than sixty times the average yearly earnings of U.S. nonmanagement private-sector employees" (Zimbalist 11). Players have become unrealistic about how high their compensation and benefits can go. I'm not saying that players do not deserve high salaries. For years before major league baseball players had a union, most owners took unfair advantage of them (Rosin 81). However the salaries have gotten way out of hand. Arbitrators are another plague that ails baseball. Arbitration came along when a player was not able to be a free agent but was able to have someone other then the owner of the team decide his wages (Noble 22). Arbitrators, most of time, have no idea what the particular players they represented are worth (Noble 22). Some results of arbitration are: New York Mets' player Bobby Bonilla, who earns a daily salary of $31,148; Baltimore Orioles' Cal Ripken who earns $26,230 a day; or San Francisco Giants' Barry Bonds who collects more than $11,000 every time he comes to bat (Rosin 80). Are these astronomical salaries necessary for a player who is playing for the love of the game? If the players are playing only for money then they have become part of the greed that exists in baseball. Nearly 200 major league players make more than $2 million a year (Zimbalist 11). Just the fact that there is so much money circulating around the business of baseball is reason enough for the large pay checks and even larger amounts of money the owners make. -2- Schmidt The owners of all 28 major league franchises are millionaires several times over, but they have payrolls that are mind-boggling. Yearly maintenance costs are staggering, even if they rent their stadiums. Owners must train new players, hire scouts, and maintain a farm system (This is where players are trained and then, once good enough, moved up to the major leagues.). The cost of training a player who eventually makes the major leagues as compared to the hundreds who are signed on to the team, given a bonus, and don't make the team, is estimated at $1 million (Rosin 80). To add to the costs, most major league teams also have a front office that employs between 75 and 100 workers, many being specialists (Rosin 80). One of the big pluses for owners is that they can still, subject to IRS challenge, depreciate players. For example, a person buys a baseball team for $100 million, claiming that 75 percent of it goes to player contracts (Rozin 80). The owner eventually gets to depreciate $75 million over the life of the team's players, with the idea that players are subject to wearing out just like a machine (Rozin 80). In the eyes of the owners, players are only money making machines. In addition to salaries that would embarrass most corporate executives, baseball has a marketing wing that for several years has given each player $82,000 at the end of the season. That revenue comes from the nationwide sale of licensed jerseys, hats, autographed baseballs, and novelties (Rozin 81). Players also get $64.50 a day for meals every time their team goes out of town (Rozin 81). This may lead a baseball player to forget that he is not just playing for the money. Owners want a salary cap so they can stabilize costs. Players want a complicated tax system where the rich-market clubs would share their earnings above a certain figure with small-market franchises. If these smaller-market teams do in fact go under, which is what may happen, they will no longer come to bat. Many feel that is just what should -3- Schmidt happen, but to the entire market. The public should let the whole greedy enterprise collapse so it can start over, with ticket prices that make sense; with world series ball games that have starting times aimed at kids, not advertisers; and with guys playing as much for love of the game as for money. Some kind of downward adjustment of salaries will have to be made for baseball to survive and maintain ticket prices that families can afford. Because owners will not open their books to players or the public, it is impossible to determine what their yearly profit margin should be; but it needs to be controlled. Obviously, all that is just fantasy--like imagining a return to a world where no one has to lock their doors. But what is not fantasy is the anger and disillusionment felt by the public. Baseball is a business that has forgotten its consumer. This situation never should have happened. But it did, and now with the baseball strike at hand, it must be resolved. A true fan looks at how good the players are and recalls what baseball once was--a terrific game that one started to play as a child and a dream about making it in the big leagues--not for the money, but to play the game because of the talent that person possessed. Go back America! -4- Schmidt Works Cited "Kiss it Good-bye" The Washington Post 16 Sept. 1994, ed., sec. A: 26. Noble, Marty. "The Money Pit." The Sporting News 18 Jan. 1993: 22-23. Rosin, Skip. "New Money and Old Games." Sport Nov. 1994: 80-81. Zimbalist, Andrew. "Field of Schemes: the case for a baseball strike." The New Republican 15 August 1994: 11-12. -5- 8ࡱ; SummaryInformation(@; G@IkMicrosoft Word 6.02#$()12478BCG? B C F H R u^c uDcc#34JTU  V sM3q'!!!!!!!! ! !!!!! !! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!*  il m n o p q r s t u v w x y z { | } ~ !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!K@Normala "A@"Default Paragraph Font !!!!!   #(1whoA:\PROSE\BASEBALL.DOC@Canon LBP-430LPT1:LBP430Canon LBP-430 8DR Canon LBP-430 8DR ~~~1Times New Roman Symbol &Arial hruYwhowhoࡱ;