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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,Michael Jordan White Jersey, 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.
Many ballplayers make ten times more in a year than a working person makes in a lifetime but far too many of them don't appreciate how lucky they are. It's hard nowadays to find good positive stories about sports and that sure is the case so far this spring training. At a time when all the baseball fans in the world should be having fun reading the news, all the talk is of steroids, who lied,Michael Jordan Black Jersey, who cheated, who shoved his spouse around and more. The news is taking the fun out of what I always enjoyed most about this time of year.
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,Michael Jordan Stitched Jersey, 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,Jordan Black Strip Jersey, 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,Jordan Stitched Jersey, 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,Michael Jordan White Jersey, spring training for a baseball fan is all about hope.