MONDAY’S signings of Alex Rodriguez and Manny Ramirez to the tune of a combined $412 million added yet another seam into the all-but-sealed lockout at the close of next season’s Fall Classic.
And unlike the 1994 players strike, team owners won’t catch all the flak. With pay like this, the players will shoulder a lot of the blame.
The money explosion is ruining the national pastime:
* Skyrocketing prices – for tickets, souvenirs and especially concessions – have made a family trip to the ballpark unaffordable to many Americans. And it feels like a ripoff to most of the rest.
* Small-market teams just can’t compete for the top talent. These cities face a real chance of losing their ballclubs altogether.
* Owners must rely heavily on television revenue to meet ballooning payrolls. More TV money means more ads. With all the interruptions, games now regularly pass the four-hour mark. In some areas, the games run too late. And in New York City, a 7:30 start means thousands of fans can’t make the first inning – or three.
The fans have answered in kind, giving the 2000 World Series (a Subway Series at that) a 12.4 average national rating, the lowest in history by a whopping 12 percent.
Do top players like Rodriguez and Ramirez deserve to be paid fair-market value for their skills?
Absolutely.
But the greed of ballplayers and their agents (Scott Boras took home a cool $12 million for the Rodriguez deal) has pushed salaries above manageable levels.
And without benefit of a salary cap or an effective luxury tax, the same half-dozen teams will be the only ones able to compete for a World Series come October.
But at this rate it won’t matter.
If the players and owners don’t wise up and stop taking the fans for granted, there won’t be any World Series championships to play for, quite possibly for a very long time.