Essay about Salaries in Baseball

From chapter 6-3: Does Baseball Need a Salary Cap? by Neil deMause Perhaps no two words in baseball generate as much controversy and emotion as "salary cap. " Depending on whom you ask, a salary cap would either save the game, destroy the players' union, provide hope for small-market fans, pervert the free market, or create a tangle of red tape that would turn every trade deadline into a battle of wits among dueling "capologists. " Whenever owners and players have to negotiate a new collective bargaining agreement -- the next tussle is scheduled for after the 2006 season -- discussion of a cap is sure to follow.

Twenty-five million dollars made per year. Over one hundred fifty-four thousand dollars made per game. Over forty-seven thousand dollars earned per at bat. Sounds a little ridiculous, does it not? That is what current Texas Ranger shortstop Alex Rodriguez earns to play the game of baseball (azcentral.com). Baseball is a game that children have been playing in schoolyards and fields for the past one hundred years. It may not be a game anymore. On the Major League level it has become a business. This is where the problem starts.

Anyone who has been involved in an organized sport, whether it is backyard football or a high school sports team, knows that these sports all have organizations that are responsible for setting rules, determining conditions of play, and penalizing individuals who infringe the rules. Some of the organizations like the National Football league and the MLB are familiar to most people, the rules they follow are not generally understood by anyone who is not closely associated with the sport. Most fans and sport critics assume that what is happening inside these organizations are of little concern to them. However, this is not the case. In the MLB, the New York Yankees spend an excessive amount of money every year to obtain big name players. A

The fans that come to watch the athletes and who pay nearly $20 to get in the ballpark are padding the pockets of these owners. Statistics taken from online site http://cnnfn.cnn.com/2001 /03/30/news/baseball/ show that baseball ticket prices have gone up from $16.67 to $18.99 in just one year. A quote from the same online site http://cnnfn.cnn.com/2001/03/30/news /baseball/ wrote by Chris Isidore says, "Baseball fans going through the turnstiles on opening day across the nation Monday will be paying about 13 percent more than they did last year, according to a survey of prices…The increase makes baseball the sport with the fastest growing prices." Baseball in the United States is no longer America's Pastime. Baseball has changed to a high priced business, where average players make millions and above average players make tens of millions. To make the situation even worse, the dumbfounded owners and greedy sports agents who contaminate the game and the talented young athletes playing in it, control this business.

In Major League Baseball the general belief is that the more a team spends on their payroll the more games they will win. With the absence of a salary cap baseball may seam unfair to the smaller market teams who can't bare the salary costs that the larger market teams can. In Michael Lewis' Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game Lewis depicts just how the Oakland Athletics have been winning in an unfair game for almost a decade. The A's are a small market team that doesn't have nearly the amount of money at their disposal that their competitors in the American League do. However this past season the A's won their fourth American League West championship in the last seven years while having the lowest payroll in their division. In

In Major League Baseball the general belief is that the more a team spends on their payroll the more games they will win. With the absence of a salary cap baseball may seam unfair to the smaller market teams who can't bare the salary costs that the larger market teams can. In Michael Lewis' Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game Lewis depicts just how the Oakland Athletics have been winning in an unfair game for almost a decade. The A's are a small market team that doesn't have nearly the amount of money at their disposal that their competitors in the American League do. However this past season the A's won their fourth American League West championship in the last seven years while having the lowest payroll in their division. In

When it comes down to it, it is all about the teams' worth. When they have a lot of money they can continue to buy and recruit the best players. By doing this they win more games and so make more money. It is, for the most part, a continuous cycle. The New York Yankees are by far the most valuable team in baseball. They currently are worth about $850 million accord-ing to a recent study by Forbes Magazine. The Boston Red Sox place as the third most valu-able team at approximately $490 million. It is obvious that the New York Yankees are and will remain a "big brother" to the Boston Red Sox, always a step ahead with Boston scrambling be-hind to catch up, blaming their losses on superstition and "curses" rather than their own talent, incomparable to that of the New York

Imagine a darkened evening in the spring the lights are slowly warming up to illuminate the field in which the cleats of the great will graze the grass and scuff up the freshly dragged dirt. The crowd is feeling anxiety to know if the umpire is going to call the pitch a ball or a strike. This is in the mind of every person that comes out to support their local major league baseball team. In recent decades the sport of baseball has become criticized for the amount of money that the owners pay their players for their services. The question On the minds of not only the general public, but to the owners and the fans is the salary paid to the players. Major League baseball players are paid too much.

Free agents demand for very high compensation and this takes away major chunk of available salary. Every team has to come up with good balance of rookies and veterans to meet salary cap.

The rookie salary cap was gutted when teams took advantage of a loophole, adding lucrative "bonus" payments on top of the "maximum" base salary. It began in 1997, when the Boston Bruins gave two rookies, Joe Thornton and Sergei Samsonov, the maximum salary allowed under the rookie cap. But those contracts also had bonus clauses that would roughly triple the base salary if certain criteria - such as statistical benchmarks - were met. From then on, all high draft picks began demanding and receiving similar contracts. The multimillion dollar offers made to a few free agents served to "raise the bar," leading to comparable salary increases for comparable players. This movement was led by a few wealthy teams, like the

Players wanted more favorable salary cap but that will make teams spend over 70 percent of their revenue income on paying players salary. General counsel Bob Goodnow of the NHLPA was so unreasonable against the leagues offer of a salary cap that after the lockout was settle he was

and would different players get paid more than others? These questions would mean more debate, and it has been said that strikes may occur from players and certain teams because of wage distribution issues, also teams would start to consist of the players that will accept less pay than others, which would lead to unfair team decisions - stating another reason why college athletes should not be paid.

programs. The University of Texas football team makes the most revenue out of any other

Do Major League Baseball teams with higher salaries win more frequently than other teams? Although many people believe that the larger payroll budgets win games, which point does vary, depending on the situation. “…performances by individual players vary quite a bit from year to year, preventing owners from guaranteeing success on the field. Team spending is certainly a component in winning, but no team can buy a championship.” (Bradbury). For some, it’s hard not to root for the lower paid teams. If the big money teams, like Goliath, are always supposed to win, it’s hard not cheer for David. This paper will discuss the effects of payroll budgets on the percentage of wins for the 30 Major League

With free agency, the supply and demand continued to be high and gain capital through the bidding process. Over time players have been awarded bonuses, salary and endorsement deals that allowed them to be fruitful. Why the need for more now? As the owner, you have a lot of influence and impact on the players and their contracts. There is no need to have full disclosure on all earnings because it is a private entity. In situation such as this, the owners remained powerful and were standing on solid ground. Playing this sport is a luxury and the arguments were solid. There is no room for negotiations at this point.