Three Strikes Out
At one point in my life I wanted to play baseball for a living. I think we all did at one time or another. Little league for me was about the closest I ever came to it though, unless you count the times when my father would take me to Joe Robbie Stadium to watch the Florida Marlins play. I once asked Gary Sheffield (left-fielder of Florida Marlins, now an Atlanta Brave) if he would throw me the warm up ball when they were done; he did it right away. I looked up to him so much at that point. Although this was only ten years ago, baseball still seemed real to me; I could still get the players to shake my hands and sign my glove. They weren't the players you see today, throwing multi-million dollar contracts instead of balls and worrying about what they would be getting paid next year, instead of worrying about the game ahead. People used to go the games because it was about the game. You could read the paper and see scores. Today you see salaries. Baseball was about competition between two teams, and a good way to enjoy yourself with friends and family. Today it is about high ticket prices, and expensive cheap carnie food all run by huge corporations with one thing in mind: MONEY. In the past few years baseball, Americ
Without a salary cap there is no restriction on how much teams can spend on players. With certain teams being much wealthier than others they can afford the better players. If a salary cap was imposed on the MLB, teams would be restricted from spending more than a set amount on the entire roster. Some teams are in favor of the cap, believing that it would promote competition amongst teams. Currently the New York Yankees have a player salary budget that is over one-hundred million dollars more than any other team. The cap would level the playing field making things fairer for other teams. The players who are already making millions of dollars are not in favor of this. They want to be able to make as much money as possible from the ball club. These players are not playing for the sport, they're playing for the money; and they just want more. Just weeks ago we were on the verge of a strike because they needed more money. This year the average salary reached close to two million dollars, some players feel that is still not enough money (cnnsi.com). The teams with bigger pockets do truly pose a threat to other teams. Not only do the teams with less of a budget for player's salaries have to drop the better players from their roster that they cannot afford, they also cannot afford to sign the good players that are moving up in the different leagues. Of course if a player that is new to the major leagues is approached by a team that can hand him a large salary in his first few years he will pick that team. The players follow the money. Not all baseball players are lucky enough to walk right on to a team of
Some common words found in the essay are:
World Series, Atlanta Brave, York Yankees, Frank Baillie, Series DeMarco, Wayne Hizinga, , salary cap, Rays Yankees, Florida Marlins, world series, florida marlins, teams teams, Robbie Stadium, ball club, playoffs world series, team spend, competition teams, york yankees, one-hundred dollars, major leagues, salary cap imposed, money ball club,
Approximate Word count = 1096
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)
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