Goodbye, baseball, after 50 years. It has been my game since I was a tot, but with Jason Giambi’s $120 million contract, that’s it.
The owners, the players union and the commissioner of baseball all know what’s wrong with the economics of the game. They know it can’t endure these salary inequities between rich and money-losing franchises. But the owners continue to pay this money anyway.
The collective element in baseball must be so fatuous they can’t understand one very elementary concept: A league is only as good as its weakest member. When the full impact of this recession hits next year, when stadium attendance is on the skids, what average working Joe, faced with the prospect of losing or maybe having already lost his job, will pay $50 to watch mediocre athletes in a game that lasts four hours but should be over in 2 1/2?
I guarantee you it won’t be me.
