December 22, 2003

Major League Baseball is a joke.

That's right, I said it. Now what are you going to do? That is what I thought, it's not even good enough to stand up for.

MLB Baseball at one point, was Americas Pastime, until it was knocked off the ladder by the NFL, and it's anything can happen at anytime excitement.

The MLB is in the middle of one of the most embarresing debacles in recent memory, and believe me, that's a crowded recent memory. Let's see, we have the strike of 94, a very JUICED UP Barry Bonds hitting a record number of Home Runs as he nears 40, and in the past 3 years, no less than 4 players have said outloud that steriods, pain killers, and about "anything else you need" is within walking distance in the clubhouse.

But we will get to all of that, first, I want to talk about Alex Rodriguez, better known and further referred to in this column as A-Rod!!

In December of 2000, A-Rod!! signed a 10 year $252 Million dollar contract with the then last place Texas Rangers. Just to play Baseball, there is no singing, dancing, cooking, nothing extra, just for playing Baseball. Now, 3 years into this contract, the Rangers are still a bad team, and A-Rod!! is wanting out. Yeah, he wants to play for a winner, which he could have signed with 3 years ago, had $252 million not smelled so goooood. I guess he figured you can realistically only spend so much money, and if he were going to continue to play baseball(he has already brought in over $63 Million from the current deal), he may as well be playing for a winner. *Don't worry, Ken Griffey Jr. signed a 9 year $161 million deal when traded to the Reds a few years back, and he wants to play somewhere else now too.

You know, if it bothers these guys so bad to lose, then don't go to crappy teams just for the money, because once you collect around $70 million, buy everything you ever wanted, get an SUV, put away you kids college funds, taken care of your parents, bought an SUV, took care of your "boys" from the day, donated to charities, another SUV, and made sure you woman never had to work another day in her life, you are still going to have to get up and go to the ballpark, and if you are of competitive nature(and not all are), then yeah, eventually, losing is going to really start to outweigh all the money that you are set to recieve, and the rest of the $180 million or so over the next 7 years all of a sudden(remember this is after 3 years and $70 Mil) does not seem like motovation enough to keep you big mouth shut and play for the team YOU CHOSE because of an insane amount of dollar signs.

So what happens. Well, believe it or not kids, we are just getting started. The Texas Rangers strike a deal in the fall of 2003 that would send A-Rod!! to the Boston RedSox for Manny Ramirez(Another huge contract cry-baby).

Now, the complication ensues. See, MLB has a player union, to make sure the overpaid talent does not get mistreated by the "evil greedy" owners. The trade was made and agreed upon by all parties involved EXCEPT the players union. They have a hold up in the deal. See, apparently there are rules that have to be followed, and the snag comes where the Bo-Sox and Rangers were going to have to re-structure A-Rod!!s contract to trim about $28 mil off of it, to make it workable with Boston's Finacial situation. See, the players union has a clause that states a players contract can't be re-structured without it being benificiary to the player, and in the Unions eyes, losing $28 of $252 million is INCONCIEVABLE!!!!!!

It's Great! For the past 3 years, steriods have been debated about, and the joke of a screening process that was implimented isnt going to last or be effective. Here is a league that swears up and down that steriods are not in the MLB, the players all swear they are clean, but the players union will not allow for steriod testing to be implimented in baseball. It's like going to a job and saying "I didn't smoke pot last night, but you can't drug test me, I will not allow it, but I'm clean, I swear, just no testing, it's an insult to me. But I'm clean". Gimmie a break. Jose Canseco, David Wells, and a few others over the past 3 years have all said almost verbatim the exact same thing, that they are everywhere, and every one is on them. MLB's reaction? "There are no steriods in baseball." Okay, so can we test you guys? "Helll NO!!" But when it comes to a player losing $28 mil he does not even want anymore, the players union won't let this specific trade go?

Forget the fact that A-Rod!!, Manny, The RedSox, and the Rangers all want this to happen, and need it to happen. So, for the last 2 weeks, there have been numerous deadlines set and broken while the players union and arbitrators wait for the parties involved to come up with something that they see as fair, and now there are 20 cooks in the kitchen, and the deal is being held up over principal more than anything else, well, that and by people who have really nothing to do with the trade.

The situation keeps getting worse, and it's embarrasing to have to turn on the TV every day and see the "Lastes about A-Rod!!". I think that everyone involved should drop out of Pro-Sports Fantasy Land and soak up about 2 weeks of thre Real World, where the economy sucks, people are losing jobs they thought would carry them into old age, and every other RedNeck is running around talking about the capture of Osama(It's Saddam, by the way, that was caught).

In this day and age, people fighting childishly over $28 million that Alex does not want and the Sox don't want to pay, while most of us out there would be happy with a Christmas Bonus, aside from all the steriods, disgruntled former players, and another strike possibility at some point(It'll happen), you would think the MLB PR machine would be in full gear, working hard to churn out something that someone would want to stand up for.

Major League Baseball is a joke.