Well, folks, it’s that time of year again.
Baseball season is underway, the weather is warming up and the Red Sox are in first place. And, of course, Roger Clemens is back.
That’s right, the personification of Satan himself has signed a deal with the devil’s team, the New York Yankees, and will return to pitch for his 24th consecutive year. And in exchange, Clemens will be receiving an entirely appropriate, completely rational, prorated $28-million contract.
Roger Clemens, who will turn 45 before the end of the season, will be getting paid more than $4.5 million a month to throw a ball really fast every five days. Roger Clemens, who is the subject of all kinds of steroid rumors, will be earning over $750,000 a start to make sure that men with bats struggle to hit said ball. Roger Clemens, who mocked Japanese and Korean fans at last year’s World Baseball Classic, will be making over $6,000 an hour to play baseball.
Allow me be the first to say, “AAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!”
How have we come to this? How on earth is it possible to justify giving a man that much money to play a game? No one deserves to be paid nearly $20 million to work once a week, especially when his profession is “baseball player.” It’s just not right.
With so many problems in this world, so many causes worthy of our time, money and interest, how can we consent to someone as greedy as Roger Clemens making more in a day’s work than many people make in a lifetime?
And it’s not as if he’s going to take this money and do something for the good of humanity. Clemens is not known for having the most charitable nature. The Roger Clemens Foundation’s Web site hasn’t even been updated in two years – must be a real priority.
The guy has a history of jerk moves. When then-Mets catcher Mike Piazza broke his bat on a pitch from Clemens in the 2000 World Series, Clemens picked up the barrel and hurled it at Piazza, who was running innocently down the first-base line. After the incident Clemens, who was in his first stint with the Yankees, claimed he thought it was the ball he had chucked.
What part of that story makes any sense? He clearly didn’t think it was a ball, especially since he looked down at the bat before throwing it at Piazza, and even if he had, what would possess Clemens to then fling the “ball” at the hitter? And all of this came after Clemens beaned Piazza in the head during Interleague play earlier in the season, giving Piazza a concussion.
But this isn’t just about Clemens getting paid so much to play a game; it’s about anyone getting paid so much to play a game. Money has become so consuming in sports that we are unfazed by such a startling number as 28,000,000.
And it’s so easy to forget that it is we the fans who are footing the bill. Forty bucks for bleacher seats? Nine dollar hot dogs? Sorry, people, we’re getting screwed here.
How did this become acceptable? When are we going to take the actions necessary to stop such blatant greed? As long as we keep letting teams take advantage of us, we’re going to be stuck in a perpetual state of emptying our wallets. If this doesn’t show that baseball needs a salary cap, I don’t know what does. If not for the sake of a balanced playing field, than for the sake of our credit card balances.
