Not to mix politics and sports, but I have an idea…and probably not a great one. There are A LOT of problems in professional sports. For examples see: NFL lockout, impending NBA lockout, damning lockout of MLB past, etc. My solution, let’s kick it old school. Like middle school/high school- old school (sorry it fits).
Let’s take the Babe Ruth (the league not the player) scenario and apply it to the MLB. There are 30 MLB teams, and only 30 starting first, second, SS, third, outfield, and catching jobs available. (I am placing pitching in a differing category). Why not take the average salary of each starting position and make it the league definite? So every starting player at each position makes the same amount of money. Every player signs a 3 year contract. Albert Pujos, Mark Teixeira, Prince Fielder, Ryan Howard, Joey Votto, and company all make the same money; and their back ups are all paid at an equal back-up rate. The top five pitchers are paid according to their position spot (potentially per game as the season progresses), as well as relievers and closers.
The one exception that would be allowed is each team is allowed to give 4 players a franchise bonus per year. Taking a random team as an example, the Cubs may want to offer their franchise bonuses to Fukudome, Ramierez, Garza, and Dempster. Other teams may try to lure Soto away by offering him a bonus, and things get interesting. The financial game becomes much more strategic rather than who can offer the most to these over-paid arrogant…
The thing about this is it can be translated to other sports. In this model, with the lines drawn clearly in the sand there are no arguments over why this guy is so over-paid and why this rookie is the highest paid on the team without playing a down. At the same time it will never happen. The player’s associations will not agree to it. In a way, it is a shame because the only things that are certain in life are death and taxes, and the only things that are certain in professional sports are overpaid athletes and eventual lockouts.
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