Money. The root of all evil, it is said. Can’t live without it. Or as the late sage Yogi Berra once said: “If you get hurt and miss work it won’t hurt to miss work and they give you cash which is just as good as money.” I bet AFLAC paid Yogi handsomely to be himself. And remember, older New York metro area residents, the WABC radio commercial for Dennison, The Men’s Clothier, located in Union, New Jersey—“Just bring money. Money talks, nobody walks…”
It is the almighty dollar which was front and center in the recent Presidential election. Inflation has been hurting almost every pocketbook in some capacity, and the populace let be known that they don’t like how much it costs to live on a daily basis. Except that there is a monied class which seems unaffected by the cost of living.
That would be the athlete and the team owner. Somehow they seem to be surviving okay. Together. For now, until the next labor negotiations, when invariably there will be the specter of a strike when the players want more of the pot and the owners are unwilling to cede a dime of their vast riches.
A few things provoked this rant. First, in baseball, this is free agency season and the number one topic is where will mega-talent Juan Soto be landing and which team will be anteing up the big bucks for his services. The lineup of suitors is a hierarchy of the rich franchises—the Yankees, who Soto played for in 2024; the crosstown Mets, with perhaps the richest owner in the game in Steve Cohen, who is willing to break the bank and sign the biggest fish to make the biggest splash; Toronto a long shot, is supposed to be proposing a mega deal; and other interested parties such as the World Champion Los Angeles Dodgers, suddenly money-infused Baltimore Orioles with a rich and very determined ownership; and even his first club, Washington.
Let me say this—this courtship is madness. The sum of $700 million dollars over 10 years for a baseball player is patently absurd. I can’t wait to learn how much, if not all of it will be guaranteed, if his super agent Scott Boras needs to convince the feeding frenzy how worthwhile their deal is going to be.
Last year it was Shohei Ohtani who was going to become a very wealthy ballplayer when his time in Anaheim was up. We now know that the Dodgers spent a ton of money, wisely deferred by Ohtani and his agent, to secure a World Championship. For this is the here and now, and whatever sum will be paid to the Japanese slugger in the future will have been well worth it. It brought a championship in the first year.
But let’s look a little closer at Ohtani. He’s already two surgeries into his career—the first was a major elbow procedure, the second one he has had for his UCL, which foreclosed him from pitching or playing the outfield this past season. Then in the World Series, Ohtani partially dislocated his left, non-throwing shoulder in a headfirst slide into second base. This week he had surgery to repair his labrum as a result of the injury, and simultaneously had a procedure done to his foot.
While the Dodgers have the belief that Ohtani will be ready by Spring Training, will he suffer any setbacks and will this further delay his return to pitching? Could it be that Ohtani is partially damaged goods right now and that even if he rehabs well, his long-term future may have become a bit more murky?
There are so many players who end up injured and have to go under the knife. “Tommy John” surgery, named after the pioneering pitcher who resurrected his career after a devastating arm injury, has been a godsend to baseball. It is almost routine that big league arms undergo such surgery. What is more frightening is how many have had the surgery out of necessity to try to make it to the next level—whether it is the pros or college—to fulfill a dream.
I look at another great player—Mike Trout. The Angels went way beyond their budget to lock up the New Jersey native with a lucrative deal. Since Trout inked his contract, he has been on the Injured List far more than on the field slugging home runs. He may have been the best player in baseball at the time LAA locked him up, but now he too is a question mark as to how well he will perform as he goes, let alone remain on the field and help make the Angels respectable if not competitive.
So now Soto is the chosen one. He didn’t outperform Yankees teammate Aaron Judge this season; Judge is the presumptive American League M.V.P. Yet Judge’s $360 million deal over 9 years, averaging $40 million per year, is going to be paltry compared to Soto’s fleecing some franchise.
Hal Steinbrenner, principal owner of the Yankees and son of the legendary George, who made his club into a powerhouse through free agency spending and shrewd drafting, has to come up with a figure he can live with which he thinks General Manager Brian Cashman can negotiate a deal to keep Soto in Yankees pinstripes. If that is possible, given the greed of Cohen and the bargaining power which Soto yields in this crazy marketplace. To satisfy the Yankees fans who are rabid after the collapse of the team in the 2024 Fall Classic.
But what if the Yankees took a different tack and reduced the payroll slightly and bringing in talent through trades and some free agency. This would actually make the team stronger and reduce the already brutal luxury tax (actually called the Competitive Balance Tax) enacted on the teams which overspend compared to the smaller market teams where revenue is not as great as in New York, LA, Chicago or Atlanta. Play Judge in right field where he does not burn out like he did in center field in 2024. Put Jasson Domínguez in his natural spot in center field. Even think about bringing back Alex Verdugo to patrol left field—he would love to play more in the Bronx. Shore up the pitching and garner more power at first and third base.
Let Steve Cohen blow through his billions and put the bulls eye squarely on his team. If the Yankees can work towards the future and not have constant payroll issues, then I am all for it.
What also threw me was that it is renewal time for my New York Jets season tickets for 2025. Talk about continually overpaying for a very diminished product while there is only one Super Bowl trophy on display at team headquarters in Florham Park, and that goes back to the 1969 season. I fortunately didn’t foolishly spend for a seat license for the privilege of sitting in the lower bowl of the sterile Met Life Stadium.
While it is my unfortunate goal to be a season ticket holder for 50 years, which will be reached in two years, it galls me to see that the franchise is worth $6.9 billion and I am paying a robust amount to support the operating expenses of $138 million. And the team once more has come out flat despite the promises of quarterback Aaron Rodgers to bring the team to the Super Bowl. Which simply isn’t happening given the number of teams which are better than NYJ in the AFC, where there is a team in Kansas City that is undefeated and has a QB going to be paid $450,000,000 over 10 years, with a $10, 000,000 signing bonus and over $140,000,000 is guaranteed.
From time to time I remind myself of the cost of watching these athletes perform. Whether it is in person, which costs plenty in ancillary amounts for food and beverage, travel costs and clothing to wear in the changing seasons. (I cannot wait until I complete my trips to all 30 MLB franchises with a visit to iconic Fenway Park; that Boston trip is going to cost me a lot of money just with the ridiculous ticket prices with Fenway’s limited capacity) Or the home viewing on cable or streaming channels which adds plenty to the monthly expenses. Again, this is plain absurdity.
Is the revenue sustainable? We as a nation have faced inflation and avoided a recession or, even worse, a depression. But what if this economy suddenly tanks? What will happen to the pay for these stars in all leagues—Lebron James and Steph Curry come to mind with bloated salaries—when the fans revolt over the costs of attending a game or watching exclusively on Amazon or Peacock?
And don’t think that the colleges are immune from this money train. They overpay coaches while underpay professors. Players receive scholarships but are enriched by name-image-likeness payola.
I was tracking the cost of a ticket for this weekend’s Washington-Penn State game in
State College. Three weeks ago a nosebleed seat was going for nearly $350. Until the Nittany Lions lost to nemesis Ohio State. That same ticket is now available for $95.
Rutgers, now fighting for bowl survival, plays at home Saturday when suddenly hot Minnesota comes to Piscataway. A ticket can be had for $5.00. And it is more likely that somebody will purchase the $95 seat than go to Piscataway for $5.00. which was the cost I paid as a senior for last week’s F&M-Kean football game. Watch for the increasing number of empty seats at most NFL games—a sign of the unaffordability of attending one game for everyday people. A ticket to MSG for a Knicks or Rangers game on the secondary market is astronomical while the New Jersey Devils continue to inundate me with requests to buy ticket packages because they need the revenue.
The perspectives are skewered. The competition for the entertainment dollar has reached an entirely new level. People are far more comfortable watching movies at home, yet they will willing travel to Canada to watch Taylor Swift because a ticket is far more reasonable. When sanity will return is anybody’s guess.
Moneyball was the nickname of a sabermetics-based philosophy which allowed the Oakland A’s to become highly competitive and thrive against the big market opposition. Over 20 years later, the A’s are still starving the payroll while gambling on a major windfall when the team moves to Las Vegas.
The movie was fantastic. The premise was fine. Yet we are in a different environment which will have to self-destruct for the good of sports. It’s just a matter of when.
For now, it’s still all about the money.
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