Friday The 13th Halolinks

Baseball and the other major sports are actually a shining example of what OWS (as I understand it) and working class people are harping about. The MLBPA, NFLPA, etc are unions after all, and they’ve done an incredible job of making sure their members are compensated for the work they do for their employers (the teams). Can you think of another field where the folks who perform the primary physical labor of bringing the product to market are so well taken care of? When you take a few seconds to think about it, professional athletes are probably one of the last social groups in America for whom the “American Dream” is still alive and well.

Sure, you can probably argue that guys like Pujols are overpaid to some extent based on the real value that pro sports add to society, but how by how much? MLB is a multi-billion dollar business that rests entirely on the backs of the 800+ players that perform in it every season. Why shouldn’t they get a huge chunk of the profits? You can make a case for stadium employees and the like, since a hot dog or a beer is a part of the product as well, but the reason there is a product at all is the players. We don’t go to the ballpark to support the billionaire in the owner’s box, and he doesn’t really do any of the work.

Arguing against athletes getting big paychecks for entertaining tens of millions of people is like arguing against actors for making blockbuster movies, authors for writing bestsellers, and musicians for selling out amphitheaters. They all fulfill a demand for entertainment. If someone’s going to get a big paycheck, it ought to be the folks that actually provide the show. I don’t hear anyone making the case that major record companies and film studios need to make more money (besides record company and studio execs, that is).

If you’re going to “Occupy” anything relating to pro sports, it ought to be the public funding of stadiums, the tax breaks awarded to owners and the cronyism exemplified by Loria and his Marlins in the deal for their current stadium. In a lot of cases, the public has already paid for their local team before they even buy a ticket. Put a stop to that and maybe player salaries and league profits will be a bit more reflective of “real value” or whatever you want to call it.