Low-Ballin Essay, Research Paper
Low-ballin
As Americans we strive to succeed and be prosperous. A lot of times we, as Americans, measure success by dollars and sense. The more we make the more we measure get a sense of our worth in this world. Still what if someone said that you couldn t make as much as you possibly can in life. In a sense limiting the potential of what you earn in life. Even though the boss wants to give you this money, should you not take the money? Well this is what some people propose some professional athletes, namely baseball players, should do. This is truly an un-American act to regulate what someone could or should make in their respective profession. If the boss is willing then baseball players should make as much as an owner is willing to pay them and not feel any regret.
Lets take for instance as a prime example Alex Rodriguez. This is a man who is going to be 25 years old and is in his 7th year of professional baseball at the highest level. This young man is a leader in many of Major League Baseball s offensive and defensive statistics and is considered to be one of the best if not the best at his position today. So why is it when a professional baseball organization namely the Texas Rangers offered him a contract of 252 million dollars over a 10 year span, many people began to react as he had just stolen the money. Is it wrong for him to except this money that has been offered to him? He is a unique asset at the job he works at. His uniqueness is that he is one of the if not the best and his job and whomever he works for makes that organization that much better. Now if a company has the opportunity to acquire an employee to better their company isn t naturally right he command a topnotch salary. Now add this into the equation, his services are also being requested by other organizations now what separates one organization from another is the financial offer they are willing to put on the table. So naturally he is going to receive a significant financial offer just by the sheer fact that he is such an asset to make his team better.
Nowadays almost every aspect of professional baseball is a money making deal. This truth does not escape the owners of these teams, which more times than not have all the angles covered. From the ticket at the gate to the type of popcorn you get at the concession stand the owners are making money. So why shouldn t the baseball player get a chunk of the proverbial pie. Also Major League Baseball has received significant amounts of money to allow television networks to broadcast their games, which in turn these amounts are redistributed back
Still people judge athletes such as baseball players as greedy people for trying to get as much as they can when their work contract are in front of them. But the reality is that an athlete only has a certain number of playing years to earn a really commanding amount of money if they are worth it. It isn t fair to compare the job of a teacher to that of a baseball player. The simple truth is that the average work span of a baseball player is significantly less than a teacher. So if you only have a small average to become financially secure, wouldn t you want the most you could get? The work life of a ball player can be described like a bell curve. When you first start out you really don t know the nature of the beast then when you get a couple of years under your belt you also get older and your body does not respond to the wear and tear of the physical ness of this profession as you were younger. These are your ups and as time pass and you are able to establish yourself into the game your skills will never diminish but mother nature sees that your body just does not respond the same as you first started out and then by the time a player knows it he is out of the profession all together, these are the downs. Now in comparison to a teacher the longer you stay at your profession there is no downs until it is time to retire and by that time a teacher has probably hit a financial high. So there is really no fair comparison between a professional baseball player and almost any other profession outside of professional athletes.
To be honest when it comes don to it these people are really just playing a game, a game in which they are being paid to do. This is also a game that we as fans are willing to give our money to see them perform at their best. But the truths are that these games are played at such a high level that very few people can compete and when you find people who can compete at this level and make the game look easy they become a rare commodity. So the question is presented, do these athletes who we can say are valued commodities deserve the money they are demanding? The answer quite simply is yes . That is why there is no problem in the world when a person such as Alex Rodriguez signs a contract with, Texas Rangers of Major league Baseball, for the amount of 252 million dollars over a year span. In which his contract makes him the highest paid athlete in professional sports history. So in essence he is one of the rarest commodities in the business.