For me, baseball has given me an outlet for both my nerdiness and my competitive nature. Ask my parents what they remember about me watching baseball on the weekends as a kid and they'll probably tell you that it was me yelling "YES! YES!" when someone hit a home run or me studying the statistics on the back of baseball cards (the kind that came with stale chewing gum in each pack). Trying to figure out what I wanted to be when I grew up involved baseball - whether as an Athletic Trainer or some sort of fitness consultant. Deciding what to do with my graduate work involved baseball - I was going to get my Masters in Sports Management and then go to law school to become an agent (I got the Masters, but decided to buy a house instead of going to law school). Deciding where to go on our honeymoon involved baseball - Cooperstown, New York is a lovely town to explore as a newlywed couple. My son likes watching baseball, and my daughter somewhat tolerates it; baseball has always been part of my life.
But now there is one man who just might single-handedly mar my love for the game, if I let him (and it gets harder and harder to resist). We've never met (which is good, because if I did I might kick him in the balls), yet his actions and behavior are not only affecting me, but will surely leave a bad taste in the mouths of many other fans. Scott Boras, a greedy and selfish sports agent who started his career defending pharmaceutical companies (that says a lot about a person!), represents many top-notch baseball players, including free agent Bryce Harper. The Washington Nationals (the team that drafted him as the number one pick in 2010 and for which Harper has played his entire career so far) offered him a 10-year contract worth $300 million, and Harper turned it down because Boras said they could find a team willing to pay $400 million for the same length of time. Now, it's not clear how much of the decision was Harper's and how much was Boras trying to sway a legitimately talented athlete who (in my opinion) is not very emotionally or intellectually mature; but in the last interview that Harper did before the end of the current season, he said he would love to stay in DC because it's "the only thing" he knows. Don't you think he'd be happy, then, with a $300 million contract for the next ten years so he could stay in DC?
I also don't know enough about the ins and outs of sports contracts; do athletes sign a thing saying they will let their agent make all decisions on their behalf, or do they have any say in what goes on? Do their contracts stipulate that their agents will contact a set number of teams or entertain a certain number of offers? Do the players put their utmost trust in these agents and just let them handle everything? I'm not sure what the relationship is between a player and his agent (hopefully it's not a Mike Tyson-Don King type of thing), but I do know that Scott Boras comes across as an arrogant weasel and someone I could never trust.
So why is Harper's free agency and potential for signing the biggest contract in sports history bothering me so much? Because I've ignored the greediness long enough, and I'm tired of constantly being disappointed (and the fact that I have followed Harper's career since he was drafted and follow him on Instagram kind of hit home a little bit). Just when you think these guys are satisfied getting paid to play a kids' game, they end up signing ridiculous contracts (Giancarlo Stanton!) and you don't know if the player, their agent, or both are to blame. Why do beers at Nationals Park cost $12? So the team can afford to pay Max Scherzer's salary and pay the luxury tax. Why do post-season games start so late and show so many commercials between innings? Because it's more important for TV networks to make money than it is for fans to actually watch an entire game and still get enough sleep (thank goodness the last game of the World Series was a quick one, otherwise I would not have seen the Red Sox clinch the championship). I am tired of sweeping the ugly side of baseball under the rug, and it's really wearing on me.
Why am I letting it bother me so much? Because I love baseball. And when you love something, you try to protect it for as long as you can until you no longer have the strength to do so. You exhaust all your power and emotion and just have to give up in order to find happiness (yes, this sounds remarkably like my first marriage!). Now, those of you who know me know that I am not a giver-upper - but at the same time, I have to be true to myself and stop denying the fact that baseball is getting ugly. It has been ugly for a long time, actually - between PED use in the nineties, the rise of analytics that has made the game un-fun to watch, and the fact that you can no longer afford to take a family of four to a ballgame without having to take out a home equity loan - baseball is just not fun for me to follow as deeply and closely anymore. How does this make me feel? Sad, to be honest; no one likes to find out that Santa Claus is not real, have your best friend move away, or find out that there really wasn't an actual "Jesse's Girl." And if baseball is indeed a microcosm of society (like I have written about in the past), then I would rather not associate myself with an industry that is full of greed, insensitivity, and ignorance. Gone are the days of giving a kid a foul ball (because you can sell it on eBay), players joining Winter League teams in Latin America (because your team doesn't want you to hurt yourself), and getting a player's autograph (because they can charge several hundred dollars for one at a memorabilia show). America is getting less "great," and unfortunately, so is baseball.
I will keep watching (and rooting for the Nationals and every player from Puerto Rico), I will continue to have the MLB app on my phone (because I HAVE to find out who ends up being the foolish team that signs Harper for an ungodly amount of money), and I may come back and blog in the future. But for now, let me first of all thank the many of you who have been faithfully reading this blog since I started it in 2011; many of you couldn't care less about baseball but read my musings just to be nice, and I have truly appreciated your love and support. I want to thank Mrs. Nochera, who taught me everything I know about grammar, Professor Shea for bringing out my sense of humor, my parents, for making questionable transactions just so I could have a certain Iván Rodriguez baseball card, and of course my husband, who has read every single blog, has taken me to dozens of games, and has put up with me ogling over the good-looking players (and if I ever do become Commissioner, I promise my brother that he can taste-test every beer in all 30 ballparks). Thank you, my friends, from the bottom of my heart; I'm hoping this is not a permanent good-bye - just a "see you soon."
With all my love and appreciation,
Marién
AKA "Mudville Mom"
Why am I letting it bother me so much? Because I love baseball. And when you love something, you try to protect it for as long as you can until you no longer have the strength to do so. You exhaust all your power and emotion and just have to give up in order to find happiness (yes, this sounds remarkably like my first marriage!). Now, those of you who know me know that I am not a giver-upper - but at the same time, I have to be true to myself and stop denying the fact that baseball is getting ugly. It has been ugly for a long time, actually - between PED use in the nineties, the rise of analytics that has made the game un-fun to watch, and the fact that you can no longer afford to take a family of four to a ballgame without having to take out a home equity loan - baseball is just not fun for me to follow as deeply and closely anymore. How does this make me feel? Sad, to be honest; no one likes to find out that Santa Claus is not real, have your best friend move away, or find out that there really wasn't an actual "Jesse's Girl." And if baseball is indeed a microcosm of society (like I have written about in the past), then I would rather not associate myself with an industry that is full of greed, insensitivity, and ignorance. Gone are the days of giving a kid a foul ball (because you can sell it on eBay), players joining Winter League teams in Latin America (because your team doesn't want you to hurt yourself), and getting a player's autograph (because they can charge several hundred dollars for one at a memorabilia show). America is getting less "great," and unfortunately, so is baseball.
I will keep watching (and rooting for the Nationals and every player from Puerto Rico), I will continue to have the MLB app on my phone (because I HAVE to find out who ends up being the foolish team that signs Harper for an ungodly amount of money), and I may come back and blog in the future. But for now, let me first of all thank the many of you who have been faithfully reading this blog since I started it in 2011; many of you couldn't care less about baseball but read my musings just to be nice, and I have truly appreciated your love and support. I want to thank Mrs. Nochera, who taught me everything I know about grammar, Professor Shea for bringing out my sense of humor, my parents, for making questionable transactions just so I could have a certain Iván Rodriguez baseball card, and of course my husband, who has read every single blog, has taken me to dozens of games, and has put up with me ogling over the good-looking players (and if I ever do become Commissioner, I promise my brother that he can taste-test every beer in all 30 ballparks). Thank you, my friends, from the bottom of my heart; I'm hoping this is not a permanent good-bye - just a "see you soon."
With all my love and appreciation,
Marién
AKA "Mudville Mom"
