Sunday, August 18, 2002
Fan Passion
This is the modified REVERSE CURVE sign first mentioned by Evelyn in a comment to the August 15, 2002 posting.
I'll be turning to it whenever I get down as a reminder that Red Sox fans are the best in the world.
Who's Greedy?
I swore to myself I wasn't going to get into the discussing the dispute between players and owners anymore, despite mention of the imbroglio being everywhere in the news and even showing up in the recent comments here at Bambino's.
But I can't resist a chance to highlight that Gordon Edes makes the exact same point in today's Globe that I've been harping on whenever the subject of the labor dispute comes up:
There may be no group of hired employees more resented and despised than major league ballplayers - except when we're organizing our lives around them, placing them on pedestals, and asking them to sign autographs. A TV star can command $1 million an episode or Schwarzenegger $20 million a flick, and no one blinks an eye. But the ballplayers, most of whom recognize the wonder of their incredible good fortune - even if they may be slow to show it - are treated like pickpockets. The typical fan comment in the coming weeks will be along the lines of, ''Those greedy ballplayers. How can they be asking for more?''
Which obscures the truth that the players aren't asking for anything … (Edes, The Boston Globe)
Sound familiar?
And let's not forget how no one ever seems to bitch and moan about how much actors get paid per movie. Jim Carrey, Julia Roberts and the other megastars get $100 million per movie. Tell me that acting in a film is more deserving of cash than what Manny Ramirez or A-Rod or Randy Johnson does. And talk about whiny, whacky, egocentric, spoiled behavior, the Hollywood types make ballplayers seem like model citizens by comparison (May 29, 2002).
Whenever labor discussions come up it always comes back to the same theme: Baseball is a silly kid's game and why should grown men playing a kid's game expect to make so much money?
… Maybe it is silly that ballplayers make so much. For certain it seems a little silly that Britney Spears gets $80 a concert ticket to lip-synch songs someone else wrote while shaking her pierced midriff. It also seems rather silly that Jim Carrey gets over $80 million per movie to contort his face, stick his ass in the air, and fart — Talk about "peculiar skills of limited marketability" (July 05, 2002).
I could go on and on, but I think you know where I stand.
