Sports, Money and the Plunge of America's Pastime

During the 1950s, baseball was embraced throughout the United States as the general public referred to the sport as "America's pastime." Players like Babe Ruth, Mickey Mantle, Sandy Koufax and Willie Mays entertained many men and women with their outstanding performance and love for the game.

However, over the last decade, many baseball players are no longer playing the game with this same love and charisma, but instead, are partaking in the game for mercenary reasons.

As a result, the power of the dollar has damaged the reputation of major league baseball. Several incidents involving the players have caused many fans and supporters to lose their interest and respect for the game. Attendances have dropped at major league games, and baseball, once "America's pastime," is now one of the most controversial sports in today's society.

There are several actions that have lead to this change in major league baseball's reputation: a dramatic increase in salaries, player and umpire strikes, performance-enhancement drugs, conflicts of free agency and the lack of a salary cap.

At the beginning of the 1990s, the major increase in baseball players' salaries immensely changed baseball. At this time, wealthy team owners began to slowly increase their players' salaries. This rise in salaries soon exploded into multi-million dollar contracts, and these owners continued to pour millions of dollars out of their pockets in order to satisfy their players' greed.

Consequently, each season, bigger salaries are offered to baseball stars in order to try to bring each owner's team to the World Series.

For example, in 2001, Alex Rodriguez signed a 256 million dollar contract for twelve years (21.3 million dollars per year) with the Texas Rangers. This contract surpassed any other player's salary, setting a new record for the largest annual salary.

Although most baseball players do not receive contracts to this extreme, on average, baseball players today make around 3-4 million dollars every year. In the 1950s, baseball players were more concerned with winning the World Series than they were with receiving a higher salary.

The ideas of heart, drive, and love (for the game) displayed during the 1950s-1980s have seemed to be lost in much, but not all, of major league baseball today.

While many of them make a hefty salary, baseball players are still not satisfied with their current salaries; many feel that they are not being paid sufficiently for their work and performance. Affluent team owners are unwilling to compromise with their players' desire for higher salaries.

As a result, player strikes have often occurred; these ravenous players threaten to stop playing baseball unless they acquire what they want.

In 1992, the players struck against the owners, and the season was ended early with no World Series played. Baseball fans and followers were outraged by the strike; many people could not believe how greedy baseball players were.

At this point, baseball declined in popularity as well as esteem. Many people boycotted games, refusing to watch them on television or listen to them on radio the next season.

People were not willing to support the skills and talents of these greedy players, no matter how spectacular they were. It was not until 1998 before many fans began to watch and support professional baseball again.

The 1992 players' strike aggravated fans and supporters of major league baseball across the country.

However, six years after the 1992 players' strike, major league baseball returned to its regular popularity. The performance of two men-Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa-had fans once again believing that baseball was "America's pastime."

McGwire and Sosa competed to exceed Roger Maris' single-season home run record of 61--a number that hadn't been touched for over 35 years; this exciting race brought many fans and supporters in front of their televisions and to the ballpark.

At the end of the season, McGwire passed Maris with a monstrous 70 home runs, and Sosa came behind with 66 home runs. The race to 62 home runs resurrected baseball, and the incredible achievements of both men had baseball fans once again respecting the game.

Nevertheless, it was later discovered that many baseball players were using several different types of performance-enhancement drugs including steroids. Through the use of these drugs, players were becoming stronger in shorter periods of time; in other words, these performance-enhancement drugs gave sluggers, such as McGwire and Sosa, the ability to hit more and more home runs each year.

After Barry Bonds surpassed McGwire in 2001 with 73 home runs (the current record for most homeruns in a single season), many people believed that Bonds and other home run hitters were taking steroids.

Along with Bonds, the media also questioned Sammy Sosa's use of performance-enhancement substances due to his ability to hit towering 500 foot home runs. The use of any drug-enhancements, including steroids, did not become a part of baseball until the 1990s. Steroid use and the major increase in salaries are two controversial subjects that baseball has coped with since the 1990s and continues to into the new millennium.

Furthermore, along with this increase in player salaries, free agency has played a more significant role in baseball since the start of the 1990s. Multi-million dollar contracts are the norm now, affecting most players' decisions to play for new teams offering more money; the majority of baseball players will accept the highest contracts offered to them, despite a team's lack of success or location.

From the 1950s through the 1980s, players would play their entire baseball career for one organization. Since the beginning of the 1990s, players are constantly being traded to different teams or signing with teams offering better contracts; this makes it difficult for fans to follow baseball when players are constantly moving around the league each year, playing for many different teams throughout their careers. Very few players are willing to stay loyal to one organization because of the desire to find larger salaries.

Given that there is no existing salary cap in major league baseball, successful teams, such as the Yankees, are not limited to the amount of money they can spend on their players.

With a salary cap, each team has the same amount of spending money to fill a roster. The strategy is to find the best players that can still fit within the salary cap.

However, because baseball does not have a salary cap, baseball has shown over the past years that money wins championships. In other words, the teams that play in the World Series often have the highest payroll (largest sum of money for all players' salaries), because extremely wealthy owners can offer large contracts to the best players in the league.

Many of these all-star players accept these high salaries offered from these successful organizations, and as a result, the team's roster most often is significantly stronger than all the other teams (with smaller payrolls) around the league.

The lack of a salary cap hurts baseball viewing because fans want to see different teams compete for the World Series rather than always seeing higher payroll teams, such as the Yankees, play each year.

Although the players' strike in 1992 caused the most controversy during the 1990s, major league umpires have had difficulty settling their salaries with major league baseball. Umpires believed that if the players should receive higher salaries, then umpires deserve higher salaries for their work as well.

In the past, many conflicts have dealt with the umpires' desire for higher salaries and the threat to strike against the commissioners of major league baseball. In 2000, major league baseball was forced to bring in replacement umpires, novices who did not have much experience umpiring at the professional level.

As a result, fans, players and coaches complained of the poor officiating from this substitution, forcing major league baseball to play into the hands of these striking umpires just like the players during the 1992 strike.

Overall, major league baseball has transformed into a sport strictly defined by wealth rather than by love and character. Although the game is still filled with unforgettable moments, such as no-hitters, towering homeruns and diving catches, major league baseball no longer has the same allure that it once had during the 1950s-1980s.