free agency has ruined professional sports

remember baseketball? remember the message behind it? the corruption of pro sports by inflating contracts, egotistical athletes, and free agency? what a powerful movie. especially the part where jenny mccarthy sucked the chrome off of a trailer hitch.

but the point was that sports have become a business. this was inevitable, and i'm willing to accept that. but let me point you to a few key examples of how this has gotten completely out of hand:

exhibit A: alfonso soriano
this extremely overrated outfielder signed to my beloved Chicago Cubs with an astonishing eight-year, $136 million contract. why did we pay A-Rod quantities for decent hitter (.280 career average) who has only played outfield for one season and has been known for his somewhat loud-mouthed, me-first attitude? because last season he was the first player to have a 40-40-40 season. that's 40 HRs, 40 steals, and 40 doubles. yet he still couldn't break the 100 RBI mark. the cubs do not need another power hitter. they need a legitimate leadoff hitter. they'll put soriano at leadoff, he'll hit solo shots all year, and ramirez and lee will have no one to drive in because you fucking know mark derosa isn't getting on base in the 2 slot. in short, we overpaid for a big name who was an allstar last year in basically a fluke season. he's a decent, one might go as far to say solid, player, but is he the next A-Rod? only in how he'll choke to death under the expectations of his new team and new contract.

exhibit B: barry zito
as much as i would have loved for us to pay out the ass for zito on the north side, consider this headline: Baseball waits on Mets' Zito strategy. why is the whole of major league baseball waiting for this deal to go down? because this will determine the asking price for all free agent A-list pitchers for the next two years. this is baseball, not the supreme court. precedents do not need to be set. now, i love barry zito. in fact, i'm not one to watch baseball for the home run factor (hello, 1980s and 1998). pitching duels are far more interesting to watch than slugfests. home runs happen almost every game, but how often does a pitcher strike out 20, or throw a no hitter? anyone who watches sportscenter should know, not that often. but when i watch sportscenter, i want to hear the stats, not the numbers of some pitcher's contract. the amount of publicity that free agent signings receive in the offseason of any sport is borderline insane. actually, scratch the borderline. barry zito is a great pitcher coming off of a career year, and he deserves a good contract, but goddamn if i don't want him to STAY IN OAKLAND.

this brings me to my next point. team loyalty. sammy sosa (douchetwat that he is) stayed with the cubs for 13 seasons. trades have only recently become acceptable (much like the lincoln assassination has only recently become funny), but the rash of free agents switching teams between one year contracts is comparable to a vietnamese whore making the rounds at a rich businessman convention. zito has been with the A's since his rookie season, and i respect that, but when your contract is up, is it that easy to just pack up and leave the organization that made you? the flip-flopping of players, managers, coaches, GMs, and everything else from team to team is despicable. the only consistent factor in baseball are the agents.

the agents. much like the Matrix villains, they can sense when opportunity is near and spawn right next to the GM balancing his checkbook and sweet talk a deal big enough to make Steinbrenner blush. these evil programs are the main reason that baseball has gone the way of the stock market. agents advertise their clients "overall worth" as a fucking commodity. the player's best interests aren't in question, but their financial interest. now of course, seasoned veterans, the future hall of famers (a la Greg Maddux) have more say in where they go and who they negociate with. Maddux went to southern california (two different teams now) to be closer to his family in vegas, which is respectable. but in 20 years, who isn't going to look at his stats and say "man it would have been poetic if he finished his career in chicago. a prominsing start in the windy city, with 11 FANTASTIC seasons in atlanta, only to finish gracefully in the city that gave him his start." i respect the fact that maddux isn't ready to quit yet, but those two seasons at the end with LA and san diego just feel like a post script. back to zito, once his deal goes down (and it will go down HUGE), all hell will break loose. we're just lucky we already signed ted lilly.

players perform with more intensity in the last years of their contract because they know they'll make more money when the time comes. this dominating mentality is what has become of the professional athlete. yes it's a job, but it's also every little kid's dream. but now the dream is for a different reason. they want to be rich. gone are the fantasies of playing in a championship game, being the immortal hero of your sport, the hollywood, "The Natural"-style mythic moments that every little boy reenacts in his backyard when no one is looking. i suppose this could morph into a commentary on the attitude of today's youth, the spoiling of every child in america, but let's stick to the sports.

death to scott boras. death to george steinbrenner and ted turner (who had a part in starting all of this). baseball will never again be just america's pasttime. just wait till the MLB goes public.

for a better example of what i'm trying to say (and by a professional writer to boot), check out espn's page 2 article "Baseball's Silly Season."