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| While that's true and I understand that almost every career field is based on performance and longevity, the one field that isn't is professional sports. That runs counter to all of our normal thinking because you are rewarded for potential and for contract year heroics. If Chicago had started Michael Jordan at league minimum, with a structured plan that would have paid him incrementally more over his career, how much would we have cried foul? That man from day one in a Bulls uniform transformed that team into a basketball power. Should Roger Clemmens have been paid league minimum with incremental raises for his time in Boston. For the longest time, The Rocket was the only and most dangerous part of the Red Sox team. The pro leagues have pay for potential and star performance because that's what puts butts in the seats.
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JESBRESINA
8/10/06 12:13 P
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| i am in partial agreement with you about the .250 hitters etc every sport has 'em however i know in the two field where i make my money if you are straight out of school you need to prove yourself in order to make more you start low end then work your way to the higher brackets yes there are those who brown nose but i PT we get paid by the client so i need to prove my worth and in teaching it is called tenure
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Niteman,
I love college ball. As happy as I am that the NFL is starting back up, where will I spend my football money? Watching Aztec and Torrero college football because the majority of the guys on that field are just playing the sport they love and more than likely, this is as far as they'll go so they're going all out. The same for basketball and baseball.
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Fans have to accept the lion's share of blame here. As Russ says, if you could get it, you would. If we stopped handing them the money, they wouldn't have it to pay. If everybody started going to college and Minor League games and said to heck with the pros, things would change. As long as we feed the beast, we have no right to cry when it misbehaves.
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I don't begrudge anyone coming into a league going out and getting what they can. If I could talk my boss into giving me an annual 7 figure salary for managing the network, you bet I'd sign that deal! You probably would too, if you're being honest. In sports like football or basketball, a blown knee or a good hit can end a career. And a 19 yr old kid might spend most of the next decade in A or AA ball. I'm not even sure I am angry at teams like the Yankees that buy the best players every year to make a run at the pennant. If I was making 100s of millions of dollars in annual TV revenue, I'd be looking to raid the smaller markets about now too, because winning = more TV money. One of the problems you have is some of the teams are happy sending the same losers out there year after year. I won't name names (KC)but every year there are teams (Pittsburgh and Washington, formerly Montreal) that are already planning their October vacations by Memorial day. What do you do when you have these two extremes in a league. You shouldn't penalize the guy trying to win and no one says a word about the guy who's just happy to go to the owner's parties, so what do you do?
The people who make me upset are the career .235 hitters who strikes out and cadillacs after line drives, or the 4-12 pitchers who somehow get about 7 million a year. Those are the ones who blow the curve out of balance. It would be great if there was a salary cap with penalties, where owners need to pay a league dollar for dollar for going over the limit, but be mandated to at least spend a minimum amount. That way teams that are habitual losers will actually be put closer to competing. If it doesn't, the league needs to buy out crummy owners and sell the franchise to someone who want to win. OK, Soapbox is put away again.
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Agreed about the certain teams year after year because they can afford to by a team hey remember the marlins back a few years a go the owner wanted to win the world series brought in the right player won the whole thing then disbanned the team in the offseason whatever happened to the love of the game??? oh i am sorry i forgot i was talking about professional sports
along the same lines as the salary cap what do you all think about the multi million dollar rookies the guys that sign for more money than any of us will ever see in our life time and they havent proven a single thing except they have "potental" a year later they get hurt cant play for the whole season and still end up getting paid the huge amount then you have these guys that have been working in the minors get the call and pay for multiple teams and make a bit over league minimum even though they have been around for 20 years i could go on but i will digress
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| You know Russ, we like baseball because there is nothing else to do all summer. I hate how the same teams with the most money can just go out and buy players. The small market teams have to have smart general managers to bring in the right talent from the minors. There should be a salary cap like basketball and hockey. That way you have to develope players or make smart trades.
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Yeah fantasy baseball was run by using the sports page back in the day. That kind of information is already in the public domain.
I'm more baffled by the need for the lawsuit in the first place. You have a sport that has been rocked by scandel in the past couple of years with the steroid mess and Bonds closing in on Hank Aaron's record. People are apathetic enough about the sport because outside of the occasional cinderella story, the game is dominated by a small group of well paid teams. And now you would seek to get money from the one group of die hard fans you have for using computerized statistics that you can get anyway if you pick up the local paper, or go to ESPN? It makes no sense to me.
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| Kinda surprised on that ruling Russ esp since intellectual property litigation is all the rage today a la RIAA versus filesharing websites like Napster and KaZaa.
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| Hey did anyone hear about this case where MLB wanted to be paid by fantasy baseball managers for using the stats from the games? MLB actually took someone to court in an attempt to get money. In the end, the federal court in St. Louis said that stats were in the public domain so they couldn't start charging for them.
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Thats very true Mike about not forgetting where you come from. As far as I am concerned, your team is your team for life (even my US sports teams).
We have been discussing this in the soccer forum. You would not believe how many people in the UK change teams to follow the current champions. I assume it happens in the US as well?
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JESBRESINA
8/9/06 11:18 A
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Mike- Heard the White Sox won well i am happy for you because the yankees are my least favorite team but the cut on the Cubbies i just want to tell you
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You know SMUJ I moved from Chicago to LA about 14 years ago and I am still a all Chicago fan. I still follow the Sox, Bears, Blackhawks and Bulls. Even with all the local teams in LA., you don't forget where you came from. You made good choices (except for the Cubs.)
The ChiSox have to play the Yankees now. Oh my gosh!!
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JESBRESINA
8/8/06 11:52 A
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| hey Shwn---Yes they did and it was aweome to see i agree.. Mike--the SO Cal teams are looking great i agree there too TO SMUJ***Chicago is an awesome sports town you are right the blackhawks have there fans but i am a Colorado Avalanche fan personally The bears are good and should have a great have year but the CHISOX are doing great this year the Cubbies are hurting but they wouldnt be the cubbies if it wasnt that way
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| Yeah, your Yanks are likely to play the ChiSox in ALDS (tonights matchup could be a good preview). Looking like the Tigers will draw the A's in the ALDS.
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Yes pholks, the phearless Phils are again in the lead in the battle for last place. Or are they losing the battle for last place? My only hope is that if they turn it on in the stretch again this year, it will be enough for the wild card.
Meanwhile, in the American League, it's my Yankees by two. Overall, a good news week!
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| Spanking accomplished! The Tigers brought Liriano back down to earth for a third time this year.
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Thanks to NITEMAN3D. It isn't on very often over here so i must have got confused. I think it is shown at about 3 a.m. and unless I'm on nights I ain't watching.
To JESBRESINA it was a 50-50 pick I'm afraid. I wanted to have a reason to watch US sports so decided to pick a city which had one of every sport team - Chicago. When I found out there were two baseball teams I picked the Cubs. I like basketball as well so always root for the Bulls, Ice Hockey is awesome unfortunately the Blackhawks don't seem to be very good. I don't really rate American Football but if I see it I would cheer on the Bears.
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| Here's hoping the Tigs spank Liriano again tonight like they did last week, identical pitching matchups so I like out chances. I'm going to Comerica tomorrow night to watch the Robertson-Radke matchup.
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MIKESNYDER
8/7/06 11:32 A
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| I'm just trying to be positive, but I don't see any hope in beating the Tigers this year. The ChiSox should still be the wildcard team. If the pitching comes around, we'll have it made. If not, well we'll still better than the Cubbies. Meanwhile in Southern Ca. the Dodgers and Angels are putting it together and may come out smelling like roses. The Dodgers keep adding young talent and it's working.
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| great to see a brit interested in baseball especially such an awesome team!!! Hey Mike what was that commment about the Twins? If i am right they just SWEPT the Royals 4-0 on the road I wouldnt think it would be that hard but the ChiSox couldnt do it Anyway I say the Tigers will take it but would love to see the BOSOX
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| True, hopefully the mid-August meeting will be a repeat. Maroth should be back from the DL soon. Did you happen to see Pudge's walkoff homer with two outs in the ninth last night?
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Hey Jiggs! Another Yankee fan. We're finally in first... now to spank the Birdies two more times.
To our British Friend, I think you're confusing two different things. Probably the three place decimal you see is batting percentage. It expresses how many times a player gets a hit. If he's up ten times and he gets three hits, his batting average is .300 as an example. You will see it given for the entire season and sometimes a separate number expressed for the last so many games or how he's doing for the last month and so on. The RBI's are runs batted in and that's expressed as a raw number. If 75 runs have scored as a result of what a player did this year, he has 75 RBI's. If there are three men on and he hits a home run, for example, he gets credited with four RBI's. The three he drove in as well as the one he scored. If that doesn't make sense, ask again. There are a lot of baseball fans here who will be glad to answer.
Welcome!
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I like baseball quite a lot for a Brit. I have picked the Chicago Cubs as the team I will root for.
One question though - What the hell does RBI stand for and mean?
It's always 0.375 or something but I can't work it out.
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| Shawn--The last one wasn't too good (for the Sox)!!
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| The next Tigers ChiSox series will be a doozy!
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MIKESNYDER
8/4/06 10:56 P
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| The White Sox are coming back. Forget the Twins. We won 2 of 3 from the Royals and beat the Blue Jays today. Our starters are back from injuries. We'll be OK.
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| YES!!!! Tigers just finished off the Indians with an awesome 5-run-down come from behing win!
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| Thanks for your input Niteman, your comments are sound advice, well thought out, well except for the Yankees winning thing. . . everybody knows the Tigers will win it all this year!
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Yankees winnnnn.. Thuuuuuu Yankeees Win! Just had to say that.
Now, as regards the points and the finaglers, I too was told they won't do anything about it because some of them put their schedules (points) in in advance. Regardless, I still think it's cheating, even if well intentioned. What happens if you don't do your exercises for some reason? You can't take them out. Oh, you can remove the exercises from your chart alright, but the points remain. I see the dilemma Spark People has. Since the finaglers have a half fast reason to do what they're doing, they can't really make them quit and you can't just dismantle the point system since it helps everybody. So my suggestion is this. Watch the leaderboard on the first day of the month. Anybody that has much over a hundred point early in the day, print out their names and ignore them the rest of the month. If you want to compete with the leaderboard, just ignore their names and work from there. Better yet, start a group of honest people with similar goals and compete with the leaderboard inside that group.
This has been a pet peeve of mine since I started, but I've come to realize that it's better to just ignore it in light of all the great things I get from Spark People for free. I kind of think of it as a question that's already been answered, even though I don't like the answer. I know this isn't a very satisfying reply, but it's the best I can do and I don't think it will get any better.
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| I had the same complaint earlier and was told some people input their entire months eating and fitness in ahead of time. Seems like cheating to me because I thought the whole idea of the pt system was a motivation tool to reward healthy behaviors!
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| If Maroth comes back from the DL strong and Kenny Rogers can hold his own the next two months the Tigers will win it all. They have the most complete team this year. . . just gotta steer clear of injuries. The ChiSox have been underperforming of late and the Yanks just don't have relaible enouh pitching though their offense is as formidable as any!
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