HOW WOULD YOU LIKE TO BE SOLD?

HOW WOULD YOU LIKE TO BE SOLD?

Sometimes I wonder if we are making any real progress in the way we treat people. Of course, my questioning mind was thinking about an example of poor treatment as it related to some baseball players.

Before 1974, if a ballplayer signed a contract to play for a team, that team more or less “owned” the player. He could not quit and go to play for another professional team. If he didn’t play for the team he signed with, he was unemployed. Several players fought their indenture with a single team and in the mid-70s, the courts ruled that a player could eventually become a free agent meaning he was free to offer his services to the highest bidder.

The first baseball free agent was Jim (Catfish) Hunter who decided to play for the New York Yankees instead of the Oakland A’s, who would not pay him what he wanted. The Yankees offered him a three-year contract and an outrageous, for the time, one million dollar bonus. The nightmare of excessive contracts and salaries exploded until recently Mike Trout was bribed to remain with the LA Angels for $430 million over 12 years, rather than become a free agent.

While most headlines in recent years have dwelled upon the massive salaries free agent players receive today, there are a couple of instances that I personally consider very offensive and degrading to the players involved.

Often, in most sports, a player can be traded from one team to another if the players have not reached free-agent status. You might trade a pitcher on one team for an outfielder or two prospective young untried players from another team. I think this is part of the business of sport and I have no criticism of it.

There are, however, two circumstances that really bother me. Sometimes a team will trade a player for future considerations. This means “we want to get rid of you and we will figure out what we receive in return later.” I know that I would personally feel very undervalued as a human being if I were to be just tossed on to the heap of extraneous players and have no sense of my personal worth as a ballplayer. We’ll figure out your value later!

I also strongly object to the practice of a player being sold to another team for money!  “You have been sold to the Pittsburg PIrate’s for $100,000 cash.” It reminds me of a bull sale where the animal is weighed and that often determines the selling price. If sold to a team for money I would wonder if my worth was measured by the price per pound! Am I just another animal at auction? I think it is very demeaning!

I am probably just being too sensitive, but both of the latter two examples are very poor ways to treat people, even if they are rich ball players! What do you think? How much are, or were you worth, per pound in your chosen profession?