Am I Wrong?

 

That might be the advice many parents are considering delivering to their offspring in light of the recent announcement that Shohei Ohtani, a baseball player, has been given a contract which will see him paid $700 million over 10 years. If my calculations are correct, that means he will be paid more than $190,000 a day for the next 10 years!

 

What kind of world are we living in when we see such outrageous paychecks being given to someone just because he plays baseball? He doesn’t hold another person’s life in his hands as a surgeon does, or a firefighter. He doesn’t hold the fate of a nation in his hands like a president or prime minister does. He doesn’t contribute to the betterment of humanity as a scientist does. He doesn’t feed people as a farmer or fisherman does. He just plays baseball, for Pete’s sake!

 

 

Until his contract announcement, I hadn’t even heard of Shohei Ohtani. That’s really not surprising, since I stopped following major league baseball more than a decade ago when another player (I think it was Alex Rodriguez) was awarded a $250 million contract. I remember thinking how ridiculous it was to pay a ballplayer a quarter-of-a-billion dollars.

 

Now we have one who will get close to three-quarters of a billion dollars.

 

What makes this even worse (if that’s possible) is that Los Angeles, home of the Dodger team that awarded the contract, has, at latest estimate, 60,000 homeless people living on the streets. I hope Ohtani and the Dodger executives can sleep well after driving past all these homeless people on their way to the stadium. I’m sure they will, because they know it’s the fans who will ultimately be paying Ohtani’s salary.

 

Just as horrifying is the fact that the Toronto Blue Jays were hoping to sign this player to their roster. Obviously, they weren’t able to match the final $700 million price tag, but they must have been willing to pay out a substantial amount to acquire his services. Which just goes to show how out of touch the sports world is with the real world.

 

I now have a confession to make. I watch NFL football. I know many of the players in the NFL are pulling down huge paycheques and they are not shy about showing it. Watch any NFL game and see how many players are wearing their diamond earstuds or heavy gold chains while they are playing. It’s almost as though they are, to turn a phrase, rubbing our noses in it. The only defence I have for watching the NFL is the absolutely staggering, awesome plays we see in just about every game. Players making seemingly impossible catches, runners shaking off tacklers to gain an extra five yards, field goals from 60 yards. And while I don’t particularly like them, the Patrick Mahomes-Travis Kelce combination with the Kansas City Chiefs is something to behold.

 

When it comes to sport, it will surprise few of you to know that I prefer to watch the Uxbridge Bruins play at the arena. These kids (young men) play for the love of the game. Most of them know their competitive hockey days are over when they reach the age limit, but that doesn’t stop them from giving it their all. They wear their uniforms with pride. For Ohtani, his uniform will simply be a reminder of how much money he is being paid, even when he has days off.

 

Maybe the parents of the Bruins players should have told their sons to work on their hockey skills instead of concentrating on school work. That way, the lads might be better positioned to make big bucks in the NHL.

 

It seems to me that unless and until we start paying nurses, firefighters, first responders, etc., a decent living wage instead of doling out what are basically lottery wins to people who can hit a ball or shoot a puck, we might just as well pull the kids out of school.

 

Tell me, am I wrong?

 

 

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Want to tell Roger Varley if he’s wrong or right?