I’m not a fan of baseball, professional or otherwise. For me, it’s right up there on the excitement scale with watching paint dry. But I’m rather amused at the current case of baseball purists being all up in arms about the idea of introducing advertising into the game. Something about “crass commercialism” or such…
Say what?
Apparently, some baseball fans have this fantasy that the professional version of the game has nothing to do with money, and is all about a bunch of really dedicated volunteers playing around in a field near somebody’s barn. Apparently, they remain blissfully unaware of the strikes, the unimaginable salaries of their favorite players, the marketing schemes and broadcast rights, and of the extortionary tactics team owners use against the municipalities which house their stadiums…
Here’s a clue: professional baseball, like all professional sports, is ENTIRELY about money and commercialism. It’s a business, and its primary purpose is to create profit. Hence the term “professional”. And you know what? There’s absolutely nothing wrong with that. The only problem is the sentimental fans who constantly whine about how “crass” and “commercial” the sport has become…
Unfortunately, these same fans are the ones who fall hook, line. and sinker for team owners’ pleas for new taxpayer-financed stadiums every five years. Their misguided notion of the game somehow blinds them to the fact that the team is a business which should be self-supporting, not some altruistic endeavor which must be publicly supported…
