Joey Simon March 5, 2001 “State of the Game” Every year, it becomes more obvious that many sports in America have problems. For years, Hockey has been criticized for its excessive violence. The National Football League has also been scrutinized for this reason as well as the fact that many of the top players have constantly been in trouble with the law. Major League Baseball is no different. The situation with baseball is more complicated, and is not only ruining the game itself, but also drawing millions of fans away from the sport. The biggest problem is with the high salaries paid to athletes. These salaries are taking the competitiveness out of several sports, especially baseball, where there is no salary cap. Action must be taken immediately to cap the salaries paid to baseball players, before baseball in America rapidly diminishes. I believe that this problem has really just started to work its way in during the last decade. Many fans that have grown to love the game of baseball are now sickened by the amount of money being paid to the athletes. Unfortunately, what the fans see is only the athlete’s salary. What they don’t see is how much money the owners are making from these athletes. The athletes fill the bleachers full of die-hard baseball fans year in and year out. These players are a major source of income for the owners. By signing big name players to the team, this in essence brings more and more fans to the stadium. A stunning quote from online site http://cnnfn.cnn.com/2001/03/30/news /baseball/ written by Chris Isidore on March 30, 2001 states that, “Baseball's average ticket price has more than doubled in a decade, increasing 120 percent from 1991, when it was $8.64…The average salary of players, $851,492 in 1991, has more than doubled in the same time period and is ex...
