Baseball season is almost here. At many points in the season, a

player on the Local Nine will strike out at a time when a base hit is

needed and a different player will make an error on a ball hit to him or

make a bad throw. There will be moments when a pitcher will give up a

hit when a strike out is much needed. When these things happen, some

people in the stands or watching the game from their houses or in their

favorite bar will yell out, “He stinks! They should get rid of him!”

 

To those supposed fans, I write this:

 

Dear (Supposed) Baseball Fan:

 

That player who “stinks” has a skill level that a microscopic

percentage of human beings has. I’m sure at some point in your life you

had a baseball glove on your hand (left or right; it doesn’t matter). You

played the game at some level. How’d you do? How were you at

handling the short hop at third base? Or making that long throw across

the infield to get a fast runner? Did you have to deal with a fence or

wall in the outfield while keeping your eye on a long fly ball? How

about your throws back to the infield? Did you always hit the cutoff

man?

 

Did you ever bat against a pitcher who could throw a curve ball?

How did you do with that? Could you handle a pitch coming in at 65

MPH (probably what you saw in Pony League). The player who

“stinks” has to deal with 90 MPH pitches—that oftentimes curve.

How about base running? Did you know how to take a lead at first

and “read” the pitcher so you could steal second base? Were you good

at going from first to third on a single to right? Like many, you

probably remember yourself as being better than you really were.

 

Appreciate the skills of the players who play for your local team.

The skill level to play Major League baseball is so rare that the chance

of winning the PA Lottery is probably greater than making it to a Major

League roster.

 

What you really should be ranting about, Dear (Supposed) Fan, is

this: the economic structure of the game. Television and gambling

revenue have made the economics of most sports absolutely ridiculous.

But the salary cap that the NFL and NBA have, and MLB doesn’t,

makes baseball’s large vs small market a losing battle each year for the

small market teams.

 

As I write this, it is almost spring. And hope springs eternal.

People are talking about the reasons why fans of the Pittsburgh Pirates

should be optimistic. But that’s every year. At this point of the year,

we’re hoping our team can be competitive. But that hope will most

likely turn to disappointment as the season ages. “Hope is a good

breakfast,” said the English philosopher Francis Bacon, “but a bad

supper.”

 

A recent editorial in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette made the point

that if today’s baseball economics existed in the 1960s and 1970s, top

players in smaller markets would not spend their entire career with the

same team. Players with statues at PNC Park would have left this

market for “The Usual Suspects” (both New York teams, Boston, LA

Dodgers, Houston) and the outrageous salaries those cities can afford.

Roberto Clemente may have returned to the Dodgers (which is ironic

because that’s where he came from).

 

So, to you and all the baseball fans, you shouldn’t be upset at the

.000001% of the population with the skills to play baseball at the highest

level possible. What you should be upset about is the lack of a salary

cap in Major League Baseball and the unfair edge large market teams

have over small market teams.

 

That’s what really “stinks”

 

./s/ Ken Kaszak (Third baseman and catcher/line drive hitter/base stealer;but definitely not in the .000001%)

Of Interest:
Major League Baseball has been around for 147 years and has a little over 23,000 people who played professionally. To put that number into perspective, if every player who’s ever put on a big league uniform from 1876 to 2023 sat in the stands of Cleveland’s Progressive Field in the MLB’s smallest stadium, that stadium would only be at 61% capacity.