Baseball should be a game first, business second

Baseball players swing bats, make pitches, and dive for balls in the dirt. They do not push pencils, fax memos, and mess with spread sheets. Baseball fans rely on the sun, not indoor lighting, and a cool ballpark breeze, not the office air conditioning. Baseball players spit in their workplace; they do not tidy up that white collar. Baseball fans do go to games to get away from the blaring of phones and the screeching of printers. This is baseball, not Trump Tower.

Baseball has always been a business, at least since the day where it begun drawing in large sums of money because of the great game that it was, and still is, and the players who were on the field. But lets not forget what is really important, only for "big picture" purposes if nothing else.

There seems to be a line, that was inevitably crossed, where baseball was no longer a game for fans to see or for players to compete. Baseball has become too much like a golf course; the appropriate place to take a client to seal a business sale. Baseball players are not as righteous in the eyes of baseball fans as they used to be; they are merely money makers.

How does this relate to the game today and why is it important? That is the simple part of the question.

Baseball has been put on the backburner once again and the business side of the industry has taken the attention. This has been the case for years, and will continue to be, and that is unfortuanate, if only because making money will be more important to those with power than the games that are played on the field.

Fans across the country are routinely snubbed from watching great competition among the game's brightest players, because of the dollar sign. This is not a fallacy, but actuality at its finest. It is no more apparent than this spring if one would take a look down to see what is happening right now in Tampa Bay.

The Rays possess the top prospect in baseball in third baseman Evan Longoria. Longoria is a remarkable prospect on all levels, and has been deemed ready for the big leagues by numerous scouts and talent evaluators. Multiple front office people have gone on record saying that Longoria's tools are not even the most impressive thing about him. The kid's demeanor when he steps onto a baseball field with today's best players is what sets him apart. He is not fazed like the average rookie should be, nor is he in awe of the greats that are staring him down from sixty feet, six inches away.

"He just looks liek a big leaguer" are the words that commonly float from spring training site to the next. Great, so the people of Tampa Bay should be in for a superb show once Opening Day arrives, right? Baseball has another great, young player who is going to help put the focus back on the talent on the field and off of Congressional hearings, correct? Not so fast.

It has not been made official, but it is all but certain that the Rays will send Longoria to Triple-A to start the season because of its financial implications, not the fact that the prospect could use some more seasoning. The facts are like this: If Longoria spends even three weeks in the minor leagues this season, he will be short of the required big league service time to start his clock. Organizations control players for six big league seasons before they can become free agents; three seasons before they are arbitration eligible. By making this move, Longoria will have to wait until next season to begin his three year trek to becoming arbitration-eligible, all the while giving Tampa Bay practically a full season worth of production for pennies.

The Players Union must be up in arms with situations exactly like this, although there isn't much that can be done since that is just the way the system is structured. But the atrociousness of it all does not lie in the fact that the player is being cheated of a higher salary, because if a player is deserving of the big dollar deals, then he will eventually have the leverage in his favor.

The big deal is that fans are slighted when it comes to seeing the best players and the best product, and the player himself is being kept from fulfilling his dream of playing Major League Baseball due to factors that have no correlation with his talent. Most players at a young age would happily forfeit the three weeks of service time, and allow their clock to begin the following year instead, if they could only have that extra month of experience in the big leagues.

It is always said that as a kid in the minor leagues, the natural mindset is to get to the big leagues tomorrow. That is the problem that the corporate side of baseball has created. Business is taking precedence over the game, and more importantly, the players who make the game what it is for fans and employers in the first place. Is there any way to fix this? No, I don't think so. Baseball as an industry is booming, and that is great because it keeps the game at the forefront of American sports, and that couldn't possibly be a bad thing. But it is noteworthy to mention the downfalls of creating such an economic empire, to the point that the innate love for the game and its players is being sacrificed to some degree.