It’s not that Albert Pujols isn’t “worth” the money. It’s not that he wouldn’t look for any legitimate way to help his team, but White Sox GM Kenny Williams thinks players’ salaries are getting out of hand, and rightly so. According to CSN Chicago:
The Cardinals slugger might be thousands of miles away from Glendale, but with talk that he might command around $30 million a year when his contract runs out or re-signs with the Cardinals, Williams has looked at the present and into the future, and he doesn’t like what he sees.
Consider this his warning shot to the rest of the league.
“For the game’s health as a whole, when we’re talking about 30 million dollar players, I think it’s asinine,” Williams said in an interview with Comcast SportsNet. “We have gotten to the point of no return. Something has to happen. And if it means the game being shut down for the sake of bringing sanity to it, to franchises that aren’t going to stop the insanity, I’m all for it.”
That would be very good news for a dozen smaller market teams including the Pirates, A’s and Royals. But this kind of talk has gone on before. After the $127 million A-Rod deal a few years back, the talk of a MLB salary cap exploded, but no a lot came from it.
“I personally, from a competitive standpoint, would love to be on an even playing field with everyone,” Williams said. “But it’s really difficult for me to complain too much when we still have a higher payroll than some of the others. So at least we have a fighting chance.”
“Jerry Reinsdorf put it best when he and I had a conversation about it, he said, ‘It’s a shame that our game is played, and when the game starts, everybody plays under the same rules, the same 27 outs. The problem is, before the game, the rules are completely different.’”
This isn’t a problem in the NBA or the NFL. Of course, the NFL has the best revenue sharing deal in all of professional sports. How do you think Green Bay – the smallest market in the league – won the Super Bowl this year? Check out how socialism works in the NFL to learn more.
[PhotoSource: Urban Shocker]
