Free? Agency

    Alright it's time for me to throw in my two cents about a subject that everybody else in the world has.  Let me start off by saying I hate free agency.  I think that baseball should go back to players being bound to their teams for life.  Players should have the option of disallowing a trade, but not free agency.  Players make enough money as it is.  They don't need the option of a bidding war to make more.  Ken Griffey Jr. is bringing this on.  He spent his first ten years in Seattle, got close to the World Series a couple of times but never made it, and then all of the sudden he wants to move "closer to his family".  Well, first of all his family lived in Seattle most of the year and also had a home in Orlando.  The last I checked, Cincinnatti is not even close to either one of those cities.  I wish that just once these players would say, "Yes I was going to whatever team gave me the most money," or in Griffey's case, "I was going to Cincinnati because I always wanted to play there."  The fans would have a lot less problem with it if they would just say that.  That leads me to another thing is who the hell gave it the name free agency, because it sure as hell isn't free.
    Free agency is ruining baseball.  Let me repeat that, free agency is ruining baseball.  It hasn't really done that too much in the other main sports, but football and basketball are well on their way.  The biggest difference between those two sports and baseball however is a salary cap.  Baseball desperately needs a salary cap.  Screw revenue sharing.  Just put about a $50 million cap on every team.  That will do two things:  One is that it will make a lot more teams competitive than the usual five (New York, Atlanta, Texas, Cleveland).  The second thing it will do is calm the salaries down that are getting out of control.  Maybe then the players association will fall off the face of the earth, which would help things immensely.  As stated in a previous article, free agency has made it impossible to get too attached to one team.  It's very sad.  You and your kids can grow up loving a player on a local team, and then five years later when he goes to a different team, you're lost.  There's is absolutely no loyalty in baseball anymore.  Name one player that's been with one team his whole career for more than 7 years.  Okay now take out Tony Gwynn and Cal Ripken.  Name another one.  You can't do it can you.  I know, because right now I can't.  This sport is making it very hard for fans to enjoy it.  I love this game.  I love the little nuances that make it so great.  It is a truly wonderful game.  The actual game I love, it's the crap that happens off the field that keeps pissing me off.  There is nothing greater than watching the battle between a pitcher and hitter.  Than watching Mark McGwire hit his 62nd homerun.  Than watching Greg Maddux nibble at a corner.  Than watching Tony Gwynn stoke a single into the hole between short and third.  Than being in the ballpark to watch a runner on first try to score on a double in the gap.  Than the split second after the pitcher has gotten the sign but before he throws the pitch when it seems like time stands still and you could hear a pindrop in the stadium.
    There is nothing else in sports that can compare to the 1997 World Series.  I didn't particularly love either one of the teams that were playing that year, but that seventh game of the series was absolutely wonderful.  I went through every emotion during that game.  Starting in the 9th inning I was at the edge of my seat every pitch.  When the Marlins loaded the bases in the 10th I couldn't stand it anymore, and when Edgar Renteria got his single this wonderful tingling came over my body as the whole team jumped for joy.  It's a truly amazing feeling.  That was such a wonderful moment.  Nothing else can compare to that and yet what happened in the off season.  The Marlins got rid of everybody and it pissed me off.
    Why can't this game go back to being the simple game we all played as children.  It would make us all love it so much more again.  Now I'm sure as soon as the season starts again I'll be fine, but it's the off-season's that piss me off when everybody is changing teams again.  But hell, I'll be honest with you I know at least three people in this world (dad and Scott) that would watch this game no matter who played it.  Because there's still some of us who see the magic and beauty in this game.  We will still call each other the split second after we see an amazing play and ask if they saw it.  There have been so many times that I'll be watching a game (especially in the playoffs) and somebody will do something amazing in the game, and I will look at the phone just knowing that it will ring and almost every time it does.  And every time it makes it me smile.  So, just remember that in another month baseball season will be upon us again and no matter how many free agent transactions have been made, no matter how many things the league has done to piss us off since October, and no matter how much complaining dad, Scott, and I have done since then, I know that soon after the season starts my phone will ring and I'll hear, "Did you see that play . . ." And once again I'll smile and marvel at the magic of this game I love so much.