Playing Ball in these Difficult Economic Times

It has now literally bled into every talk radio channel I can possibly tune my 200+ channel magic radio (satellite). No matter the subject, the economy makes its way into every conversation as though to remind us of the product being sold in an advertisement that has nothing to do with selling it. Reminiscent of Kevin Nealon's Saturday Night Live Subliminal Man character, I frequently tune to sports talk to hear sentences like "a tournament without Tiger in the final rounds in this economy requires much better scoring than we seen this past weekend" and "Manny Ramirez needs the Dodgers more than the Dodgers need Manny in this economy."

The Commissioner of the NFL took a 20% pay cut in light of the economy last week, then before the week was out, Albert Haynesworth signed a free agent contract for a league record $41 million dollars guaranteed. The Chiefs traded for a 15 game quarterback for the price tag of $14 million for the one upcoming season. Should have kept your pay Commish....your own league devalued your public relations effort like Chris Brown keeping it real with Rihanna.

MLB is now into Spring training with the 2009 season soon approaching and a few baseball greats remain free agents looking for a contending team to bring them on board. To listen to so called well respected analysts, these players are to blame for not being on a team already as they need to consider the economic times when negotiating contracts. In review, there was nearly $700 million dollars inked in free agency contracts averaging $14 million each player divided over the next three years.

Professional Golf great Jack Nicklaus had initially desired to set the purse of a Memorial tournament in Ohio to a record $7 million but had second thoughts on the message it would send considering Ohio's job loss rate and that raising the bar would send the wrong message. So instead, the tournament purse was set at a measly $6 million. I say raise the bar, send the right message, that we have money to spend and if we spend it, the economy will benefit. For the record, purses in 2008 exceeded $278 million dollars. (Most of it is now Tiger's of course).

The University of Connecticut head men's basketball coach, Jim Calhoun, recently was asked by a reporter if he would consider taking a pay cut due to the economy conditions of the State. To which Calhoun replied... "are you stupid." And insisted his pay is just and he wasn't giving one dime back. Good for you Jim Bo. The economy can't be too bad if that idiot reporter has a job and isn't standing in line at a soup kitchen!

The economy and sports seem to not be in line with each other which may be a bright spot in these difficult times. We know sports stars like their "bling," "posse" and "cribs" and they certainly spend a fair share on performance enhancing drugs, fines and, well, lady friends. Maybe they'll be the only ones to spend their money which is what needs to happen to keep everyone else in the real world employed.