Abstract image of a father of four trying to figure out how to pay for his family's once a year trip to the Ball Park. Courtesy of the Pizzaonian Art Institute, Abe Straction, curator ©2009
What is it about baseball that makes grown men and women start babbling like 10-year-olds? About this time of the year when spring training begins every middle-aged pundit regardless of age, gender or expertise suddenly starts waxing sentimental nostalgia about baseball.
Please spare me all the stories of how it was when you were young, and how much you enjoyed going to the baseball games with family and friends. I would much rather talk about the game as it is today rather than what you prefer to believe it is or was as the case may be.
As an interested observer from Pizzaonia, I cannot be anything but fascinated by this phenomenon. I too grew up around baseball, but that was a very different time. And, when I was going to baseball games, it cost a dollar to get into the stadium, and another dollar would buy you the goodies you love to munch on while watching the game.
Of course back then baseball, while still a business, saw itself as a game. Now baseball is a big business that is about a game. This is not a little change - this is a significant difference in how the game is played and how it is currently seen by most of the observers watching the incredible spectacle of big-league sports in America.
Today we hear more about contracts then we hear about double plays. Yes, I know that statistics are still a major part of the discussion about baseball. However, when does a day go by starting with spring training and continuing for the rest of the season when you don’t hear about how much money everyone is making?
Let us not forget about the marvel of television that has taken the game out of the stadium and into everyone’s living room. Actually, this is a blessing for baseball since it now cost so much to go to a game the only way most people can watch anymore is to see it on television. Revenue from television ratings pays most of the freight these days.
Yes, there are a few sprinkled seats around the park that seem affordable. But don’t let that fool you, by the time you add up the cost of the seats, plus the goodies, and what it cost to park plus transportation to the Ball Park, you’re talking about a big chunk of change.
Who then goes to the games and pays the outrageous prices? For the most part, the very rich - this includes corporations with their luxury boxes, and anyone with a big enough bank account to impress their constituents. The closest these folks get to the common people is when they use their binoculars to see what’s happening in the bleachers.
As for us in Pizzaonia, we can’t wait for the season to start. We warm up our HD televisions, open up our six packs purchased at the super market - sit back and enjoy. Play Ball!
P.S: We love commercials. It gives us a chance to stretch our legs, go to the kitchen for more goodies, take a restroom break and when finished with all that - talk to our friends until the game starts again.
Brother Franco
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