Gold Gloves and Gold Seats

I was watching the rest of the suspended fifth game of the World Series between the Phillies and the Rays last Wednesday night when I thought that perhaps some fans would not be able to attend because of conflicts and travel plans.
What would Major League Baseball charge for empty seats for the final game of the year? After all, it might only last for 18 outs and less than an hour of “baseball” time. So I googled the website of Major League Baseball to get the real scoop.
Yes, there it was. If a fan wanted to attend what might be the last game of the World Series, the cheapest seat in the upper deck was $650. But if you wanted one right behind the catcher in the reserved section so you could yell at the umpire, it would set you back $7,429 (These are not printing errors.)

You could rent a luxury suite for the balance of the game for between $21,000 and $27,000 if you wanted to bring 15 friends.

All of that money to see a $6 million-a-year second baseman who may have been awarded a Gold Glove for fielding his position but is hitting less than his weight of 190.
If our current rich-poor gap is not corrected soon I don’t think there is any question that we will experience the fall of the American Empire.
The Roman crowd, drinking themselves to oblivion in the executive suites in the coliseum, turned thumbs up or down depending upon the hitting ability of the gladiators. The Romans could afford to spend their days at leisure because they depended upon cheap labor from the provinces to do their work. Sound familiar? The Phillies crowd twirled their white towels or whatever to cheer on their players while the Rays fans rang their little bells.

A Little Thing To Remember

But you should remember you are paying higher taxes and are also paying for the leather “Gold Seats” for fatter asses than yours because the fat cats can deduct every cent of entertainment costs through “business entertainment expenses” approved by the IRS.

The median family income in the United States is now about $48,000, give or take. Two years ago the New York Yankees paid Roger Clemens almost $18 million for a partial season for throwing a baseball with an alleged steroid-strengthened arm. That came to $200,000 per inning or about $1 million a game if he had a “quality start” ( three runs or less in six innings of work).

If the average family of four went to see “Incredible Hulk” Roger pitch, bleacher seats ran $192 for the family, excluding hot dogs, beer, team programs, parking, travel, etc.

Boston’s Fenway Park is the most expensive in baseball. The Haines family of Boston is no longer going to games. Kent Haines took his son last May to the cheap seats and he dropped $250 for tickets, parking, and food. He and his family no longer go.

In a response to USA Today, Kent said, “In this sky-falling economy, attending a pro sporting event is last on my list.”
But baseball is a bargain. A National Hockey League game runs $290 for four tickets; a National Football League game for four now sets you back over $400. Even watching Rednecks turn left in NASCAR races sets you back between $40 and $115 a ticket.

Average families can no longer afford to attend professional sports—but they are paying taxes to support the suites and reserved tickets for the fat cats. When watching a LA Laker basketball TV game you have probably seen the camera pan to actor Jack Nicholson in his courtside seat. It costs us $2,500 a night for Jack’s seat.

Four Billion Cars Rolling Off The Assemby Line

What kind of economy has King George “grown” for us? The Mattel Toy Company, the maker of Hot Wheels, now has a market capitalization on Wall Street greater than General Motors. Of course, Hot Wheels, those little two-inch cars revered by young boys, has over four billion “on the road.” That’s more than all the car companies in the U.S. have built in a century.

And what kind of “family values” has the “richest country in the world” developed during that time? The University of Michigan has surveyed most of the countries of the world on a “happiness” scale developed over years of testing. Denmark citizens are considered to be the happiest in the world among the 97 countries surveyed. We are 16th.
Scott Vogel, a reporter for the Washington Post, was intrigued by our position in the ranking, so he went to Denmark to interview residents. He decided to ask people who had lived in other countries before moving to Denmark why they were so happy.

Their reasons are revealing:
(1) The people feel very secure because the country promotes social democracy (“People feel they are as good as anybody else”),

(2) Everything is built for the middle class, not the upper class,

(3) The healthcare system takes care of everybody to the same degree,

(4) Ninety percent of the restaurants and coffee houses serve non-chain coffee,

(5) There exists a total lack of respect for authority!,

(6) They don’t listen well to their doctors,

(7) Danish families sit down for meals together every day.

Geez, what would our list look like? Evidently Starbucks does not do well in Denmark.

The Rich Say Socialism Is Great—But Only If You Can Afford It!

It’s amazingly hypocritical for the rich to scream “socialist” at a white-black man raised by his mother and grandmother, assisted by food stamps.

But the rich practice an elite form of socialism. The rich have passed laws so that the pissants in the hard plastic seats actually pay for their leather seats in their glass-enclosed luxury boxes insulated from that tax-paying rabble.
The crowd in the cheap seats pay for their own seats, pay 6 bucks for a hotdog and 8 bucks for a beer out of their own pocket, while the CEOs dine on lobster, steak, and champagne fully deducted as a “business entertainment expense’‘—paid for by the dummies in the bleachers.

Socialism also comes in the form of CEO golden parachutes supported by government bailouts. His friends in the administration and Congress, bribed by big campaign contributions over the years, have deemed the parachutist’s business is “too big to fail.” His employees get the pink slip and the shaft. He gets another retirement home and a big pension.

How did we ever make it to 16th on the list? It’s time the pissants finally get real. The message from our politicians, corporations, and the wealthy is: “If you’re rich enough and your corporation big enough, the government will intervene to ensure your economic well-being.” There is no doubt that socialism works well—provided you can afford the campaign contributions and the lobbyists.

The Only Infrastructure Being Built In This Country Is Stadiums And Luxury Boxes

There is little doubt our economy is tanking, but our big-time socialists are busy raiding city, county, state and federal treasuries to build more billion-dollar, tax-supported stadiums in many cities across the county. Even little Fargo has gotten into the act with the $25 million Urban Plains Center, offering 5,000 seats—with 1,000 well-cushioned seats in 36 luxury boxes. There certainly will be a lot of business meetings conducted in those luxury boxes. You betcha.

When Art Modell, owner of the Baltimore Ravens, was trying to get local taxpayers to build him a new stadium, he used this selling pitch: “The pride and presence of a professional football team is far more important than 30 libraries, and I say that with all due respect to the learning process.”

Geez, maybe Art has something there. Just think of all the “family values” our Vikings have demonstrated over the years to the families and kids while Minnesota schools plead for passage of special levies so they don’t have to cut teachers and programs.

New York City will have a new $1.3 billion Yankee Stadium next year. When it opened in 1923 a seat cost $1.10 for everybody—and you could watch Babe Ruth hit another one.

Next year a good seat will cost you $2,500 per game, up from $1,000 in old, cruddy Yankee Stadium. You can rent a luxury suite at an annual rate of $600,000 to $850,000—depending upon how luxurious you want it.

Of course, the football Giants and Jets must have a new $1 billion stadium, too. Annual luxury suite rentals have been set at $1 million each.

The Dallas Cowboys will have a new $1.1 billion home next year, too. It will have the largest high-definition scoreboard in the world (while our kids are 19th in math in the world and we are 29th in infant mortality) measuring 180 feet long.
I guess American steel and other materials were not good enough for the Cowboys. Luxembourg is providing the steel and England the glass. If you want to keep a seat in the stadium for more than one year, you can buy a “personal seat license” which “allows” you to buy a seaon ticket each year! If you get tired of Cowboy football you can sell the license on the open market. Luxury suites are available at $500,000.

It seems that almost 80 percent of Americans feel we are going in the wrong direction, so I still have some hope for this country.

But evidently the 20 percent who feel everything is OK must be investing in luxury suites and seaon tickets instead of repairing bridges, roads, and schools and supporting healthcare for children across the country.

In the last Super Bowl ticket brokers were selling tickets for between $2,000 and $8,000. They must have been purchased by American-Romans.