With the current state of the economy I think it is disgusting what is going on with baseball right now. Even though this is my favorite time of the year, I can’t help but to think that Baseball throwing money in the faces of the American public. While people have lost trillions of dollars, MLB is throwing around 100 million dollar contracts to stars where the same people of lost all that money pay to go to see. So far this year $140 has come on the table from the Yankees as they presented an offer last Friday to free-agent left-hander CC Sabathia. Also the Cubs\' re-signed pitcher Ryan Dempster for four years at $52 million. Now for me that makes terrible business sense. Why sign them now, when most pitchers will be available in a month and a half for discounted prices.

Consider this, in just about every facet of life right now people are saving and conserving money. Penny pinching has become an everyday thing from bringing your lunch to work for the first time in years to driving less to conserve gas. These are the fans that are supposed to be going to the ballparks in 2009. I am going to go out on a limb here but I bet that a lot more fans stay home to watch games on their TV’s than go out and spend a couple of hundred bucks.

With my beloved Pirates still stuck in mediocrity and plan to stay there the financial crisis may hurt them the most. With season tickets already at an all time low there is no end in site for this trend to revere course. The bottom line is they are going to lose money, and what had started to be a positive change with drafting most likely will be cut back. Locking good young players up to long term contracts will not happen. The Pirates being forced to yet again sell off their players to the highest bidder will then happen yet again. So the Pirates in sense will be left with a mediocre farm system and a pathetic major league team. I am sorry, but I am incredibly pessimistic that the current regime can turn it around, after 16 sixteen years off losing.

The Yankees and Red Sox most likely have the most to gain. They can cut back on players that really don’t need and go after the best players on the market. They are the Exxon Mobile of MLB.  You do not see the teams in the rust belt of the US making big runs at free agents because they can’t and shouldn’t if they are smart. What is going to be left in New York City next year are two expensive stadiums with luxury boxes that most likely are not going to sell as quickly as once though and huge payrolls.  The average fan can’t go to Yankee stadium anyway so I do not see it affecting the Yankees as much as it will the Met’s. The city has lost trillions of dollars so far this year and the repercussions of these publicly financed stadiums will be felt by the taxpayer.

Now what do I think about all of this, while I love the Red Sox, I think it’s irresponsible that these teams are paying athletes millions and millions of dollars while the average fan is getting laid off from their job or cutting back so they can have a good Christmas with their family. Bud Selig is very much to blame and I am not a big fan. I do not think he is proactive and I think he is ill-equipped to run the great American Past Time.

Today Selig actually never showed up for a talk that Paul Volcker, the chairman of the Federal Reserve under two presidents -- Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan.

Per MLB.com, Selig declined to elaborate on Volcker\'s remarks, but he said a message had obviously been sent to the owners.

"Paul was at the World Series and I told him, \'Maybe we\'ll have you come in if you\'re free.\' He gave a report on the economy that I thought the clubs would find interesting

My opinion is that Selig is sitting up in his pent house, happy as a clam that MLB is making hand over fist at the moment. What he doesn’t realize are that hard times are ahead if MLB does not budget accordingly. Here is my list of things that need to be done during the financial down turn to keep MLB a float.

1. MLB should create a fund in the cities that they play in that have been the hardest hit. This fund will be created by taxing each player that makes over $5,000,000 a year, two percent. This fund will then be distributed to each team so they can buy tickets for less fortunate people that have been hit by the financial down turn and to get people back in the seats in general. Revenue sharing has worked but it needs to be taken on by the players as well.  The fans make this business possible and baseball should give something back to it’s fans.

1. Scott Boras well a tremendous negotiator should have to personally apologize to every small market team in MLB that he has personally screwed over the years face to face. This is my vengeance after the Pedro Alvarez debacle this past summer in Pittsburgh.  I am sure Philly fans would love a piece of him as well stemming from JD Drew.  Ok this was a personal one, but still sort of relevant.

1. Bud Selig should resign and a Steve Jobs should take over. What baseball has become is totally void of innovation. Why was the World Series watched by almost no one? The answer is the game has become boring to watch on TV. I do not have an answer for this one but it needs to be addressed. Also the overall experience has become very blah. Again not sure how to address this but it needs change.