This past week all 139 players eligible for free agency filed, and did so well before the deadline. This is not necessarily newsworthy, because every year, every eligible player files. And why not? The idea certainly is that if you have the chance, you're going to get out there on the open market and determine your worth. And besides, you've got nothing to lose.

Why is there never a player who says, "Ya know? I am already getting paid an ungodly amount of money for doing this stuff, I'm just going to go ahead and sign with the team I'm with"?

What, pray tell, could possibly motivate a player to do something as stupid as that, the Joe Starplayer devotee will ask.

How about friendships with people on the team? How about showing appreciation for what the team has done for him, such as drafting him, signing him, coaching him, teaching him, feeding him, playing him, showcasing him? How about the simple expression of values such as loyalty, faithfulness, commitment, consideration, and the like?

Why is it we never see this? It is because in today's world what counts most is one thing:

Gettin' what $$$ you can.

And when we see every ballplayer file for free agency we all think, "Hey! He's doin' just what the American way is all about: Gettin' yours. More power to him!" And so Joe Starplayer does his little greedy thing and there is not even a peep of objection to it. Well, there is one right here.

I know there is always the counterargument that goes something like this, "What about the team that signs the guy and then goes and trades him. How much loyalty, commitment, and whatever is there from the team?"

I can never figure out what the big deal is with a team trading a player. For the player's sake, he still gets paid the same truckload of money no matter what. For the team's sake, they get to make the team better by making the deal and furthermore demonstrate that there is a team who does want a traded ballplayer. And for the league's sake, I firmly hold the position that I have detailed earlier, namely that the player does not work for the team, he works for the major leagues. He plays for the team, and he can certainly give his heart and soul to the team and its cause, but if he gets traded, it's because there is another team that would like what he gives even more. And if the ballplayer gets traded frequently over a relatively short period of time, it probably means he is just not good enough to stay as a regularly contributing member of any one team and should be lucky enough to be playing in the bigs at all. Indeed I don't think there is one journeyman out there who does not appreciate where they are, wherever that may be.

Thing is, it is not really Joe Journeyman who is the biggest problem. He will generally be doing one of two things in the offseason: checking around to see if he can make $400,000 a year because he was making $350,000, or, more likely, seeking $400,000 because he was making $2 million and has wisely realized that at this point in his career he isn't worth that much.

The problem is with Joe Starplayer, the guy who feels he is indispensable, and who goes about "holding the gun to the owner's head." A recent example of this is Mike Piazza -- beloved here in Dodger country, until now. Recently he asked Dodger management to get him a contract extension for somewhere in the range of $10 million to $15 million a year, or he is walking at the end of the season. A great place to get a read on the sentiment of fans is in the Letters-to-the-Editor section of a recent Los Angeles Times: Piazza was excoriated. Not one letter said anything like, "Gee whiz, we need to pay him that much! Get with it, Dodgers! Sign this indispensable player!"

I am not against a player testing the market. And it is not such a bad thing to see players file for free agency. There is just something wrong with every single one of them doing it when there could be a handful who don't, just to make the point that there are other things of more value than the cash. Joe Fan might say, "Hey, that's just the nature of the business."

I ask, "Why? These guys are not making minimum wage here. Can't decent human beings rise above that?" It is this whole free agency mentality that goes with the "business" aspect that I am so much against. It is just part of all the free agency stuff that is so loathsome.

The most striking example of the reality of what free agency is doing occurred when Wayne Huizenga confirmed that he would be selling the Florida Marlins. What he said regarding why was remarkable in its presage of what will happen in the major leagues in years to come if this free agency thing does not stop. He said, essentially, "I'm selling because the team must play in a new ballpark that has X number of luxury boxes that sell for X thousand dollars each so that the team can buy the players it needs. If it does not do this, it will not return to the World Series."

Now, I could not find the text of the statement in the newspaper, but if you have it, you'll know that, for all intents and purposes, he did say these exact words: If it can't buy the players, then the team will not return to the World Series.

Certainly you can see the lunacy in what this means.

Sorry, but Joe Fan cannot reasonably blab that standard, "Wull, yeeuh, you gots ta pay the good players cuz they have ta be good to play in the World Series," because it is a zero-sum game, folks!

Look at it this way. Let's say every team decides to do what Huizenga is calling for, and it is happening: most clubs are seeking the same big-$$$ stadium package deal for their teams. Okay, so let's say they all get it. Every team has that brand-spankin'-new, 500-luxury-box ballpark, and each one has the ambiance of a Camden Yards. Each one is unique, special, and rakes in the dough.

Then what?

As in, then what happens when each team is all ready to shell out the big bucks to those star ballplayers, the ones that are going to get them to the big dance? Is every team going to get to field that team of All-Star free agents?

Let me say it again with a clarity that Joe Fan simply cannot miss:

It... is... a...

... zero-sum game.

If every team is made up of the very best that money can buy, one team will still eventually rise to the top. It can never be, "Welcome ladies and gentlemen, to the 97th World Series, and what a wild one this will be, because for the first time, it is a contest pitting every team in the major leagues against every other team! Wow! Now for the starting lineups. This may take a while...."

Let's take this further. We now have every team with a state-of-the-art, money-glomming stadium. What will the Wayne Huizengas be asking for then? I can see it now: "I am selling this team because we need a new stadium with total luxury box capacity. Every seat in the park must be in a luxury box. Hey, gotta be able to afford the players we need to win."

Then when every team gets one of those, a few years later it'll be: "I am selling this team because we need a new stadium with not just all luxury boxes, but in each box there must be a full-service five-star restaurant, several hotel suites with spas, chauffeured limousine service, a masseuse, a hair stylist, a manicurist, a tailor, and personal visits from the ballplayers when they are not out on the field. Hey, gotta be able to afford the players we need to win."

A few years after that it'll be, "I am selling this team because we need a new stadium in which luxury boxes are built directly on the field...."

Okay, so this can get very silly.

But the point cannot be missed.

Not only will baseball continue to become a rich man's game, at least at the major league level, but the Powers That Be are going to continue to blackmail taxpayers to pay for this crap. The Powers That Be are just as much the ballplayers as they are the owners, for because they get paid what they do, they can no longer shrug, "Hey, I just go on the field and play."

These bozos are going to continue to bombard us all with the propaganda that they and the major leagues are ever-so indispensable.

One of the most tasteless examples of this whole thing appeared in a recent Los Angeles Times":

"A pro-stadium Minnesota Twins' television commercial showing a player visiting a young cancer patient was pulled off the air in Minneapolis on Wednesday after some viewers complained the team was exploiting sick children.

"The ad was one of several 15-second spots aimed at showing Minnesotans what they would miss if the Twins left town. The team is threatening to leave if it doesn't get a new publicly financed stadium."

Is this not the most stupid thing you have ever heard?

Why don't they just say, "Your kids are all going to die if you don't pay gobs of money for us to field a team of All-Stars."

Looking at this and seeing the values and the priorities of people, not just Minnesota Twins people but all people who see nothing wrong with this, just makes me so unbelievably angry that I think I just have to stop here for now.

EEEEEE! Contributing Editor David Beck is a history teacher at a Southern California high school. He has also taught social studies, math, government, and economics, as well as "Toasters: Our Friends, Our Iron Filings."

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