What is Right With Sports

Gleefully enjoying the news coming out that Carlos Gonzalez is following suit with Troy Tulowitzki and signing long-term with our Colorado Rockies.  Against all odds, in that the hated Scott Boras is CarGo's agent, and we just know that Mr. Boras strongly advises his clients to never let a team control you for too long, or for too little.  But, how much is enough?  Carlos and Troy and Ubaldo traded semi-mega-wealthy for super-duper-wealthy in return for guaranteed financial security, and the opportunity to be the focal point of something really special here on the Rocky Mountain sports scene.  Following any sport gives us all a venue to involve ourselves vicariously and vigorously in analytical and conjectural exercises.  We formulate our own opinions based on what we glean from news accounts, statistics, conversations, television or from personal experience.  We discuss and postulate with each other more about sports than we do about our families, or jobs.  At least the people I talk to and relate to on a regular basis.  Maybe that's why - birds of a feather (as long as you're not a bird in Arkansas).  The point is, it's nice when sports personalities are individuals that, outwardly at least, appear to be upstanding, honorable examples of good citizens that do not flaunt their status and act like spoiled and entitled assholes.  The latter category is rife with examples of celebrity/athletes/entertainers that are famous and rich because they're famous and rich.  My son's a teacher, a first-year rookie middle-school teacher.  Now wouldn't it be nice if there was a draft, and first-year salary slot for rookies, and agents could negotiate multi-thousand dollar (who's kidding who, multi-millions is out of the question) contracts for their clients based on what school best fits the talents of the teacher/draft choice, and what types of incentive-laden inducements are written into the contracts, no-trade clauses, free-agency contingencies, on and on.  But, alas, SCHOOL is not a direct revenue-generating consortium such as are sports teams or movies or TV shows.  Owners of sports teams are like Carnegie Steel or General Motors.  I understand why there are players' unions, formed to deal with owners that used to control athletes' livelihood much as plantation owners controlled their slaves.  The added leverage that sports teams' owners have is that they can extort cities or regions into paying for their lovely stadiums or they'll leave to go to another city that will promise taxpayer-built stadiums or arenas.  The players' unions want the owners to "open the books" and share the wealth.  The owners want to protect what the have.  Now, there's a threat of the NFL not having football next year in a gigantic game of chicken being conducted by the two sides.  It's happened in baseball, hockey, air traffic control, coal mining, steel production, even in the teaching profession.