Minor League Veterans

A Portland Press Herald story about minor league veterans who are expected to fill out the Portland and Pawtucket rosters this summer. Tim Kester is 32 and isn’t likely to ever make the big leagues, but he would still rather play baseball than go get a real job. And more power to him, I say. Too often, I hear people talk about how baseball players are only in it for the money these days. They say this because players regularly hold out for top dollar or sign with the highest bidder. We live in a country with an economic system built on the beauty of greed – capitalism doesn’t work if people aren’t striving for that next dollar. It’s hammered into our heads pretty much from the day we were born. Yet, when an athlete has the audacity to follow the capitalist principals that he has been taught, suddenly it’s a bad thing. Yes, baseball is a game, but it’s also a big business and it’s the players’ job. If I take a higher-paying job, people don’t chide me for “being in it for the money.” And make no mistake about it – I am in my current job only for the money. But that’s OK, because it’s the American Way. Unless you are an athlete.

Guys like Roger Clemens, Barry Bonds, Randy Johnson, Edgar Martinez – they don’t stay in the game just for the money. They all have plenty of money. They stay in the game because they love to play baseball. That doesn’t stop them from wanting the most that they can get, but I don’t think that’s a contradiction. They love baseball. And so do Tim Kester, and Trace Coquillette, and all the other guys in this article. They play baseball for the love of the game. And that’s a good thing.