Last weekend, I was listening to the Red Sox pregame show. The pregame host was talking about the player Yoshida. In the previous 7 games, according to the host, Yoshida was “hitting a scorching .338”.

A “scorching .338.”

That’s sad and pathetic.

Rafael Devers makes $31M a year. He will barely hit 30 homers. He won’t hit .300, not even close, and he won’t get 100 RBI. He’s a terrible third baseman. He’s not worth $30M a year. He’s barely worth $20M a in my opinion.

Today’s baseball players are overrated and overpaid. Major League Baseball will be bankrupt in 10-20 years. No one watches and who is going to the games? I don’t think Fenway even sells out when the hated Yankees come to town, not unless Yankees fans buy up the tickets.

I grew up watching the Red Sox of the 70s and 80s. I remember mimicking the diving catches of Freddie Lynn, getting grass stains all over my Toughskin jeans with the reinforced knees. Copying Yaz’s ever changing batting stances. Pre-steroid Clemens throwing serious heat and pitching past the 7th inning a majority of the games he started, always taking the ball.

The players I watched didn’t have scheduled rest days.

I think about some of the players of the early to mid 20the century. They would dominate today. Ted Williams, Mickey Mantle, Babe Ruth as a DH, Walter Johnson, Lou Gehrig, Ty Cobb, Willie Mays, and on and on. They would eat up baseball today. Average players from those years would dominate. They took pride in NOT striking out, putting the ball in play. Hitting.300 was a bad year. Pitching less than 5 innings was almost as bad as a loss. Taking a day off unless they were injured (by injured I mean basically unable to move) was not even a consideration. Most players took pride in playing their position above average. Having a 15 win season was something to improve on. And starting less than 30 games probably put you in the bullpen.

Today’s players are soft. They want $30M for hitting .270 with 25 HRs and 80 RBI. They don’t care much playing good defense because they know they won’t be benched for making errors. They don’t care about striking out. A good game for a pitcher is 5 innings while only letting up 3 runs or less.

As I said, the MLB will not last much longer. The players suck and are not interesting. There are some exceptional players but they get hurt almost every season. It is not a good product, and changing the rules every year hasn’t made a difference.