It's always about the money. No surprise there, but something is happening to professional sports in America, resulting in consequences for amateur sports. I'm not talking about the salaries, that's another story, albeit inter-related to my topic.
Time was when a baseball player could play an entire career for one team. Mention a name like Al Kaline, or Ted Williams, and only one team comes to mind. Most folks forget that Jackie Robinson was traded to the Giants right before he retired. He never played for them, but had he gone on with his historic career, it would have ended in a Giants uniform.
I never thought that Willie Mays would ever leave the Giants. Seeing him in a Mets uniform was tough, but at least he had the familiar NY on his cap again. There is no allegiance left for most professional athletes. They are commodities and while some are brought back to their original teams before they hang it up for one last hurrah, the chances of playing for the same team all career long are almost nil.
A similar thing is happening with team uniforms and colors. Specific colors were consistently associated with specific teams. The other day I saw an SF Giants cap in Dodger blue advertised. What's up with that? Just step on tradition.
In recent years, many teams, both collegiate and professional have added black to their color schemes. UCLA football has a uniform with the familiar blue and gold on black pants. It's supposed to make them more fierce, like the old Oakland Raiders, I suppose.
Speaking of college football, the money involved is now impacting the demise of a once strong and important conference. The Pacific 12 will be down to 9 teams next year as USC, UCLA and the University of Oregon will soon join the Big Ten. This leaves the state schools, like Washington State and Oregon State in a tough position. It has yet to be determined what Stanford and the University of Washington will do. The reason is simple: the millions involved in television rights. So in effect, the big networks like ESPN and NBC, and CBS can end the years of traditional rivalry that was once so important to those programs.
Yeah, I know I sound like an old man complaining about change. That's right. I'm proud to be one of the voices that hate to lose some of the traditions that made college football so different from professional. The money does the talking and a few schools will benefit. Those with power and influence will ruin another dimension of American sports.
About 30 years ago a book and movie appeared called Rollerball. It was a dystopic look at a world where all sports had evolved into one remaining sport called rollerball. A large steel ball was herded into a steel net by two teams representing large corporate interests. No matter if players were killed during play. The injured were scooped up and replaced quickly. The whole world rooted for the multinational of their choice. Looks like we are on our way to this dystopic form of sport.
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