{"id":50727,"date":"2025-06-13T20:50:17","date_gmt":"2025-06-14T01:50:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/?p=50727"},"modified":"2025-06-13T20:50:17","modified_gmt":"2025-06-14T01:50:17","slug":"baseball-players-lives-are-clearly-so-excruciatingly-hard","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/?p=50727","title":{"rendered":"Baseball players\u2019 lives are clearly so excruciatingly hard"},"content":{"rendered":"

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The Athletic (paywall\u2019d)<\/a>: MLB players complain about how hard their lives are because they have to work all summers<\/span><\/p>\n

Honestly, I didn\u2019t intend on actually reading the article, because the quotes in a teaser post were all I really needed to get all hot and triggered and ready to lay blast onto a bunch of overpaid professional athlete man-babies.\u00a0 But I clicked the link in order to get the URL to link to, and must\u2019ve gotten lucky or something because the paywall didn\u2019t come up before I could copy the whole article, paste it into a document and actually read it after all because fuck paywalls.<\/span><\/p>\n

But the TL;DR of the whole thing was apparently an anonymous (of course) poll went out to all MLB players and apparently the query of what the biggest misconception about the lifestyles of baseball players was a hot button topic, because it spawned this entire snowball rolling downhill to where it became an article, and snarky broggers like me use it as fodder to air out my own grievances with the wealthy complaining about first-world problems.<\/span><\/p>\n

More than 130 anonymous (of course) players basically were quoted with some absolutely asinine and tone-deaf lines about how hard their lives are, despite the fact that the league minimum this season is $760K. \u00a0And almost every one of these quotes is easily rebuttable and can chalk up to the fact that some privileged millionaire is complaining about things that most anyone that wasn\u2019t a professional athlete would gladly switch places with in order to just get a taste of.<\/span><\/p>\n

And for the sake of my own amusement, I\u2019m going to take guesses and switch in names of all these anonymous baseball players, because frankly it\u2019s probably not that difficult or too far off to identify who\u2019s been saying some of these idiotic quotes.<\/span><\/p>\n

Our life is awesome, but it\u2019s not as easy as people think it is,\u201d one National League pitcher<\/span> Zack Wheeler<\/strong> of the Phillies said. \u201cI don\u2019t know if fans realize that when we say we spend more time with our teammates than our families, we\u2019re not exaggerating. It\u2019s not even close. That\u2019s why I say if you want to be a good dad, a good husband, it\u2019s not easy.\u201d<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

As both a husband and a dad, I\u2019ll admit there are times in which I\u2019ve felt the want for some general freedom from any sort of attachments.\u00a0 From what I\u2019ve gathered from all sorts of professional athlete autobiographies I\u2019ve read in my life, I\u2019m sure a lot of pro athletes on the daily probably aren\u2019t complaining about the general nature of getting to be alone and unattached when they\u2019re on the road for 3-4 months of a season.\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n

Frankly, I bet the underlying message between Wheeler\u2019s remarks is the fact that it\u2019s hard for him to be a husband and dad when he\u2019s home, because he\u2019s all used to being among bros and the team and struggles to turn it off when he\u2019s actually home.\u00a0 And if that\u2019s the case, that\u2019s more a matter of his maturity and priorities than it is baseball being hard<\/em> <\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Added another National League pitcher<\/span> Blake Snell<\/strong> of the Dodgers, \u201cI haven\u2019t seen my mom on her birthday in 17 years. Little things like that that matter to me. People are like, \u2018Yeah, but you\u2019re getting paid, you\u2019re getting treated great.\u2019 . . . I\u2019ve missed so many things for so many years, even before pro ball. Like, I couldn\u2019t go to my prom because I had a baseball tourney, you know? It\u2019s just little sacrifices you make over the years that you never get back.\u201d<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I would wager money that this actually was Blake Snell who said this, because this reads as exactly the weak type of argument that he\u2019d make because he\u2019s a grub that grubs for money and has made a career of trying to do the absolute least amount of work as possible while getting paid like a rockstar.\u00a0 Frankly, the man has had a genius of career of seemingly grasping the what-have-you-done-for-me-now nature of salary negotiating leveraging, the way he\u2019s turned the dial up only when it could impact his future earning, and there\u2019s almost nobody who seems to hate baseball but wants to get paid like a baseball player than Snell.<\/span><\/p>\n

I\u2019m sure Balakey\u2019s mom isn\u2019t sweating the 17 years of birthdays, not getting to see her son, while she\u2019s living in an extravagant home with a luxury car, and has no bills or responsibilities to worry about, all bought and paid for by her son\u2019s arm.\u00a0 And citing not being able to go to the prom is about the softest thing I\u2019ve ever read, because honestly if I could go back in time, I\u2019d rather have not gone to my prom, and pocketed the $500 worth of expenses I sunk into the whole pointless exercise.<\/span><\/p>\n

Added an American League pitcher<\/span> Max Scherzer<\/strong> of the Blue Jays, currently on the injured list, \u201cPeople don\u2019t fully understand the travel. Getting in late at night and going on short rest. Playing at night. Playing 162 games. I don\u2019t think people fully see everything that goes into that, and how it affects your body towards the middle to the end of the year.\u201d<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I\u2019d also wager money that this was actually Max Scherzer who said this, because there\u2019s no roster in baseball that might actually have a leg to stand on than the Toronto Blue Jays, the lone franchise in a different country.\u00a0 Lots of people have been made aware of the added time Jays players have to endure going back and forth through customs when they go from home than on the road and back.<\/span><\/p>\n

Plus, Scherzer is old and at the stage of his career where he\u2019s determined to farm as much gold as possible while doing the least amount of work, which is why he\u2019s basically been on the injured list all year long, citing a boo-boo on his pitching hand\u2019s thumb.\u00a0 And old people don\u2019t like doing things at night, like driving, or his responsibility of hurling a baseball, so I wouldn\u2019t be surprised if this particular quote actually came from Scherzer himself.<\/span><\/p>\n

The strain that baseball puts on relationships with friends and family also came up often among our respondents. The schedule forces players to miss milestones. \u201cCan\u2019t go to any weddings ever,\u201d one pitcher<\/span> Mike Clevenger<\/strong> of the White Sox said.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Clevenger absolutely is the type of bro, who despite being an MLB player making MLB money, still loves his high school life, his high school friends, and would absolutely jeopardize his career in order to go to a rager with his high school crew.\u00a0 But somewhere in his family, probably one of his parents has managed to keep him committed enough to his job in order to keep getting paid, but not enough to stop him from sharing his salt about having to miss some of his Florida white trash friends\u2019 weddings over the years.<\/span><\/p>\n

But in all seriousness, the so-called weddings that have been missed, the people in them probably aren\u2019t sweating the no-shows, because they\u2019re probably more interested in the distinction of being able to say that they\u2019ve got an MLB player present, and it\u2019s probably more important to them to retain an MLB player as a friend than it is for the MLB player to be friends with them.\u00a0 Weak excuse.\u00a0 baseball is so hard<\/em> <\/span><\/p>\n

It strains the connections with friends. \u201cI haven\u2019t had a summer since I was eight or nine,\u201d one American League hitter<\/span> Anthony Rendon<\/strong> of the Angels said.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This excuse is so bad, it could only have come from Rendon, the de-facto guy who hates baseball more than anyone inside MLB, while enjoying the luxury of getting paid $30M a year to not play. He\u2019s said so much incredibly outrageous things over the last few years to exemplify his disdain for his job, that by the time this survey came around, not being able to enjoy a normal summer is pretty much all that\u2019s left.<\/span><\/p>\n

The reality is that yes, baseball players don\u2019t get to have summers off, but on the flip side, they absolutely never have to worry about playing on Thanksgiving or Christmas or New Years like basketball and football and hockey players do.\u00a0 They work eight months of the year, nine in any season where they go deep into the playoffs, but otherwise still have 3-4 months off a year.\u00a0 Few occupations without a tremendous amount of tenure come even close to that kind of off-time, while also clearing $760k a year. \u00a0baseball is so hard<\/em> <\/span><\/p>\n

It puts stress on your partner and children. \u201cWhen you have kids and you\u2019re away from home half the month, going city to city, it\u2019s just not as glamorous as people think,\u201d another National League<\/span> pitcher Corbin Burnes<\/strong> of the Diamondbacks said.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

When you retire at 35 with generational wealth and zero worries for the rest of your life, and mostly assured that your kids won\u2019t either, even Mrs. Burnes probably agrees that losing a few summers isn\u2019t that big of a sacrifice.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Added another American League pitcher<\/span> Bryan Abreu<\/strong> of the Astros, \u201cYes, the living is good. Yes, we make good money, some way more than others. But the logistics behind everything, moving your family, paying for two to three mortgages and the stress it causes some families. You\u2019re always on the move and until you\u2019re on a guaranteed contract, you\u2019re kind of living out of a suitcase. There\u2019s a lot of logistics and not knowing that I don\u2019t think people understand.\u201d<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

100% this quote is from a Hispanic player, because ain\u2019t no other demographic in the game that\u2019s going to willingly by taking on 2-3 mortgages without absolute Hispanic family devotion.\u00a0 The easy solve is to not be taking on 2-3 mortgages in the first place, but like I said, Hispanic familia culture is way more cohesive than any other, and in the case of a guy like Bryan Abreu who is kind of a journeyman relief pitcher, he actually holds a little more weight in this survey, because being someone in his general position probably is among the most stressful, not always knowing when your next contract will be, if at all.<\/span><\/p>\n

Some of these gripes may not be well-received. It may be hard to find pity for the American League hitter<\/span> George Springer<\/strong> of the Blue Jays who groused that \u201cnobody realizes we have to pay big-time taxes on our salaries.\u201d<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

100% this quote came from a player from the Toronto Blue Jays, because Canadian taxes on American money is notoriously high, and there have been many players who have gone to the Jays and whined their way out of the team or their careers, over the massive Canadian taxes they have to pay on their checks.<\/span><\/p>\n

But still, when the league minimum is $760k, even having to eat 50% of that in taxes is still substantially more money than lots of doctors and other essential personnel in the working world net.\u00a0 Nobody feels sorry for you bro, or absolutely anyone else mentioned or referenced in this entire post and corresponding story.<\/span><\/p>\n

Anyway, I could go on and on and dissect even more quotes, but I feel like the point is made.\u00a0 A bunch of overpaid 1% man-babies complaining that their lives as baseball players is so hard<\/em> <\/span><\/p>\n

Frankly, I don\u2019t know what the New York Times or The Athletic was thinking when they put this piece out, those nerds had to have known that this wasn\u2019t going to be received very well.\u00a0 I know baseball is eternally feuding with the NFL and NBA in terms of popularity, but if the intention was to harm MLB, then I think they\u2019re on the right track; any other objective and it was as much of a colossal whiff as the tone-deafness of this entire article.<\/span><\/p>\n

As the kids say, the fuck outta here<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Athletic (paywall\u2019d): MLB players complain about how hard their lives are because they have to work all summers Honestly, I didn\u2019t intend on actually reading the article, because the quotes in a teaser post were all I really needed to get all hot and triggered and ready to lay blast onto a bunch of … Continue reading Baseball players\u2019 lives are clearly so excruciatingly hard<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[62,201,100,45,83,52,58,49],"class_list":["post-50727","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-brog","tag-baseball","tag-cash-money","tag-comparison","tag-fail","tag-observations","tag-owned","tag-sports","tag-wtf"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50727","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=50727"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50727\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":50729,"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50727\/revisions\/50729"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=50727"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=50727"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=50727"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}