It finally feels like summer

L1010874, originally uploaded by edrahe.

We took in our first baseball game of the season and watched our Cardinals get clobbered by the Chicago Cubs 10-3. You win some and you lose some. Even so, I enjoy going out to the ballpark whatever the outcome, unless I have to sit through blistering heat, bone-chilling cold, wind or rain. Today was perfect.

Going to the game today reminded me of a new idea I had regarding how major league players are compensated. I think ballplayers should be paid what they're worth, and only what they're worth. If they're worth $10 million a year then they need to earn it. I think they should all be paid by the piece. Here's how my plan would work. Mind you I haven't crunched the numbers in a spreadsheet or anything, but here's the framework even though the numbers might have to be determined by complex calculations that I would leave to mathematicians.

Let's take baseball for instance. Every player would have a base salary of $300,000. That's what you'd get just for showing up in uniform.

For each home run the player would get. lets say $10,000, and $35,000 for a grand slam home run. It could be called a 35-grand slam.

A base hit would be worth $5,000; $6,000 for a double; $7,000 for a triple; $3,000 for a sacrifice fly and a bunt; and $2,500 for a stolen base. Stealing bases can be risky and it should not be overly encouraged. In practice if a player came to bat and struck out or was out on the fly then he gets nothing.

My pay scale would be very interesting for pitchers. $500 for each strike or foul tip; $0 for a walk, intentional or not; and $800 for a pick off. A $500,000 fee would be paid for a no-hitter.

You get the idea. The above samples do not cover every fielded play possible but I don't think it would be difficult to assign a fee to all of them. I think this payment method would make players more accountable for their performance. It's just a thought.