What Is 144 Million Dollars?

When you begin to look at what its wrong with our country you don’t have to look any farther  than the sports scene. That became evident again this week when the Phillies signed pitcher Cole Hamels to a six year contract for 144 million dollars.  Now Cole is a great pitcher, but is he worth anything like that?  Is anyone worth that much?  And by signing for that amount several of his longtime teammates will now need to be traded so that the Phillies can pay Hamels. This just shows how athletes no longer care about their fellow players when money is involved.  Who does he think is going to help him win any games over the next six years when these veterans are gone because the Phils couldn’t afford to keep them?  It certainly is a business more than a sport.  But let’s break down that salary a little more.  $144,000,000 over six years is 24 million a year.  Last year he pitched in 32 games so at that rate it is $750,000 a game.  Incidentally, he had 14 wins which would be $1,714,285 per win - and that is a lot of tickets that must be sold at inflated prices.  Last year he pitched 216 innings so that would amount to $111,111 per inning and with three outs per inning that would cost the Phillies $37,037 an out.  Now of course, he just might get hurt and go on the disabled list a few times in the next six years so it might cost the Phillies much more than that per out.  Now we are also assuming that with not much left to pay other players that the Phillies will have players that can help Hamels get these outs.  Now assuming that my math is correct, I figure that for about 8 innings of work he could pay the city of Lancaster for five firemen for two years.  He could pay off Penn State’s NCAA penalty in just  2.4 years.  In 2.8 years he could pay the entire Penn Manor School District budget for a year and we wouldn’t need to pay our increased school taxes that year.  Maybe the city of Harrisburg should negotiate with him to pay off their massive debt.  For two outs he could send my one grandson to Lebanon Valley for four years and for just one out he could send my other grandson to Millersville for four years. It would be a little more if they didn’t commute. How about that, just one inning of pitching and both could spend four years in college without any debt.  Come on Cole, we need you!  For one inning and one out he could pay for a person in a nursing home for a year. I’m sure many would appreciate that help.   For one out he could sponsor 154 Awana adopt a clubs around the world.  What a great gift that would be helping thousands of youngsters around the world to hear the Gospel.  For 18 innings (about 3 games for him) he could pay off our church mortgage and for 27 outs or about 9 innings he could cover our church budget for a year.  And for about 2 outs he could support a missionary for a year.  Well enough of the statistics.  Hopefully you get the idea.  Are our priorities out of whack in this country.  Without a doubt!  Do I like the Phillies?  Yes!  Am I glad that Hamels will remain a Phillie?  I guess.  Is anyone worth that type of money?  no way!  Of course, maybe for the next six years he will go 30-0 each year with numerous perfect games, winning six World Series and Cy Young Awards.  Then I will change my mind.  But all of that is just a fantasy - just like his contract should be.