It strikes me as absolute insanity.

Why are professional athletes, many whom are my age, racking in millions of dollars in this economy?

Baseball is what really hacks me off more than anything; no salary cap apparently means no problems. The New York Yankees haven’t had any problems acquiring anybody they want. Ever.

The Steinbrenners just reach into their bottomless bag of money and throw cash at whomever they can, whenever they can.

Why is there no salary cap?

I’m not sure. Let’s ask the AL East All-stars, I mean the New York Yankees. The Yankees have had a crazy last few seasons. They have spent more money than any team in baseball, moving players around and building a new stadium.

In 2008, the Yankees had a strong team and a chance of making it deep into the playoffs, but the Tampa Bay Devil Rays had something else to say about it.

The Devil Rays total team pay roll for 2008 was just over $43 million. That’s nearly $7 million less than the combined 2008 salaries of Derek Jeter and Alex Rodriguez alone.

Oh, and the Devil Rays beat the Yankees in the playoffs. Surprise, surprise. The over paid, self-centered Yankees turned out to be just a bunch of pampered losers.

This season was supposed to be a different era for Yankee baseball though.

They landed all-star first basemen Mark Teixeira, former Indian’s and Brewer’s ace C.C. Sabathia, and pitcher A.J. Burnett, and at the low cost of only $50 million a year for the three of them.

That’s $50 million more than any other team in the league spent for the 2009 season. Despite all their off season acquisitions, the Yanks are in third place in the AL East and currently are four games back from their rival Boston Red Sox.

An injured Rodriguez leaves $30 million on the sidelines, Teixeira owns the second worst batting average on the team at .206, and Sabathia has pitched five games, only has one win and currently has the team’s seventh best ERA at 4.73 runs per game.

It looks like the Yankees are in for another disappointing post season.

Baseball is an American past time, but last time I checked so was working hard for your money.

It’s a shame that people like steroid user Rodriguez are bringing in multi-million dollar contracts, while everyday citizens like my parents and yours, who I’m convinced work twice as hard, are making miniscule amounts of money comparatively.

The players don’t deserve that much money, the Yankees don’t deserve their pin stripes and the Steinbrenners doesn’t deserve a baseball team.

Where in the heck is the salary cap?

All the good players end up on the same teams. Every year it’s the same teams missing the playoffs as the year before.

Every year the Yankees spend more money, and every year it seems to backfire.

When is this going to end?

-Daniel Martin is a journalism junior.