Miguel Cabrera and utter lunacy

Just when Detroit Tiger fans probably thought things couldn't get any worse -- they did.

It was bad enough that, after a few years of being semi-contenders, the "brain trust", and I use that term very loosely, decided to get rid of whatever marketable talent they had. These days the Tigers look more like a Triple A team than Major Leaguers.

And now slugger, or at least former slugger, Miguel Cabrera is lost for the remainder of the season with a ruptured biceps tendon in his left arm. Simply by swinging a baseball bat.

But it gets worse. Much worse.

Cabrera is under contract through the 2023 season. Counting the rest of this one, let's call that five and a half years. The contract is also guaranteed money. Miggy gets the dough whether he's good, mediocre, terrible, or even not playing.

That figure is a whopping $154,000,000. Doing a little math, that averages out to roughly $76,000 a day, EVERY day for the next 5 1/2 years.

In other words, Cabrera will get paid more every day than the average school teacher, cop, plumber, electrician, accountant, etc., makes in an entire year. And likely twice as much as people in the service industry, mechanics, and whoever else comprises maybe 75% of the work force. People you depend on, even need to take care of one thing or another.

$76,000 a day. Every day. Most CEOs don't make anywhere near that.

This is utter lunacy.

Now that he's out -- again -- Cabrera will have only played 28 games in 2018. A guy who, even when healthy, had digressed to a .250 hitter, seldom hit a home run, racked up an RBI, was a mediocre fielder, and slower than molasses on the base paths. He's quickly gone from Triple Crown to Triple Clown. And an absurdly expensive one at that.

Do the math again. Twenty eight games equals out to maybe a million bucks a pop. For an over the hill player who's skills had already rapidly diminished.

And the Tigers are on the hook for another five and a half years at this mind-boggling salary? Whether he plays or not? And no matter how bad if he does?

Did I mention utter lunacy?

It's reminiscent of the $600 manually operated fastener impellers (hammers), and $800 swiveling insulated hygienic buffers  (toilet seats) the cost conscious folks at the Pentagon foisted on the American taxpayers a while back. Madness.

Want to know why it costs so much to go to a ball game these days?

And while on that subject, what gives with the slop they pass off as food at the concession stands? People have to pay six bucks for a leathery over-cooked hot dog they wouldn't feed to their neighbor's dog, let alone eat themselves. A draft beer that's probably worth about a quarter might run you ten bucks.

Nothing tastes like a ball park frank -- they say?

No doubt. Though I can't confirm it, I'd be willing to bet nothing tastes quite like bat dung either. And it's probably a lot cheaper and more nutritious.

There's a reason the Tigers couldn't unload Cabrera. Any sane Major League club isn't going to take on the outrageous salary of a washed up player that can't even stay healthy.

So now Cabrera, after getting an operation and that can maybe put him back together again, can kick back and do nothing -- while watching $76,000 a day pour into his bank account.

There's something really, REALLY wrong with this picture.