It has been said that baseball is not just a game, but a way of life. I take this message to heart, while some people don’t think of it as a literal term. There are 162 games per year in a Major League baseball season, not including close to 30 spring training games and up to 20 postseason games. Baseball consumes eight months worth of my time, so I’d say it is a lifestyle for me.

It’s played as a job, by teens eyeing the big leagues, and by children just for fun. Kids think of playing in World Series games in front of huge crowds of screaming fans. Teenagers think of how close they are to playing professionally, and men that are already there think about what the alternative would be like, not playing baseball and making millions of dollars.

Baseball is not about the profit to me, but about the production on the field. Because of teams like the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox, money has become a primary focus instead of the actual game. They basically sway the best players available to their team with their bottomless pit of money. Other small market teams can’t compete with the big fish, and have to develop their young players quicker than before, maybe even before they are Major League ready.

To serve as an example, the Oakland Athletics have shown in recent years that success does not always come with big money. They consistently have a payroll in the bottom five in all of baseball, and have kept up with the Yankees and Red Sox in production. They have yet to win a championship with the low-risk, high-impact mentality they take when signing free agents, but are inching closer every year.

The Tampa Bay Rays made it to the World Series only a year after they finished 66-96, last place in the American League East division. The team was led by a young core of Carl Crawford, Evan Longoria, and pitcher James Shields, all of whom were acquired in previous amateur drafts. The Rays had the second lowest payroll in the Major Leagues ($43,820,598) and they beat the Red Sox ($133,440,037) to make it to the World Series.

Paying baseball players is not a bad thing at all, especially considering I am one. I wouldn’t mind making a couple million dollars per year to play a sport. But there are too many bad contracts and too much money is shelled off to players that don’t deserve it.

My point is that baseball was invented as a game and, like the saying goes, became a way of life, but not in the right way. It should be considered a way of life because there are so many games played by so many people year-round. It should be played for the sheer joy it brings, not just for the moolah.