AS I SEE IT COLUMN: The money in this year’s World Series is beyond obscene

It’s great that the fall classic is truly a world series.

Much of America will be watching the Dodgers. All of Canada will be rooting for our Blue Jays. The Dominican Republic is completely behind Vladimir Guerrero Jr. And all of Japan will be watching the three Japanese players on the Dodgers.

What isn’t so great is the jaw-dropping amount of money involved in this year’s World Series. While it has been undeniably exciting to witness the Jays improbable post-season run, we should not lose sight of the larger issue – that our society’s priorities seem wildly out of whack.

The palpable excitement here in Canada has been amazing – nearly one in four of all Canadians watched game 7 of the ALCS. Those viewing numbers prove that it isn’t just hockey that brings Canadians together from coast to coast to coast.

But the money involved in the game is outrageous. Even before the first pitch was thrown, many baseball commenters argued that the Dodgers and their massive team salary are ruining baseball.

The valid argument goes as follows: Because there is literally no limit to what baseball owners can spend on their rosters, they can simply go out and buy a championship team. And that’s exactly what the Dodgers have done.

Here are some numbers to add context to the idea that the Dodgers simply go out and buy a winning team.

Their total team salary is $509 million, more than double the Jays team salary of $193 million. Because the Dodgers exceeded the league salary rules, they paid $168 million in “luxury taxes,” the penalty for going over the team limit. There are 16 teams in baseball whose total team salary is less than the $168 million the Dodgers paid in fines. Make that make sense.

So if you have an owner who is more than happy to pay the luxury tax fine, there is literally nothing stopping him from spending whatever he wants on his team.

The result? The Dodgers have led the majors in attendance since 2013. They have a roster loaded with future hall-of-famers. Since 2013 the Dodgers have never missed the playoffs, they’ve appeared in four World Series and won two of them.

That’s what happens when you buy a championship team.

I’m not a fan of NHL commissioner Gary Bettman, but one strong move made under his leadership is the league’s salary cap. There is a maximum amount of money NHL owners can pay their players and there are serious fines and penalties if a team exceeds that maximum. The result? Parity throughout most of the league. There is no juggernaut, no team that is head and shoulders better than all the other teams.

The Dodgers invested over $1 billion in two, yes two players. Shohei Ohtani ($700m), the best player the game has ever seen and Yoshinobu Yamamoto ($325m), the pitcher who completely overwhelmed the Jays in game 2 of the World Series. They are fantastic players, but how many hospitals, how many schools, how many free lunches for underprivileged kids, could you buy for $1 billion?

The other obscene thing about the World Series is the ticket prices. For game 2 in Toronto, the cheapest ticket price was $1,410. The most expensive was $7,847. At those prices most Canadians can’t even dream of attending a game.

One final thought. Dodgers manager Dave Roberts publicly complained about delays at Canadian customs. He lives in a country with a deranged president that is closing the border to immigrants simply looking for a better, safer life for their families, where masked thugs round up innocent people, throw them into vans and ship them to jails in third world countries without any charges or court appearances, and he has the audacity to complain about delays at our border? Shame on him.