Mike Trout Makes a Million Dollars

Yesterday, Angels OF Mike Trout signed a 1 year, $1 million contract with the LA Angels of Anaheim. The deal though small, is the largest in MLB history for a non-arbitration eligible player. Just a couple of days ago, reports claimed the Angels were discussing a 6 years, $150 million contract extension with Trout.
When I read the rumors of the 6 year, $150 million contract I thought no fucking way! That deal is beyond fictional, it's laughable. The Angels already have the OF under team control for the next four seasons, and even if he (and he probably will) sets records for arbitration contract increases, his average annual salary over the next four seasons will probably be about $10-$12 million. That means, if he were to receieve the afore mentioned contract the Angels would be only gaining two years of service time, and Trout would be making about $50 million annually! That number is almost twice as much as the largest annual salary in baseball history! Sure Trout has some of the most impressive stats in MLB over his first two full seasons, but that kind of money for only two more years of service is just stupid. Sometimes I wonder who believes these reports.

2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi

The Winter Olympics have now come and gone and it was every bit as boring as it usually is. The Winter Olympics seem to just be about 100 different ways to see who can go the fastest on ice. The only sports I looked forward to were hockey and curling. The US had a very disappointing hockey performance and the US curling team is terrible too, but watching the matches was still entertaining.

The cost of building Sochi Olympic Park was an estimated $8.7 billion and the total cost of the Olympics was about $51 billion dollars. Now, with all the athletes and media leaving the area, the 40,000 hotel rooms, multiple ski resorts, and 700 sports grounds are left without am adequate amount of people to keep them profitable. The Russian public is expected to have to cover 90% of the total cost of the Olympics.

Freddie Freeman's New Contract

Freddie Freeman reached an 8 year, $135 million contract extension with the Atlanta Braves on Tuesday, a move that keeps the Braves first baseman with the club through 2021, and makes Freeman a very wealthy man . The contract buys out Freeman's three remaining arbitration years as well as five free agent years, keeping him under contract through age 32. The deal is the largest in Atlanta's history.

Last year, Freeman was an all star and in the top 5 in MVP in the national league. He's only 24 years old, and has improved his game each of the past 4 seasons. He got engaged a month ago, and now has $135 million dollars to look forward too. Things appear to be going well for the guy.

I know Freddie, and have since childhood. We met on the 9-10 year old all star team in little league, and we lived about 5 blocks apart. Even when Freddie was a kid we all knew he was better than everyone else. We went on to play at El Modena High School together, and we were really good friends. Since high school I don't see him much anymore. Probably about 2-3 times a year when he comes back to Orange for holidays and whatnot.

Proof we played together


Freddie Freeman


v My thoughts on Freddie v

Best Sunday of the Year

The Super Bowl was last Sunday and as always, it was huge show. The game turned out to be an absolute route with the Seahawks destroying the Broncos by a score of 43-8, but the NFL spent tons of money and it paid off them.

Superbowl 48 pulled in a record setting 111.5 million viewers this past Sunday, a gigantic mark that beat the previous high of 111.34 million viewers set by Superbowl 46. The 111.5 million mark set the highest total television viewership in US history.

The Bruno Mars headlined halftime show actually topped out even higher than the game with 115.3 million viewers; a mark that beat out Madonna and Beyonce's previous highs.


So, even though the game was awful, the NFL and FOX made a ton of money anyways. Each 30 second commercial slot ran about $4 million, or about $0.28 per set of eyes on the television.

I can't believe how much money flies around during events like the Superbowl. Four million dollars for 30 seconds of airtime is incredible. How the hell does the NFL have a tax-exempt status?