In his 1935 work Permanence and Change, literary theory titan Kenneth Burke introduces what he calls the occupational psychosis of our world. He explains it this way:
There is a psychosis which might be variously called capitalist, monetary, individualist, laissez-faire, free market, private enterprise, and the like, the intensely competitive emphasis which has been with gradually and imperceptibly disintegrating with the growth of corporations and monopolies (cartelization) and the corresponding growth of nepotism and seniority (rather than the stress upon the qulifications of a "live wire") as the basis of promotion among office holders. Its psychotic force is probably best revealed in the professionalization of sports". (41)
Now I don't believe nepotism plays a substantial role in the on-field workings of baseball the way it does on the business side (or in business in general) - after all, how can we explain the fact that Bill Bavasi was even allowed to be a GM in the first place?. However, the issues of seniority is a big one. This is not anything new, or anything we all don't know about. Over the last four or so years the Mariners have been a laughingstock in Major League Baseball for riding players like Jose Vidro despite their lack of performance because they've "been through the wars," as so many at the MC enjoy mentioning.
However it is not that the Mariners are the only team to take part in such detrimental favoritism, but rather that this franchise operated in extremes. Taking a quick look at other players around the league, one may ask why Darin Erstad has a job this season give the fact that his season OBP totals have been .279, .310, .309, and .208 since 2006.
Further, one may ask why teams have paid Kip Wells to pitch (and not the other way around) when his ERAs over the past five seasons, including 2009, have been 5.09, 6.50, 5.70. 6.21, 6.35, a period in which he has been paid over fifteen million dollars. Wells is a strong example of a player being paid handsomely providing performances that can only be described as matronly. Mariner fans can certainly understand this, given examples like Richie Sexson's all or nothing 2007 and 2008 seasons. Though this brings up another issue, one that makes little sense on one level, but is clearly difficult to solve. That being the concept of rewarding athletes when they are past their prime for near-free contributions they made while younger, and perhaps being paid millions upon millions of dollars for intangibles like Griffey Guidance more than anything else.
This is exemplified in our old friend Richie Sexson, once again, who earned less than a half million dollars in 1999 and 2000 despite clubbing sixty-one home runs and driving in over two hundred runs for the Indians. In basketball Michael Jordan is an example of an athlete being rewarded near the end of their career (though MJ retired from the Bulls prior to experiencing any problematic twilight years), as his salary, after twelve years, topped out at four million dollars, but ballooned to just over thirty and just over thirty-three million dollars in each of his last two seasons with Chicago.
Some other non-Mariner names to consider include Julian Tavarez, Jamie Moyer, Daniel Cabrera, Kaz Matsui, Mike Hampton, Chan Ho Park, Garrett Anderson.
Certainly there are particular circumstances with each player that explain why they have been given second, third, or fourth chances following a failure. Jayson Stark, for example, wrote a great piece discussing Jamie Moyer's recent struggles and why he will continue to start every fifth day (at least for now) despite his inflated ERA and BAA.
It would seem that the idea here is that players who show some promise despite age and struggles will be given chances to succeed. The secret in negotiating this is strata is to avoid paying top dollar for a fading star, letting that pleasure go to the team that decided to award a long term contract in the first place, thus making it less painful to cut loose struggling veterans when they make it clear their skills have abandoned them. The past several years have shown us, the fans, that Bill Bavasi was a clear victim of the "pay up for seniority" psychosis. Whether due to the economic downturn or plain baseball business savvy, Z has so far shown that he can tiptoe his way through the psychosis without looking like a lunatic, let's hope the trend continues.
Comments:
From "Sancho Panza":
There is a psychosis which might be variously called capitalist, monetary, individualist, laissez-faire, free market, private enterprise, and the like, the intensely competitive emphasis which has been with gradually and imperceptibly disintegrating with the growth of corporations and monopolies (cartelization) and the corresponding growth of nepotism and seniority (rather than the stress upon the qulifications of a "live wire") as the basis of promotion among office holders.
Clumsy, and not just because of the word in bold. Not the best sentence Burke ever wrote.
If competition had already been disintegrating increasingly with this "psychosis" thing by the time of the Depression, how is it possible that capitalism survived, for great stretches thrived for another 60+ years?
From Daniel:
True indeed, but I guess that is to be expected when you're reading someone with no formal education. Those who do have that background can see where he missed some possibly important basics
I haven't read Burke's work in the order he wrote it, in fact I've only read one or two of his later works, so I'm a little curious now that you mention it to look at how his writing changed between the 1930s and the 1990s.Also, I am purposefully failing to attempt an answer at your question because I think you make a very good point
. Though I guess one could argue for adaptations that have been made to help prop capitalism up for a longer time than it should have lasted (I can't remember who wrote the work outlining the trends of past economic systems - thus roughly projecting how long capitalism *should* stick around, and why - was Arrighi? I'll check on that soon) but I am far from an expert on that and therefore shouldn't attempt to comment 
One thing's for sure, though, compared to past centuries, our current economic system has proven to be a totally different animal in a lot of ways and has thus disproven/surprised a lot of people.Anyhow, in reference to entitlement, it is nice to see that Z suffers from the "psychosis" much less than Bavasi did! At least so far... (I'm trying hard not to oversimplify the issue here. Of course there are MANY factors that play in to why a given player is kept around and overpaid for longer than they are valuable, this is just meant as a brush-by for the sake of discussion).
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