Bling Training Winding Down

This weekend marks the end of spring training and the start of the regular season for MLB. At the beginning of spring training, Doug Glanville provided excellent insight into what spring training is like from a player’s perspective in a piece for The New York Times.

As he recounts how the amenities and the stadiums improve with each step up the major league food chain, Glanville also tells of a similar phenomenon occurring off the field as well. Glanville writes, “What you covet as you advance is determined in part by the people ahead of you.” This jealousy or insatiable appetite of coveting what the people ahead of you have could explain the “whatever means necessary” approach some ballplayers took earlier this decade to land those fat contracts and give them the financial resources to acquire those goods.

Glanville does not speculate that this desire to acquire goods and be equal in the minds of one’s peers would lead some to make less than ideal moral decisions. Greed is the overriding factor that led many athletes to cut corners and not rely on their natural abilities alone. There could be other factors at play, but greed is the driver influencing these decisions.