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September 02, 2009
To guarantee or not guarantee? That is the question.
In my disgust at the Cincinnati Andre Smith, the In contrast almost all MLB player contracts are fully guaranteed. Players can get paid for years even after career-ending injuries. My question is why the difference? In football the risk of injury is largely borne by the players, while in baseball by the owners. Is this because baseball is less risky and players have longer average/median longevities (I don't even know if this is true)? Is it because evaluating baseball talent is easier than football talent? Is it because of differences in the bargaining strengths between the respective leagues and players' unions? Is is just some kind of random path dependency? Comments open (for a short time only). Posted by Robert Lawson at 09:58 AM in Sports
Comments
The average career length in the NFL is VERY short, so your tentative hypothesis has some support. It also might be the case that there are fewer injuries that can kill a baseball player's career as compared to football. The physical pounding of football means that any knee or ankle injury can be a death sentence. But in baseball, those injuries can more easily be dealt with (and are less likely to be catastrophic when they happen - how many baseball players blow an ACL?). With the DH, you can play for years on creaky knees. Posted by: Steve Horwitz at September 2, 2009 11:12 AMMy guess would be that the incentives work in the NFL and don't in baseball. What sorts of injuries do baseball players get? Overuse injuries perhaps? If so, is there much that a baseball player can do? In football, perhaps the injuries are more a matter of how you tackle (and take tackles). Perhaps the issue of moral hazard looms much larger in football... Posted by: TJIC at September 2, 2009 11:13 AMthe baseball union, in short. far greater power than the nflpa, for better or for worse. Posted by: steve at September 2, 2009 11:42 AMDid you write this before or after knowing that Andre Smith broke his foot this morning? Posted by: Justin Ross at September 2, 2009 01:14 PMMy bad, I see you were linking to the story. Posted by: Justin Ross at September 2, 2009 01:15 PM |
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