With the recent creation of the baseball category, I feel obliged to talk a little about it now.

This is more of a gripe than anything reflective about the old pasttime or even vaguely commentary about the sport. Rather, I simply can’t afford it anymore. For the past three seasons I’ve subscribed to MLB.tv’s online streaming package, so that I could watch a ton of games all season, except for national blackout games and games aired in my billing zip code (which includes the Yankees and Mets which was disappointing to learn only after subscribing the first year that’s how it works).

And while this year is $10 cheaper than last year and includes lots of great new features and will no doubt be an improvement over last year’s quality and control (as was last year the year before it), I simply can’t afford it anymore. My argument is more than fiscal however. I can’t afford to contribute to a sport where the Yankees’s signings of Mark Teixeira, CC Sabathia and A.J. Burnett costs a staggering $423.5 million. Still my argument isn’t actually about those players, or any player for that matter. If the players are making that much money, that means the sport as a business model has to be making more than that for it to be profitable. Because no one would be interested in baseball these days if it wasn’t profitable. So imagine how much money the owners of MLB and these stadiums must be raking in.

So it saddens me. It saddens me that I get so much out of the game and especially out of watching the game, as many millions of other fans do each year. But this year I won’t be subscribing to MLB.tv online and I’ll have to be very cautious if inclined at all to go to the ballparks this year. The economy definitely has something to do with it. But I can’t stomach anymore reading about Manny holding out to be the highest paid player; or A-Rod making $200+ mil over the next 9 seasons while his legacy is tainted; or CC Sabathia making an average of $3,000 per pitch over the course of his contract. So I won’t subscribe in the hope that my lost $109 subscription will be felt throughout MLB. As if they’re even listening.

(like I said, it’s a gripe. It’ll probably fade by Opening Day. I don’t have a television so it’s been my only means to watch the sport. I also have to sort out the conundrum I just made for myself: creating a baseball category then professing I won’t have anything to do with it anymore!)