As if there is not enough stuff going on in the world today, the players of Major League Baseball are considering going on strike this Sunday, ending the 2002 baseball season two months before the World Series – and just thirteen days before the first anniversary of September 11th.

I am personally disgusted by the threat of a strike made by these ridiculously overpaid jocks. I can certainly understand not taking a new job because you cannot live on the salary being offered to you, or leaving a current job because you need to make a better income – but I refuse to pity ball players who make millions of dollars a year to simply play baseball and even more money in endorsements when they say they need more money.

Let’s take Derek Jeter for example. This twenty-something year old kid makes seventeen million dollars a year from the New York Yankees, and countless millions more from endorsements, autograph signings and merchandising. Basically, he could retire right now if he chooses and never have to work another day in his life – so why does he need more money?

The last time the baseball players went on strike was in 1994/1995. That strike cost the fans of Major League Baseball 938 games and a World Series. And when the players came back to work – it took a long time and a lot of coaxing by Major League Baseball to get the fans back in stadium seats. But if they strike now – they do so on the heels of the anniversary of the worst atrocity to ever happen in this world and at a time when seeing a good ballgame is the perfect distraction from the flood of potential foreign wars, missing children and falling economics that have been raining down on this country since September 11th.

Bottom line – if they strike, I’m out. No matter how long the strike lasts, even if it is only one day – I will never watch another baseball game again – and I have a feeling that I won’t be the only one.

I have already seen baseball fans holding signs that say things like, “If you strike, don’t come back” and “Strike? You’re Out!” which gives me the indication that this potential strike could be the final death blow to Major League Baseball. Between losing two hundred and thirty two million dollars this year due to a sagging economy and the now infamous YES Network/Cablevision battle, I seriously think that this strike, if carried out, would put the final nail in the coffin for America’s pastime.

So to these pampered and overpaid baseball players, I say this: If you strike two weeks before the anniversary of a day when real role models gave their lives for less money then you make in a day simply because you want a few more zeros at the end of your already inflated paychecks – then strike for good – because no matter if or when you come back – I won’t.