New Jersey native now the highest paid player in baseball

Mike Trout, the Vineland native and Millville High School phoneme just signed a $430 million contract making him the highest paid on field player of any sport in the world. Many Phillies fans were hoping he would sign at the end of next year with the team he grew up rooting for, but it was not to be. He will remain in Los Angeles for the next 12 years.

Trout set a New Jersey high school record with 18 home runs in his senior year with Millville, and baseball fans here wanted to see him play close to home again. With that kind of money over the next dozen years, it's hard to turn down. When he was a kid playing ball here and dreaming at a shot to play professional baseball, it was probably hard for him to imagine that he would be the highest paid baseball player in the world. It's hard for any of us to imagine that kind of money, but there's more to life than money. A lot of people have been talking about the huge contracts that have been signed this spring. How much money is enough to play a child's game. And how does this affect the average family that wants to take the kids to the ballpark to watch a game in person.

This is the free market. People get paid what the market will bear. You can point to a lot more important and vital positions in society that don't command the kind of money they deserve. Athlete's salaries will keep going higher until the people stop showing up or buying jerseys with players names on them. Sure I'd like to see Trout play around here with the Phillies, but it seems money talks louder than roots or hometown pride. To me being a slightly lower paid multi-millionaire near your family, friends and home is a lot more valuable but I'm not Mike Trout. Good luck Mike!

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