Baseball season is here and teams are just completing their fifth and sixth games out of 162. The Baltimore Orioles are the only undefeated team throughout the entire league while the San Francisco Giants and the Seattle Mariners sit with two of the worst records, respectively.

As the winter transitions into spring, allergies and sickness are still going around and getting the best of a lot of people. The Boston Red Sox have been playing an away series against the Detroit Tigers, but have been sitting a lot of starting players who are sick because of influenza. Sneezing or the sniffles would not stop a professional baseball player from competing, but Boston’s organization noticed their players’ symptoms and were not surprised when a handful of their players tested positive for the flu. The Red Sox will play Detroit one more time tonight before heading back to Boston to host the Orioles.

In the series between the Chicago White Sox and Detroit, two games were postponed due to rain; the Sox lost one (6-3) and won the final game (11-2). After playing the Tigers, Chicago hosted the Minnesota Twins and lost their first game (3-1) and won the second game (6-2). The Sox will play the first seven games of the season in Chicago, at Guaranteed Rate Field. After their homestand, they will head to Cleveland to take on the Indians later this week.

The Chicago Cubs lost their season opener against the St. Louis Cardinals (4-3) but quickly turned it around and won (2-1). Their next game was postponed due to rain, but the Cubbies would finish the series strong and win (6-4). After finishing their three-game series against the Brewers in Milwaukee, the Cubs will return home and host the Dodgers tonight through Thursday.

While 50 percent of baseball is actually playing the game, the other half revolves around money and the business that goes on behind the scenes. Everyone knows the New York Yankees have a lot of money, but for the first time in nearly a quarter-century, the Yankees lost their second place position for highest payroll, falling to third place this season.

The Dodgers now lead the MLB at $225 million (this is the lowest payroll for the Dodgers since 2013). In 2015, the Dodgers set a record at $270 million but this number quickly declined afterwards.

The Detroit Tigers now claim second place at $199.75 million, while the Yankees sit at $195 million. The average Opening Day salary for a major league player is roughly $4.51 million. Not even a two percent raise from last season, this is the lowest rise of salary since 2011.  

This makes me wish I tried a little harder when playing baseball as a child, but sadly, I was always sitting in the outfield playing with the grass because I was bored and unaware of how much money was tied to professional baseball.