Despite the fact that my favorite announcer ever (Phil Rizzuto) was an ex-ballplayer, one of my biggest pet peaves is the free job ex-players get in broadcasting, on Web sites like Yahoo and ESPN.com and even on local news affiliates. A person should only be allowed one easy, cushy and fun job in their lifetime.

Being a broadcaster has to be one of the coolest jobs on the planet. You get to watch every game for free in good seats. It's the only live way to watch a game and still have instant access to instant replay. You get free ballpark food, get to fly all over the country and stay in the best hotels. Why should someone who has already had a job for eighteen years and has accumulated $15,000,000 while doing so get another great job like that. The rest of us poor slobs should get that chance.

Then think about the antipathy of the announcer who is doing play by play who went to school for broadcasting and spent a lifetime moving up from the bushes and riding buses having a partner who was handed the job because the color guy won 14 games a couple of seasons? It's as bad as all those great post office jobs going to former soldiers so they can spend the rest of their lives behind the counter scowling at people.

Have you read Joe Morgan on ESPN.com or Jack McDowell on sports.yahoo.com? They sound like they are writing 9th grade what-I-did-this-summer numbers. I could write a column better than that. McDowell's great contribution today was that the Yankees acquired the best pitchers so they should win their division. Profound stuff, eh?

Sometimes it works. Bobby Valentine, Harold Reynolds and the former nasty boy from the Reds (whose name escapes me at the moment) do a great job, but it is still Berman or Ravitch and Gammons who bring the show home. Joe Garagiola was one of the best announcers of all time. But I guess the point is that there has to be equally talented color men in other places who have paid their dues and gone to broadcasting school who could do as good a job or better. They should get the chance.

The automatic filling of jobs by ex-ballplayers smacks of cronyism in a world where cronyism isn't allowed anymore. And the cronyism is pervasive. Johnny Miller broadcasts golf, NFL pairings feature ex-players all across the line and basketball has its share as well.

I say forget the ex-jock who has already had their fun and made their money. Let a regular joe compete for the great jobs now taken by washed up semi-superstars.