This is phenomenal:

The White Sox will pay Jeff Samardzija $9.8 million this year, so he can probably foot the hundred bucks or so a month for his cable bill.

And if you think about it long enough, there’s enough here to make your head spin: Cable bills cost so much, in part, because of the huge subscriber fees charged by regional sports networks. Those networks pay out giant contracts to baseball teams for the right to broadcast their games, and that money, in turn, gives teams bigger operating budgets and drives up player salaries.

So Samardzija’s definitely biting the hand that feeds him, to some extent. But the cable companies really do gouge you. What the heck is “special service surcharge” anyway?