"I love being the highest-paid
player in the game. It's pretty cool. I like making that money," he
said. "You get crushed, but you know what? It's pretty cool I enjoy it."-Alex Rodriquez
OK, I'll give you that one.
But does greed outweigh performance? Does an obnoxious agent negate fifty plus home runs a season? Do we reserve admiration for a player's skills if we know we wouldn't want him marrying into our family? How do we separate the music from the noise?
When Scott Boras leaked that Alex Rodriquez was opting out of his Yankee contract, on the same day the RedSox won the World Series, you would have thought he rolled an orphan in front of a bus.
Bud Selig was "appalled at the lack of respect shown the game by the selfish and self-centered announcement of Scott Boras last evening." Writers and broadcasters shed rhetorical tears that poor little Dustin Pedroia had been robbed of his fifteen minutes of fame. Even Boras eventually got around to an apology.
Spare me.
Baseball only recently banned doing business during the World Series. For most of the last 100 years players were traded, managers fired and hired, and rumors flew as GM's used their week together to wheel and deal. Somehow we noticed Don Larson's no hitter. Somehow Carlton Fisk's homerun got reported. Somehow Reggie Jackson's three home runs were noticed.
Alex Rodriquez and Scott Boras took nothing away from what was a lackluster series. And here's a newsflash. It is 2007, and November at that, and most sportswriters are more interested in AP polls and the Patriots than baseball. The RedSox story was big news in Boston and a big yawn most everywhere else. Message to the Commissioner-any publicity is good publicity.
Major League Baseball has diluted it's premier event and prolonged the season beyond interest and reason. Bud Selig doesn't notice such things, but he does keep track of Scott Boras. Or more importantly, the money Boras gets for his clients.
The rest of us take note of ARod's greed, his fondness for strip clubs, his arrogance. But first and foremost we notice (or should), 10 straight 100 RBI seasons. A .306 lifetime average. A monster line for 2007 reading 54-156-.314. There is a story in those numbers. A story more historic, and more interesting, than whether ARod gets 30 million a year. Which he won't.
Babe Ruth made more money than the President of the United States. "I had a better year than he did", Ruth famously quipped. Mickey Mantle was a womanizer. Gil Hodges didn't hit in October. But we don't remember Ruth's salary today, don't care that Mantle enjoyed the nightlife, or put a bad World Series at the top of Hodges' biography. So why do we ride those same dead horses so hard when it comes to Alex Rodriquez?
What Boras is about to pull off is hardly news. He will set an outrageous price for teams to get into the bidding, imply that teams who haven't shown interest in ARod have made contact, leak bids that haven't been made, and maybe even throw in the old line about it being "not about the money" for a laugh. Toward the end there will be one mark that is getting strung along to run up the bids, and one bidding against itself and not knowing it. And Rodriquez will sign for $200 million or so over seven years with an option.
Why do we care? ARod is greedy. Who isn't? Boras is a manipulative liar? I'm shocked. Baseball owners have sawdust for brains? Already got that newsflash. Fans grumble then pay higher ticket costs? Somehow I figured that one out on my own.
I want to know where the best player in baseball is going. I want to know how he impacts his new team's lineup. I want to know how the Yankees replace an irreplaceable part of their lineup. If they really don't intend to bring him back, which is debatable. Somehow I think Rodriquez ends up back in the Bronx, because the Steinbashers may be the only team who can afford him.
The rest is noise.
For now I'll go back to cursing the Patriots and watching the NBA work itself into shape. I'll spend November figuring out why Ohio State is ranked #1 and Kansas #4. I'll enjoy the autumn air and watch the leaves change. But I won't worry about ARod.
"I love hanging with strippers when I'm away from that shrew of an old lady I got. I'm prettier than Jeter, so why don't the fans love me. I want to be noticed and admired in public, unless I'm with my stripper...that's when you should respect my privacy and sacred marriage."
Dudski - The timing of the announcement did take the glitter off of the John Lester story. 11 months away from chemotherapy and pitching in and winning the final game of the World series. Other than that, you got it right. husker Got it right too.
In this day and age of 24-hour sports networks, internet coverage of every microscopic fiber of every story, sports and otherwise, I'm confident the world can handle two stories of the magnitude of a four-game World Series sweep and A-Rod's pitch for an obscene amount of monopoly money.
That said, leaving a $25 million dollar a year contract with three years remaining on it so you can maybe make $27 million to $30 million per year instead tells me all I need to know about Rodriguez. Everyone's greedy,sure, but if my greed had already been satisfied to the tune of $200 million for my career so far, I might just have been satisfied to finish out my current contract as stipulated.
I hope the Yankees stick to their guns with A-Rod. Why should they be forced to bid against themselves for a player who's ALREADY under contract? It's ludicrous to me....
I'm looking forward to Rodriguez signing so that all the other name free agents can fall where they may. The thing about Rodriguez isn't much of an isolated event. Players opt out of contracts and file for arbitration all the time. It's not greed in my opinion, you should get what you deserve.
Excellent, as usual. And right on target about the diluted baseball season; if needing 162 games to establish the top tier wasn't already faintly ridiculous, then we certainly cross that threshold when we have a playoff system that seems to regularly let lesser teams through to the Series. I guess the weather in northern baseball cities is the only real impediment to baseball becoming a year-round sport on the order of tennis - and that obstacle is easily circumvented with a few more domed stadiums.
It's not dissimilar to comparing politicians of today and past decades. There are many past presidents who probably would have been demolished by their own vices or quirks had they been subject to the scrutiny of today's 24-hour press. And if anything, A-Rod is the prototype combination politician/baseball player.
Duds, truthfully it's not Boras or A-Rod that's to blame here....It's FOX Sports for letting Ken Rosenthal break the story. Rosenthal could have waited for the post game show after the celebration. BUT NOOOOOO
EVERYONE knows that Rosenthal with his brother Mike are HUGE Yankee fans and FOX should have stopped Rosenthal from airing it in the first place. Just like EVERYONE knows Peter Gammons is a Red Sox HOMER. Why didn't they let Peter Gammons break the story....because it wouldn't have happened. Gammons would have seen it as disrepectful and CLASSLESS.
IT WAS SELF SERVING REPORTING FROM ROSENTHAL!
Last edited by socratesofswat1 on November 6th at 2:49 PM.
Socrates-That is interesting. I had not thought anything about Rosenthal's role. Having said that, I don't blame a reporter for reporting. His job is to get their first with the news and he did.
Sporthink-I know I wouldn't have a problem with being overpaid. My problem is not being able to find anyone who wants to overpay me.
I think you hit on something important. No free agent is going to sign until ARod's contract comes in. Boras always gets the top free agents, not just for his ego, but knowing that he can drive the salary scale up for all his clients by pushing the ceiling on the top guy. But $30 million a year is $13 million more than anyone else is making. I just don't see him getting that for Rodriquez.
