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Tuesday, December 12, 2006
Corporate types ruin baseball
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Furman Bisher
When the 37-year-old maverick Ted Turner broke ranks with the club owners cartel in 1976 and signed the maverick pitcher, Andy Messersmith, a bolt of disgust shot through the old guard, the bleachers crowd and any oracle who could foresee the future. Turner bestowed a “lifetime” contract for $1 million on the right-hander and precociously slapped this identifying label across the back of his uniform, “CHANNEL 17.” That was Turner’s bush league television station that was shooting for the majors, and well on its way.
This was the seedling. Ticket prices would go up, and up, and up, until you now pay as much as $157 for some seats in Yankee Stadium. The price of hot dogs and popcorn would go up. The price of parking would go up. Somebody had to pay for this tomfoolery, and who else but the fans? And, by the way, for all of the million or so that Turner laid out, Messersmith won just 16 games over two seasons and was gone. So was his arm.
Bring back the good ol’ Messersmith days. The market price has soared since. Baseball men are not the problem. It’s the corporate invaders, who think baseball is some kind of toy. If you can manage a zillion-dollar business grinding out widgets at a big profit, surely you can run a little playground game featuring sweat-sogged lunkheads. (Ah, but wait. They had yet to get involved with the arm-wrestling kings of negotiations: AGENTS.)
The course that baseball has taken since not even Donald Trump would understand. And you’ll notice that The Donald has been able to resist the temptation. A few seasons ago, a man of mild appearance, a commodities mogul in South Florida, John Henry, took the plunge. He had one registered credential, plus his wealth, of course.
“He loved baseball,” Edwin Pope of the Miami Herald said. “Just loved it.”
Henry bought the Florida Marlins, and shortly after had this to say about his new venture, sounding like a small boy lost in a wilderness. “I shouldn’t say anything, but it’s hard to be quiet when people are destroying the game. Anyone who says this is not destroying baseball is either ignorant or they just don’t care about the game.” He was alarmed at the fat contracts other owners were casting about. This was 2000, when the Texas Rangers blew the lid off the market with a $252 million contract with Alex Rodriguez, and they’re still responsible of $9 million of that each year, though he’s a Yankee. Also the year the Colorado shelled out $172 million combined for Mike Hampton and Denny Neagle, who between them won 40 games in a total of five seasons with the Rockies. The same Hampton whose arm has been under repair the past two seasons as a Brave, but whose paychecks go on.
But back to John Henry, now owner of the Boston Red Sox, whose payroll is the second most extravagant in the game. This is the same John Henry who authorized payment of $51.l million for the privilege of negotiating with a Japanese pitcher named Matsuzaka. Last I read, time was about to run out on his deadline.
Check the Cubs, you know, the nice, fan-loving Chicago Cubs. By the time the winter meeting opened, they had already committed themselves to $230 million in free agents, featuring Alfonso Soriano, his third team in three seasons. (Remember, this is a ball club owned by a newspaper!) Check Greg Maddux, who was beginning to look like home-folks in Atlanta. He is among several players who keep America’s moving vans on the road. From Atlanta to the Cubs, then the Dodgers now the Padres. A rumor that disturbed me was when the Braves were talking about trading Adam LaRoche for a two-inning pitcher; LaRoche, who hit 32 home runs and had finally given the Braves an established first baseman after a season of Robert Fick.
The free agent road is littered with crashes. On the other hand, consider Mark DeRosa and Henry Blanco, both cut loose by the Braves. DeRosa was rejuvenated in Texas and signed by the Cubs for $13 million, and Blanco, a backup catcher, was renewed for over $5 million. All the while, agents keep collecting their pint of blood — make that a quart — whether their clients succeed or fail. Club owners absorb the punch, any way it works out. They sign a player who falls on his face, the team fails. The player finds his game, and he becomes another J.D. Drew. The nomadic J.D. gave the Dodgers two years of his five-year contract, checked out for Boston, where he’ll play for — guess who? — the former purist John Henry. A fast learner.
I’ll be damned if I understand why I love this game.
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The Tuesday Countdown
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Jeff Schultz
10: Joe Johnson was injured and the Hawks lost at Sacramento by 25. If you wanted to know what was wrong with the team, there it is. Right now it’s a one-man show - and I shudder to think how that one man is going to be moving in a couple of months.
9: I know the potential downside. I know it’s not going to happen. But let me just throw this out there one more time: Allen Iverson. And before answering, “You’re whack,” can you really say that he wouldn’t make the Hawks better?
8: Deltha O’Neal has pled not guilty to drunk driving charges. Well, yeah. I mean, given that he plays the Bengals, I’m sure he’ll be given the benefit of the doubt.
7: Cincinnati has had eight players arrested this season. BetUS.com, an online sportsbook, has posted odds on their final total this season (through Dec. 31). The odds on 12 arrests are only 6-5. You can also wager on what position the next arrestee plays. The favorite: wide receiver at 1-2. Longshot: kicker or linebacker at 20-1.
6: Let me just say that, as someone who grew up driving on the Ventura Freeway, I can’t understand how Nicole Richie missed the sign, “If using cocaine, marijuana and Vicodin, please use surface streets.”
5: It just wouldn’t be right to drug test whatever poor soul finally takes the Alabama job. No man can live in that reality.
4: Can somebody please tell me how Brady Quinn won something called the Maxwell Award as the nation’s best college football player over Heisman winner Troy Smith? I mean, outside of the whole Notre Dame, quarterback, and possibly white, thing.
3: Here’s a number for you, puckheads. The Thrashers have 41 points in 31 games. Even if they go only .500 the rest of the season (51 more games), they will finish with 92 points. Last season, Tampa Bay took the last playoff spot in the East - with 92 points.
2: Newsflash: Greg Knapp has been contacted about the Stanford opening. OK. So who gets to be the first to phone in an endorsement?
1: Knapp’s interest in the Stanford is logical. Great school, great area, great conference. Also this: He may have three games left in his current job. Chances of him being kept longer than one more season are as emaciated as Richie.
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