Friends,
Today is the Black Friday of Major League Baseball. Is Black Friday the shopping term? The day after Thanksgiving? Right? Well, whatever they call the day when the stock market went in the shitter back when the Depression started, that's what today is for baseball. Why?
Item the first, Barry Bonds. Yes, at one point in time he was a great baseball player, with a marvelous mustache...but that was back when pitchers were afraid to face Bobby Bonilla. Today, Bonds was indicted by the federal government on 4 counts of perjury, and 1 count of obstruction of justice. The government was looking into the company that supplied steroids to Bonds, BALCO, and their drug ring. So today, after four years of searching, they nailed Bonds, who said during grand jury testimony that he had never knowingly used steroids (heretofore said as P.E.D [performing enhancing drugs]). The government I suppose through cunning use of common sense and working eyes, has decided Bonds did in fact use PEDs intentionally to E his P. The real damning part of this...the government says they have positive drug tests on Bonds. What?! How did they get those...and why didn't MLB have them? Could it be MLB was covering up positive tests? Doesn't matter. Bonds faces up to 30 years in jail for his actions, and officially ruined his career. The funny thing is, if he is found guilty (and the feds rarely lose), MLB will probably revoke his records from the record book, so Henry Aaron will be re-installed as the career homerun leader.....and Mark "I'm Not Here to Talk About the Past" McGwire will be the single season leader. Yeah, that's fair.
Item the second, Alex Rodriguez signed a 10 year, 275 million dollar contract with the Yankees. Good for him, but I'm including this as part of the Black Friday of baseball (which is so bad it happened on a Thursday), because it is another huge contract screwing the economics of the game in a big, big way. 27.5 million dollars a year? Really? The entire payroll of the Flordia Marlins is hovering around 30 million. That's 25 players for 30 mil., or Alex Rodriguez and somebody for a mil and a half...so, Sal Fasano.
Combined, these are the two things that are ruining baseball. Ridiculous contracts that throw off the competetive balance, because no matter what happens, certain teams cannot compete with those kind of contracts, and are destined never to have great players for their career because they can't pay them. And then there's the drugs which ruined the integrity of the game, and that's actually important in baseball because if any sport is reliant on its history, it's the MLB. So for the rest of the day today, probably tomorrow through the weekend, it's going to be all drugs and money, non-stop. Even during the football games they will talk about it. And, I've watched enough West Wing to know the importance of controlling a news cycle, and this money & drugs will cycle, and cycle for weeks, especially because there will be so little else to report. No one cares about the NBA or the NHL...so unless Randy Moss hits someone with his car again, it's going to be a long, sad winter.
And, you want to know what else is shitty? I dropped a spot on the men shitting google page. For a while, the rankings went 1)www.scatmen.com, 2)www.scatlover.com, 3)www.poopreport.com, then 4) b-o-m-m.blogspot.com. Yes, we were one notch behind the mighty Poop Report. I had a post planned about how I was going take down poop report big time, stage a poop coup. But I've been usurped by some other site without a memorable name, so I am now 5th. This cannot stand. C'mon men shitting seekers...let's get BOMM back where we deserve!
VIVA EL MUSTACHE!
PS...Danielle, my wonderful Sailboat, thanks for the props on your site, and limmerick challenge has been accepted.
November 15, 2007
Dark, Dark Days
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5 comments:
I think the Matt Williams revelation was more damning for baseball than today's news. It's becoming very obvious that everybody in baseball was either cheating or complicit for a long time. Now it's all coming out and MLB is forced to confront the issue in the glaring light of public scrutiny. That's a good thing. And baseball has never been squeaky clean to begin with, its owners have always been fools, and the game has always survived.
The A-Rod thing, I think, is also overblown. Look at any industry. The titans make mountains of cash, be they attorneys, artists, CEOs, actors (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_highest-paid_actors).
The reason ARod makes what he makes is that the owners make what they make. I feel better about ARod pulling down a quarter-billion than Keanu Reeves for two flicks.
And have the big salaries really hurt competitive balance? The Rockies were in the Series this year, and other low-budget teams have been in the postseason. I'm convinced the big spenders aren't as bad for balance as the teams that cry small-market and pocket luxury tax money without improving themselves anywhere but the owners' bottom lines.
Just my 2¢
The Flynn of Ages speaks some fine truths. It's really the owners who refuse to spend money--usually "out of principle"--that hurt the game by willingly not fielding a competitive team and shorting their fans. But you almost never see these people in financial trouble. Why? Because the money they don't spend on players goes into their pockets. They don't seem to understand that a small market team ends up not being small market when they have the big boys drawing big crowds. For example, (and this isn't really a baseball example) the Colorado Avalance of the late 90s and the early part of this decade. Or the San Antonio Spurs. Or even if you want a baseball example, look at the San Francisco Giants in the Barry Bonds era. Granted, not exactly "small market," but they were about the price of a hot dog away from moving to Tampa before Barry blew into town.
The idea that the Yankees and Red Sox are ruining baseball by spending a huge amount on players is a little ridiculous, especially when you look at the fact that their games consistently grab the most viewers in the country and sell more tickets at away games than other teams do. David Glass does a lot more harm to the game than George Steinbrenner by not giving his team's fans a postseason appearance since 1985, usually by selling off players like Johnny Damon, Germaine Dye, and Carlos Beltran as soon as they're coming into their primes. Don't count on the Royals holding onto Mark Teahen for very long; as long as Glass has a tight hold on his purse strings, Teahen could be traded at any time.
To paraphrase about a million baseball people over the ages, it's not the high price of stars that is upsetting, it's the high price of mediocrity (see: Zito, Barry).
And don't think it doesn't kill me that former Giant Matt Williams is the center of steroid controversy, as well. Though, it is comforting that the allegations stem from his Arizona days.
And that's about 4 cents right there.
My problem with the contracts isn't that people get them. I mean, if I could get 27.5 million dollars a year for writing stories or teaching or whatever, damn right I'd do it, fairness be damned. My problem is the situation it puts smaller teams into once their premier players are nearing contract years.
Look at the Twins. They have the best picther in the game in Santana, and they have no choice but to trade him because under no circumstances could they hope to retain him after this year because he'll command 20+ million dollars a year. Does he deserve it? Well, if Gil Meche deserves 11 mil annually, then damn right Johan deserves more than that. But at the market price of 20+ mil a year...where will he wind up? Angels? Yankees? Red Sox? Maybe the Mets or Texas? So, we got five teams willing and capable of shelling out that kind of money. What about when Holliday becomes a free agent, and he'll get the going superstar rate, which he earned, but where could he sign for his value? Angels? Yankees? Red Sox? Maybe the Mets or Texas? That's my complaint about the market. Five teams get to bid for the superstar players, and their originating teams can only get lucky with "hometown discounts," like what St. Louis did with Pujols (but likely won't happen again, so he'll get to play for either the Yankees, Red Sox, Angels, Rangers or maybe Mets). So for small market, even medium market, teams to compete, they need perpetually incredible drafts, dumb agens, or sentimental players to consistently compete over the years.
Things is, I can't fix it. And the only way to fix it would be collusion or a return to the system pre-Curt Flood (which I wouldn't want either).
As for the drugs, yes, it was inevitable. But I hoped, just hoped, I could be wrong. Like the little boy in the little league uniform in me wanted to believe Bonds was clean, or that baseball wasn't so dirty (yeah, I agree with Matt Williams...that whole Bay Area was bad for drugs...whose next...Casey Lansford?)
It's not that the Twins can't afford him, though. Remember, they have that new stadium opening in a couple years, and Santana is the kind of talent that could fill it.
The thing is the Twins won't try to sign him because they don't want to spend that much. The idea that teams can't afford those contracts is a little ridiculous. Keep in mind, too, that the Twins draw from an incredibly wide area, as compared to teams with competition in the area. Unlike the New York teams, Chicago teams, LA teams, Bay Area teams, and the like, the Twins are the only show in town. In fact, they're the only show for quite a wide radius.
The point is, the Twins can damn well afford to pay Santana. They'd just rather cry foul when another team offers him the contract.
Knowing nothing about the Twins ownership financial situation, I will need to disagree with you on the Santana business.
Minnesota, and this whole nothern region, isn't much for baseball. It's a hockey and football town, through and through. They may be the only game in town, but they rarely sell-out the Metrodome. I know I went to a White Sox game, the year before last, and the Sox are the Twinkies biggest rival, and both teams were playing well, and the game wasn't a sellout. And it was a Friday game.
Also, tickets for the most part, are pretty damn cheap. So on those days when Twins fans show up, they aren't raking in much money, as compared to San Fran, or the Chicago teams, etc.
And I'm willing to bet that many Twins fans are more like Vikings fans just watching baseball until football starts back up.
So while they may be the only game in town, that doesn't mean much. It's like being the only one in town who serves boiled goat head. Sure, some people will try it, but on the whole, you just aren't going to sell much boiled goat head.
Now, let's look at the economics of this situation. Say Johan wants 20 million a year (conservative estimate). And the Twins have a payroll of 85 million (which is 14 million higher than the start of 2007). So for one player, a picther who has an impact once a week, will take up roughly 1/4 of the entire teams payroll. Also, let's consider that Morneau, a former MVP, also needs to get paid, and paid well. He's arbitration eligible this year, but if the Twins wanted to lock him up long term, it will take some money. So, let's allocate 15 million for him to sign him long term, so for two players, we have 35 million out of 85 million. Let's add Mauer's contract, which is roughly 8 million a year.
So we have 43 million, or HALF of the teams salary for 3 players. We still have 22 other players, and 42 million to get them. That works out to 1.909 million per player if it were spent evenly across the field. So that means no resigning Joe Nathan, no Torii Hunter, no resigning Cuddyer, or the ability to plug other holes with good players so they could be competitive. No above average players either. Shit, you couldn't even afford a Gil Meche type player. Because if you did, the kitty to pull from to put other respectable players out there would be much smaller.
True, you could use rookies, but if they are stellar, which they would need to be, they will hit their arbitration eligible years and command money that will force them, or other players, out especially if the Twins are already locked into contracts with Morneau, Maurer, and Santana that suck up half of the payroll. And, how often does a system, any system, have enough league-ready, quality players, to fill that many roster spots.
Another option would be to plug holes with reclamation projects, or sub-par veterans and hope for career years (like the Twins have done in the past, eg Nick Punto).
So neither option is really viable in the long run because you'd need a remarkable steady stream of quality rookies and lightning-in-the-bottle vets to stay competitive yearly, or at least during the duration of the long contracts.
Therefore, the Twins cannot afford Johan Santana.
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