07.30.07
For the love of the…money
Over the weekend as I was driving to the Hot Air Balloon Festival in Stark County to work I was listening to ESPN Radio and heard a statement that simply blew my mind and got me thinking. I was listening to a Diamondbacks-Braves game (yes you can listen to westcoast stuff on ESPN radio…its fantastic) and they were talking about Randy Johnson. Most people know that he has always been a dominant pitching force (even appearing in the major motion picture Little Big League) and some people may also know that he is 12 wins shy of 300 and that he is having his 2nd back surgery in two years; effectively ending his season.
The announcers were talking about the fact that Randy is going to give it one more go next year and hopes to come back healthy for his final Hurrah. Now the part that drove me crazy is that the announcers said he’s coming back simply because he owes it to the Diamondback’s franchise. Are you kidding me? I can think of two reasons why Randy is coming back. One involves one of the most respected fraternities in all of sports (the 300 win club) and the other involves 9 million dollars. (Perhaps he should hire T.O.’s old PR woman)
When it comes down to the basics of the sport of baseball it goes like this: Yes it’s a team sport but the records are incredibly individualistic. It is so rare to see players giving it all just becuase of the team they are with. In fact we may have seen the last two selfless players in the league this weekend when Tony Gwynn and Cal Ripken Jr. were enshrined together in Cooperstown. Both players played their entire careers for their hometown teams and never left to chase records or rings. (Put Gwynn on the Yankees for the 2nd half of his career and he’d have enough gold to fill Fort Knox).
Side Note: You could put a guy like Craig Biggio in that group who, in his 18th year, is still performing well for the same team he started with. His 3,000th hit was well deserved and possibly the best moment in the MLB so far this year.
When it comes down to it players rarely actually care about the team they play for. All they truly care about are rings, Rolls-Royce, and records. I’ll give a few examples…
*Do you think Barry is trying to break Hank’s record for the good of San Francisco?
-A-Rod is going to be opting out of his contract this fall with the Yankees for greener pastures (Literally) somewhere else. I have a hard time believing that he signed a record deal with the Rangers because of his love of Texas Toast and I have an even more difficult time thinking that his new $30 Million a year contract that Boston will most likely give him will be becuase he wants to further his knowledge of the Irish Heritage and culture.
-C.C. Sabathia has come up through the Indians farm system and has become one of the most dominating forces in the game today under the guidance of the Tribe coaches. Something tells me team loyalty won’t be on his mind next year when he’s making $20 million-plus in pinstripes.
-Even my beloved Travis Hafner (PRONK!!) is searching for the money. Earlier this year he said he wanted to test the free agent waters and only recently signed a lucritive deal with the Indians because he’s struggled this year and wanted to make sure he didn’t lose his value.
All over the league players take more money instead of staying with the team that made them known and so often players stay way passed their prime simply to obtain records and numbers. (Ahem…Sosa) It would be refreshing if, even for one season, these guys didn’t play for the money, removed the stats and simply played the game for the reasons it should be played.
Professional baseball players lose sight of the fact that they are one of the few who can answer questions like: Is that grass as spongey as it looks? Does red brick hurt less to slide on then that kitty litter we play on? What does a Rivera cutter look like from the plate? How far does Zito’s curveball actually drop? Do you still get chills every time you jog out to your position to a standing ovation?
Where you guys play the sun shines daily, the lights glimmer nightly and little kids worship you more with every double to the gap and barehanded play. Forget the money and records… play for the love of the game.
“You gotta be a man to play baseball for a living, but you gotta have a little boy in you, too. -Roy Campanella
jd said,
July 30, 2007 at 1:15 pm
Fantastic work here, and too true. It’s funny how every level of sport you climb, you start to lose a little bit of the point, that you’re supposed to be having fun. High school sports start to look like a job, college can kill your spirit too, but in the pros, you are getting paid to be there, and that golden ticket is like winning the lottery. Sports are fun and it’d be great to watch all the pro players perform with the love that made them put on a glove for the first time when they were young. That’s why the people who just thoroughly enjoy playing the game are the most fun to watch (Grady Sizemore, Ken Griffey Jr., Khalil Greene, Tom Glavine, Greg Maddux, etc.)