11.26.07
This is not a baseball blog, but…
…given that MLB is making inroads into China – such as Cal Ripken’s recent trip to promote the game in Beijing and Guangzhou – and the likelihood that the Padres and Dodgers will play exhibition games in Beijing in March 2008, we’re going to take this opportunity to bash the New York Yankees and Alex Rodriguez.
You don’t have to surf very long to find articles and blogs coming out of NY and elsewhere that Rodriguez is a “selfish” player and that he has a knack for underperforming. His stats would say that argument is really overblown. But now the Yankees have incentivized Rodriguez to selfishly pursue the home run record by awarding him a contract that will pay him up to $30 million for breaking Barry Bonds’ (likely final) mark of 762. In other words, if Rodriguez breaks Bonds’ record, he will earn a bonus higher than the entire Tampa Bay Rays’ entire roster made in 2007 (they’re not “devils” anymore).
Imagine: tie game, bottom of the ninth, two outs, Derek Jeter on second base, Yanks only need a single up the middle to win the game. A-Rod wins it for you with a two-run walk-off homer. Or loses it with a long fly out. Need a sacrifice bunt to help the team? With only 5000 or so at-bats left in his career and a home run record on the line, why waste them on rinky-dink hits? And just in case his homerun numbers trickle off with Bonds’ record still not in sight, the Yanks have made sure to keep ARod swining for the fences by paying him $6 million each for passing Willie Mays (660), Babe Ruth (714), Hank Aaron (755), Barry Bonds (762), as well as for setting the record. If in a few years you see a 38-year-old A-Rod swinging at ball fours, remember that he’s just trying to maximize his contract by trying to homer on every at-bat, which is what the Yankees want. And since A-Rod agreed to this arrangment, maybe those “selfish” comments about him are not without foundation.
(Withholding cheap jabs against MLB/Yankees that bonuses like this for hitting homeruns encourage steroid use, and against the Yankees for not giving ARod a contract that pays him to perform well in the postseason).
NATOR ADDS: TFF may not be a baseball blog, but I’d like to volunteer the suggestion that all sports are “fair game”.
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