I Have More Respect For Players Who Did It Because They Loved The Game..

[Mitchell]

With the season long suspension of the game's highest paid fraud.. Arod.. who will hopefully never make the Hall of Fame.. it puts into perspective.. of realizing that until the last.. 20 years.. many baseball players were involved in the game because they loved the game.. and not just for the money.

When I really started to pay attention to baseball in the 1980s.. the player who made.. $2 million a year.. was the highest paid player. Dale Murphy made that.. I believe.. after he won the two MVP awards in 1982 and 1983.

On baseball reference.com. they have a lot of the yearly records.. and salaries.. of the baseball players of past and present.

I'm well aware of the story of Hall of Famer Tom Seaver.. who was traded from the Mets in a salary dispute in 1977. Seaver had just signed a contract paying him.. $225,.000 a year, and then tried to renegotiate when he saw how high the salaries went. Braves Hall of Famer Phil Niekro made a million dollars a year when Ted Turner bought the team. Some of these guys.. while comfortable.. didn't make more than a few million for their whole careers.. unlike now where guys make 20 or 30 mil a year.

I recall a famous story in 1961.. where the owner of the Yankees at that time.. told Mickey Mantle that the owner didn't believe any player should earn more than the President of the United States. Jack Kennedy had just become president..and the president's salary was raised from $75,000 to $100,000 a year. Mantle had his salary raised to $100,000 a year.

While I know it will never happen.. I personally believe and wish they would bring sports salaries back to reality.. and more in line with what average people can relate to.. What would be so terrible.. if the average baseball salary was.. $100,000 a year.. with the absolute top people.. whoever they would be.. honestly.. like the Dodgers Clayton Kershaw.. for example.. making. a million dollars a year. They could control ticket prices, and merchandise prices.and make it feasible for the average fan to attend a game.

Truly a sad state of affairs.

 

[tklbd]

Agreed Mitch...but it's "business" these days, unfortunately!!! When Derek Jeter retires after this season...will he be the last of the "loyal to one team" (regardless of the money) types?? Last I can remember were Tony Gwynn and Cal Ripken Jr.?? (I know Mariano just retired last year...but it's been a while, before that)

And speaking of "making more than the President"...wasn't Babe Ruth once asked that question?? And his response was..."Well, I had a better year than he did!! LOL!!!

 

[Aphion]

And speaking of "making more than the President"...wasn't Babe Ruth once asked that question?? And his response was..."Well, I had a better year than he did!! LOL!!!

According to the story, Ruth ended by saying "How many home runs did HE hit last year?". A truly classic quote.

 

[Aphion]

Look back to the early 80's, when George Steinbrenner signed Dave Winfield for what was a-then unheard of amount of money. Did Winfield's numbers with the Yankees justify his salary? Yes, but it was slightly ironic that he didn't win a World Series crown until he joined Toronto, by which point, his salary would doubtless have decreased by some distance, I suspect. The one question that I often ask myself is 'How much would the players from the past command in salaries if they were beginning their careers today? How much would a club pay, in 2014, to have a young Rickey Henderson? If Ken Griffey Jr was at the peak of his career today, how much would they lay out in order to keep him on the roster?

I see a lot of comparisons between baseball's superstars and the football players that we have in the UK. Wayne Rooney, at Manchester United, for example, is now the highest paid player in the league, on £300,000 per week. His contract negotiations dominated the sports news over here, and when it was finally settled, I think there was a feeling of 'Are you serious?' among the majority of football fans. But let's be clear, would Rooney have demanded a transfer from Manchester United if they hadn't given him the new contract? Without a shadow of a doubt.

Manchester City have a team of superstars, top-quality players who can play superb football. When they win, its the minimum expectancy, and when they lose, people say "They should be doing better than this, with the players they have". I think the days of the one-club man in football, where a player could spend 15/20 seasons with one team, are over. Dangle a contract with lots of zeroes in front of a player, and he'll be on a plane and rushing to sign with another club, regardless of his position at his current club. Purists like myself may not agree with it, but thats the way the snowball is rolling nowadays.

 

[Mitchell]

bd, as you may know,. Chipper Jones.. from my team.., the Braves.. played with them his whole career. (Thank heaven). He should definitely be in the Hall of Fame when he's eligible. The other Braves legends. I know that Ted Turner released Phil Niekro at the end of his career, before Niekro spent his last few years with the Yankees, and Indians. Dale Murphy was traded to the Phillies for three mediocre players.

You mentioned Steinbrenner, Aphion. That man.. was.. to me... the epitome of greed and evil, and is the reason why the baseball players earn the crazy salaries. He had to have all the best players, and pay them far more then they were probably worth. He didn't win a World Series for 18 years from 1978 to 1996, until he hired Joe Torre, and good internal baseball people,. to run the day to day operations.

I stand by my assertion that no player is really worth more than.,. a million or maybe two million a year,. I used to love to watch my newly elected Braves Hall of Famers, Tom Glavine, and Greg Maddux. I was a fairly new member to this site when Glavine left the Braves after sixteen years,., to join the hated. (By Braves Fans) New York Mets, in the winter of 2002-2003. To me, Glavine was a traitor. He never pitched well against the Braves during his time with the Mets, and I used to love to see him lose to them.

I know we will never go back to the salaries.. or loyalty.. of the old time players. The guys who will be in the Hall of Fame from the Braves and Yankees.. Chipper, Mariano, and Derek Jeter.. will have stayed with their teams for their whole careers. They were/are great players who didn't cheat or do steroids, and they stayed loyal to their teams and their cities. It's a very nice thing to see, in an era where every player is just chasing the biggest paycheck.

 

[meangry]

Greg Maddux left the Cubs in free agency to sign a contract with the Braves that made him the forth highest paid player in major league baseball.

If people want to be this ignorant, that's fine. With total sports revenue generation where it is, acting as though it would be better if players were making 100k to 1 million dollars a season is completely unjustifiable outside of some quirky desire to see some 'love of the game' era that people romanticize that NEVER existed. And on team and city loyalty; owners and GMs toss players aside like they're trash, and have for time immemorial, if they can find someone who is cheaper/younger/better than the guy who has been a solid contributor but is seeing his performance drop, or better yet, it hasn't dropped at all but has been done preemptively.

Sports are entertainment for you, but they are a job and a career for the people who play them. Nobody goes to your job and tells you how much you should earn based on some completely arbitrary metric. Do you generate as much revenue for your company as Clayton Kershaw does for his? Are you in the top .0001% when it comes to your performance metrics that drives your company closer to the top in its field? I'm going to make the assumption of no, this is not the case.

And another thing, do you honestly think the amenities and the like of modern ballparks come cheap, or that just by slashing player salaries that you would see a single decrease in ticket prices? You're lying to yourself. And another thing...even in the modern world of pricing, if you can't find cheap tickets through the secondary market that make going to games affordable, that's on you. The attendance bubble has burst, and you can find tickets much cheaper than walking to the window.

 

[milagros317]

Sports is a branch of the entertainment business. If having Sandra Bullock star in a film put millions of extra asses into the seats, then she is worth the ten of millions of dollars they paid her to star in that movie. It is the same for baseball players. If A-Rod's steroid-filled presence on the Yankees put enough extra asses into the seats, where they bought $10 beer and $7 hot dogs after paying an outrageous amount for their tickets, then it was worth it to pay him that much.

 

[Sodahead]

Good post Mitch! As a fellow Braves fan, I appreciate your Chipper Jones reference.

At the risk of seeming difficult, hold outs and big contracts aren't new concept. Check this article out. I was really surprised when I read it but the more I learned about Ty Cobb I wasn't as surprised


http://deadspin.com/100-years-ago-ty-cobb-had-a-very-modern-holdout-473661349/all

 

[Mitchell]

People can disagree with me. This is how I feel. I don't like that actors like (Someone mentioned Bullock) earn such kind of money either. I still stand by my assertion.,

Someone mentioned Ty Cobb holding out for more money. I have a detailed biography on Lou Gehrig. He had his salary disputes in the 20s and 30s with the Yankees owner of the time, Colonel Jake Ruppert, who was supposedly a that time period version of George Steinbrenner, where he had the best and most expensive paid players in Babe and Lou, and the largest and most expensive stadium.

 

[magic fingers]

With the season long suspension of the game's highest paid fraud.. Arod.. who will hopefully never make the Hall of Fame.. it puts into perspective.. of realizing that until the last.. 20 years.. many baseball players were involved in the game because they loved the game.. and not just for the money.

When I really started to pay attention to baseball in the 1980s.. the player who made.. $2 million a year.. was the highest paid player. Dale Murphy made that.. I believe.. after he won the two MVP awards in 1982 and 1983.

On baseball reference.com. they have a lot of the yearly records.. and salaries.. of the baseball players of past and present.

I'm well aware of the story of Hall of Famer Tom Seaver.. who was traded from the Mets in a salary dispute in 1977. Seaver had just signed a contract paying him.. $225,.000 a year, and then tried to renegotiate when he saw how high the salaries went. Braves Hall of Famer Phil Niekro made a million dollars a year when Ted Turner bought the team. Some of these guys.. while comfortable.. didn't make more than a few million for their whole careers.. unlike now where guys make 20 or 30 mil a year.

I recall a famous story in 1961.. where the owner of the Yankees at that time.. told Mickey Mantle that the owner didn't believe any player should earn more than the President of the United States. Jack Kennedy had just become president..and the president's salary was raised from $75,000 to $100,000 a year. Mantle had his salary raised to $100,000 a year.

While I know it will never happen.. I personally believe and wish they would bring sports salaries back to reality.. and more in line with what average people can relate to.. What would be so terrible.. if the average baseball salary was.. $100,000 a year.. with the absolute top people.. whoever they would be.. honestly.. like the Dodgers Clayton Kershaw.. for example.. making. a million dollars a year. They could control ticket prices, and merchandise prices.and make it feasible for the average fan to attend a game.

Truly a sad state of affairs.

Mitchell I usually agree w/your posts and judging by those posts you seem like a pretty smart guy.

However this is one time, I have to disagree. I never understood the whole "they did it for the love of the game" argument.
Believe me if free agency, and players agents were around 60-70 years ago, it probably wouldn't have been too much different from today. The reasons players from the 40-early 70's didn't make much money because the owners had all the power back then, and believe me sports owners are every bit as greedy as professional atheletes, probably worse.

I mean think about it. Back in the day, if you played for a losing team, in a crummy city, you had to stay there for your entire career unless you were traded. Everywhere else if you were unhappy in your job, you can simply quit and find another job, but professional atheletes back then didn't have that freedom. Does that sound fair to you? And of course the Yankees owner said that to Mantle. But meanwhile that owner's salary was probably a helluva lot more than that of the President.
So why is he allowed to rake in the bucks, but the players, the actual product on the field, that generates the revenue are not? And I do realize Mantle cashed in, and why not? He was incredible. But there were a lot more players in that era screwed over by management.

My favorite manager of all time, Earl Weaver was actually a proponent of free agency, even though he lost a lot of good players through FA. He said it's not the players that have no loyalty to the fans, it's the owners

I mean the top three sports in this country(MLB, NFL, NBA) are all multi billion dollar industries. If you're one of the very best in a billion dollar industry you deserve to get paid. And don't blame the players. If someone offered you $20 million/yr. would you turn it down?

I agree the system needs to be fixed at least in baseball. But the players union will never allow a salary cap. A more likely solution is a salary floor. Force some of these cheap small market owners to finally spend some money to keep their best players. You'd be surprised how quickly some of the owners crying poverty would open up the checkbooks, if someone would hold their feet to the fire

 

[Mitchell]

magic fingers, I see your point, and I do know the history of baseball, and about the reserve clause.. when it was over turned, and when free agency got into swing. In fact,.., one of the reasons Tom Seaver was traded from the Mets.. was because he perceived that NY newspaper writer Dick Young.. attacked Seaver's wife.. for being "Jealous" of Nolan Ryan's wife, because Ryan was at that time making more with the Angels, then Seaver was with the Mets.

 

[magic fingers]

magic fingers, I see your point, and I do know the history of baseball, and about the reserve clause.. when it was over turned, and when free agency got into swing. In fact,.., one of the reasons Tom Seaver was traded from the Mets.. was because he perceived that NY newspaper writer Dick Young.. attacked Seaver's wife.. for being "Jealous" of Nolan Ryan's wife, because Ryan was at that time making more with the Angels, then Seaver was with the Mets.

Yeah I vaguely remember Dick Young as being kind of a, well, Dick(no pun intended). He was always stirring things up, making controversial statements. He's be perfect in today's media. I remember when he wrote an article about my favorite player growing up, Eddie Murray, when he was a rookie, calling Eddie's family racist. After that Eddie(who was kind of withdrwan to begin with) always held a grudge against the media throughout the rest of his career

 

[Mitchell]

Dick Young was an asshole. During the 1985 Pittsburgh drug trials.. Mets first baseman Keith Hernandez discussed an article Young wrote, saying Hernandez was "Lucky to get away with just his family destroyed". After that article, Young was supposedly shunned until the day he died. That was long after the Seaver fiasco that Young caused.