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The Hot Corner: Baseball Business As Usual

The Hot Corner

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By Eric Horchy | The Suncoast News

Published: December 28, 2008

Surprise, surprise people. The usual suspects are at it again in the free-wheeling, high-spending free-for-all that is Major League Baseball's offseason.

The New York Yankees – public enemy No. 1 this time of year and still smarting from their postseason absence – have predictably dynamited the dam that led to this latest deluge of green. The team's three marquee signings in a seven-day span (pitchers CC Sabathia and A.J. Burnett and first-baseman Mark Teixeira) will run the Yanks for a combined $423.5 million.

Sabathia and Teixeira's contracts, along with the pre-existing deals for Alex Rodriguez and Derek Jeter, give New York four players making over $20 million a year. Going by 2008 team salary numbers, according to CBSsports.com, that small-but-loaded group, if combined, would make more in a year than half (15) of the rest of the teams in the league.

"How about Jeter…for, um…for the Marlins? Yeah, the whole roster. Straight up."

An offer as such is actually a pretty fair shake in fiscal terms. The Marlins entire team salary last season was under $22 million. Thrifty.

Heck, those guys would earn more than numerous nations' annual gross domestic product.

"Forget the Series, let's go for Anguilla!"

Along with the Yankees, other typically big spenders thus far have included the Mets (Francisco Rodriguez for three years and $37 million) the Cubs (Ryan Dempster for four years and $52 million) and the Dodgers (Rafael Furcal for three years and $30 million).

So what does all this mean for the remaining sorry saps in baseball?

Should Bud Selig cancel the 2009 campaign and simply hand over the hardware to the Steinbrenner Boys? Maybe just set up a playoff and send the Top 6 fat-walleted folks?

Should other lowly fans around the country have the tail-between-the-legs look, cancel their season tickets and concede defeat?

Isn't there a feel of déjà vu in the air?

Of course there is. This is the same song and dance that gets played out every offseason.

If you are a fan of almost any other team, then yes, it does feel like taking yet another punch to the midsection. But it always does.

"Sabathia? Ohhh, that's a kidney shot!"

"Burnett? Ughh, my ribs!"

"Re-signed Chien-Ming Wong? Okay, I'm feeling a little woozy here."

Sure keeping the faith can feel like trying to span an ocean in a paddleboat after these transpirations – hang in there.

Just as money does not buy happiness, neither does it guarantee sports championships. It helps in both instances, but promises nothing.

The Evil Empire has been crownless since 2000; Philadelphia once again historically took out the Mets en route to winning it all; Tampa reached the Fall Classic; and Minnesota, Milwaukee and Arizona nearly snuck into the postseason.

That was all just last season.

As Kevin Garnett exclaimed (however erroneously to Adidas' ad team's dismay) after the Boston Celtics' NBA title victory last season, anything's possible. And it's true. Fruitless as it may seem for many fans to even think of their boys suiting up next year, nobody knows who will be this seasons' Rays or Rockies or Marlins.

Every year it is a tough, jagged pill to swallow. Having to watch the big boys go wild and scratch more star names and astronomical numbers onto their rosters is enough to make one consider abandoning the game all together.

Instead, now is simply the time to swallow hard, take things for what they are and get ready for Spring Training.

Games – and championships – are won on the field, not on paper.

Eric Horchy can be reached at 727-815-1071 or ehorchy@suncoastnews.com

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