Woo-hoo! Let's hear it for greedy athletes and hypocrites...... (1 Viewer)

[Greg Kolinski]

Not true "sports"fan,do enjoy various kinds of racing,but I believe th e pay the pro 1..football,baseball ,basketball etc is insane Its good tou can run fast ,are 7 feet tall,or weigh 400 lbs and can lift a car,but is it truely worth millions a year?
One thing that really put the "sports"obsession out in the open for me was when the head couch of one of the sports "basketball maybe"quit at Tulsa Univerity,and I heard a sports announcer on a local channel comment that"Now the school needs to show if they are really comitted to their basketball program"UMMMMM ,school, learning ,right???How about committed to teaching kids usable skills ,not graduate them with a worthless degree that 10 billion other kids have and are ALL unemployed.
I know ,it brings in money for the schools, thats great,but it really seems the emphasis on learning has dropped to 2nd place at many schools,maybe thats why when comparing our kids testwise to other countries the US gets smoked by Japan,and most of the other high end countries.

 

[JamieD]

Atheletes are hypocrites, owners are hypocrites and fans are hypocrites. If you lose a player to more more, you decry it as a travesty, and say it's ruining the game. If you get the player, you're on the track to glory! The two threads concurrently running here show that.

Yes, players go for more money. Why shouldn't they? A bad season or two, and no one gives a damn who you are anyways. How much "love" does Frank Thomas get in Chicago nowadays. For goodness sake, he's Frank freakin Thomas, and he got booed in the last 2 years! Players like being in cities they and their families can enjoy, but many (if not all) seem to think they don't owe the fans anything. Maybe they don't. No matter what the owners and players do, and no matter how much we complain and say we give up on the sport, they're still making money.

Owners and players are usually concerned about 2 things. Money and winning. Some (often the low money "bargain" signers to teams like the Yankees) are easy to spot as just wanting that ring. Others (A.Rod anyone) are just going to enjoy whatever money they can get, as baseball is a JOB to them.

There is no point begrudging a player taking more money to go somewhere else after saying they wouldn't. It's been happening since free agency began, and will likely never stop. They've got to leave an angle if they do stay (*tear* "I always said I wanted to end my career here, and now that I've gotten my 7 year, 110 million contract, I can"), and if they don't stay, why the hell should they care?

I used to be as bothered by it as Corbin, but I've gotten over it. Root for your TEAM. Hope they manage to assemble a batch of parts into a reasonably entertaining (since that's what baseball is becoming) team that might win a few games. And don't get attached to your best players, cause everyone's a free agent sooner or later.

Ask the Expos.

 

[Mike__D]

Philly is already making out from this deal... season ticket sales have dramaticaly risen. Philly use to be a big market for baseball, and saw a huge decline after the strike. Thome is just what the city needed.

Mike D.

 

[Corbin Stirn]

You are right, Reginald. I wouldn't have started a thread if Thome had stayed. But it is HOW he left that steams me. "I love Cleveland, blah, blah....." Also, yes it IS a 25% increase per year what Philly offered.......but as I said and NOBODY mentioned, once you get above $10,000,000.00(that's a LOT of zeros) a year(or even $5,000,000.00), what difference does it make? Most people would take a 25% increase instantly........but most people make only $25,000.00 to $35,000.00 a year. The cost of living as a percentage of your income is a lot different for someone who makes $35,000.00 a year as compared to $12,000,000.00!!! a year. That is the problem I have......show an athlete loyalty AND money, I'll show you an athlete who goes for more money. Now Thome is saying that if Cleveland had offered him just 1!! ........more........year, he would have stayed. UH.......yeah....right.:rolleyes
You've lived someplace 10+ years, you have tons of friends, you're settled down.......but as soon as someone offers you more money, get the moving vans out! Put it this way....Thome was not going to be POOR by ANY stretch of the imagination........he was going to make more money than 99.999999996% of Americans. The problem I have is the "don't trade me, I love C-Land, etc, etc"...BS that came out of his mouth. They showed him loyalty...he showed them none. That is what rubs me wrong. Just had to step in and tell where I was coming from.
Grant, I do like the Mud Hens and did go to see a couple of games(including a playoff game) and it was awesome! The new park is everything the old park ISN'T(like being actually IN the city..no more MAUMEE(blech)Mud Hens..that was a TOLEDO in front of the name). Now they are where they belong.It's a great place with tons of character, everything you can think of, and just a darn good time. And if anyone likes baseball at all and you live within 100, even 150 miles of Toledo, Go to Toledo, visit the stadium, and go see a game! You won't regret it.....

 

[Dheiner]

I'd like to see more athletes like Donald Driver and Leroy Butler.

 

[Carl Miller]

C

The problem I have is the "don't trade me, I love C-Land, etc, etc"...BS that came out of his mouth. They showed him loyalty...he showed them none. That is what rubs me wrong. Just had to step in and tell where I was coming from.

Not to defend Thome here, but I'd venture to guess that rather than loyalty, the real reason why Cleveland never traded Thome is because it would have been a public relations nightmare to do so.

 

[chung_sotheby]

What I think that a lot of people are forgetting that while it is $2.5 mil per year more, the actual value is $25 mil, as the total value of the contracts are $60mil and $85 mil, or a difference of 41.6% between the two contracts. So, would any one of you stay at your old job, which you love, for 1 year less security and 41.6% less pay in the end? I didnt think so. If the deals were about 1.5 mil per year apart and with the same length, I bet my salary that Thome would have stayed in Cleveland. But a contract 1 year longer and $25 mil more is almost a no brainer, no matter how much someone has job loyalty.

 

[Tom Vodhanel]

Not to be lost in this is Travis Fryman. He retired after injuries and age caught up to him. The Indians owned him a substantial *buyout*---something close to a million dollars I believe(?)---but he refused it and told the team to keep it because he didn't feel like he performed well enough in 2002 to really earn it...

The media has the Thome thing on the *front page*...but the Fryman gesture was reduced to a tiny blurb on the back pages of the local press. Of course the media on;y feeds us what we want...so...

TV

 

[Carl Miller]

The media has the Thome thing on the *front page*...but the Fryman gesture was reduced to a tiny blurb on the back pages of the local press. Of course the media on;y feeds us what we want...so...

Exactly. I think Mark McGuire did the exact same thing as well. Kirby Puckett was the first $3 million/year player and the hightest paid player in baseball...for about a day. He honored that contract rather than doing like players do today and demand it be renegotiated. John Olerud took less money to play near home rather than stay with the Mets. Even Griffey did the same when he turned down the Mets trade and left Seattle for Cincy.

Most players take the 'Thome The Money' route, but not all of them.

 

[Marvin]

. I think Mark McGuire did the exact same thing as well.

Yeah, but didn't Oakland trade him because they would have lost him as a free agent?

As for Thome, didn't he also say that one reason he left was to be on a competitive team? Maybe if Cleveland hadn't decided to act like a "small market" team and unload Colon, Alomar etc., they could have resigned Thome.

 

[Grant B]

Corbin
Glad to hear it's a nice ballpark, I went to the old dump once for 10 cent beer night (I dont know why I remember nothing about it )
I read a article today about the dreaded bums down south wanting Jeff Kent from the Giants - I know your pain.
Take care
Grant

 

[KeithH]

Andrew,

It would be nice if fans boycotted professional sports, but it will never happen, at least not in the US. For some ridiculous reason, many people continue to worship professional athletes. I like sports, but I go to one or two sporting events a year and that's it. I rarely watch professional sports on TV anymore. I'm fed up with the money and the lack of loyalty, not to mention the abominable behavior that many professional athletes in the US display.


Michael K,

That story about jewelry is amazing, though not surprising. It's must be nice when you can be as bad as the Bulls and make that kind of money. If I were a player for the Bulls, I'd be hesitant to spend money that frivolously. I'd feel like I haven't earned the money. I mean, let's face it. The Bulls suck.

 

[Jeff Kleist]

We just need a national sport change to Baseketball. I'd watch

 

[JustinT]

ESPN wrote a good article about the trade and interviewed Thome about his decision.

"I'm looking forward to this," Thome said. "I'm excited I'm here. I'm not looking back. They've made their choice. They're doing what they want to do in Cleveland, and I respect that, from a business point of view. But I hope people don't begrudge me because I wanted a chance to win. I wanted to go back to the playoffs again and experience the fun of the playoffs. And I felt like this was a place where I could do that again."

I think its pretty obvious that Philly is committed to winning NOW, and Cleveland is building for the future. Thome has been through the rebuilding process before and doesn't want to do it again. I think the Indians lost Thome the second they traded Bartolo Colon away.
I'm glad Thome went to the Phillies because its starting to look like a team will finally be able to knock the Braves out of first place in the East (with or without Glavine). I hope Thome adjusts quickly to the NL and has a big year next year. I can't wait to see him hitting behind Abreu and in front of Burrell.
BTW, the rest of the ESPN article can be seen here.

 

[Yee-Ming]

sounds a little like what happened in English football with Sol Campbell leaving Tottenham Hotspur for Arsenal over a year ago; obviously the money was good, but Arsenal were going places (Champs in 98, 2nd in 99, 00 and 01) whilst Tottenham are stuck in the middle of the table going nowhere.

to add spice to things, Arsenal and Tottenham are both North London teams, and fans of either will absolutely HATE the other. Campbell is possibly the most high-profile "defector" ever to switch from one to the other: he was an apprentice at Tottenham and played in their first-team for about 9 years, and was captain to boot.

now in "hindsight" it's clear Campbell was right: Arsenal won the Championship again in his first season with them, are currently leading the English Premiership this season and are also doing well in the European Champions League, whilst Tottenham are still stuck in mid-table.