A rchive Date
[ 27-06-2000 ]
Category
[ International Relations ]
sub-Categoy
[ Canada ]
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[CONTRACT MAKES YOU WANT TO HURL
By KEN FIDLIN -- Toronto Sun
December 13, 1998
After a while, the numbers just make you numb. So, let's put Kevin Brown's seven-year, $105-million US contract with the Los Angeles Dodgers into some kind of context we can comprehend.
At $15 million a season, and presuming full health, Brown will be paid about $428,000 per start. Presuming he's able to continue to pitch 250 innings a year, that's $60,000 per inning.
At that rate, he'll be paid about $4,500 per pitch. Or, in other words, he could walk back-to-back hitters, each on four pitches, and buy himself a luxury car with the proceeds.
And can you believe the length of the contract? Seven years? For a power pitcher whose arm is always one pitch away from oblivion? He'll be 41 in the final year of this deal. What are the odds he'll still be throwing baseballs for a living when the year 2006 rolls around?
TRUTH IN ADVERTISING: Just once, wouldn't you like to hear the truth come out of an athlete's mouth when he's in the midst of feathering his own nest? Roger Clemens' desire to win a World Series has been translated into nothing more than a naked cash grab. Fine. We can deal with that, but don't try to snow us. You could have a lot more respect for the guy if he said simply: "It's business and because Paul Beeston left me an opening, I'm going for the gusto. Randy Johnson got $13 million a year and I happen to have won the Cy Young Award two years in a row. My bargaining power will never again be this high. See ya.
W-HOOPS: It's no secret how far removed from workaday reality are professional athletes, but every once in a while we get a graphic example of how delusional these people can be. The NBA players have been taking their lumps from all sides during the lockout, but apparently they still didn't have a clue. When they decided to divert some of the "charity" funds from an exhibition game they have planned to prop up some of their "needy" players, the whole world laughed in their faces. Now they've changed their tune. If there is a needy player among the rank and file of this elite union, where the minimum pay is $272,250 US a year, then somebody's money manager should be fired.
RAISING THE BAR: With 34 points in 29 games, the Maple Leafs are on a 96-point pace. If, indeed, this team's hope at the start of the year was to make the playoffs, at what point does that goal change to something loftier? Perhaps home-ice advantage in the opening round? If you figure it will take about 80 points to make the playoffs, then the Leafs need only accumulate 46 points from their final 53 games to achieve that. To earn a top-four conference placing, they'll need somewhere from 90 to 95 points, clearly an attainable goal given their current improvement and the possibility of help on the way if they can ever find some place to move Felix Potvin.
 World Fact Book (CIA)]
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