Teddy Ballgame
06-17-2005, 01:19 PM
- WHILE I don't believe that any professional athlete is worth a guaranteed (or an unguaranteed) $25 million a year (even in Canadian dollars), it looks from here like A-Rod is having the kind of monster year that makes him deserving of the highest salary in baseball (whether that salary is $1 million or 25 million).
- As of this morning, Alex Rodriquez is first in the AL in home runs, first in RBIs, third in runs scored and tied for seventh in hits and is playing a solid third base.
- And he's doing it all - including being the fastest player ever to hit 400 home runs - without adding another 35-40 pounds of juiced up bulk or carrying around a 50 pound superstar chip on his shoulder or otherwise being a reprehensible, self centered, me first and last prick like Barry Bonds.
- Another four or five years of A-Rod level production and he may actually draw enough fans all by himself to Yankee games at home and on the road to be worth in the vicinity of $25 million.
- But hey, compared to Teddy Ballgame, he's no bargain to the team owners. In 1957, 39 year old Ted Williams, the top paid player in baseball at $135,000 a year, hit an astounding .388 (the highest average since he had hit .406 in 1941) with 38 homers and an OBA of .528. Sportswriter Harold Kaese wrote that the third place Red Sox had an attendance of 1,181,087 that year, "The Red Sox drew 181,087 and Ted Williams drew the other million."
Now that, folks, was a bargain.
- As of this morning, Alex Rodriquez is first in the AL in home runs, first in RBIs, third in runs scored and tied for seventh in hits and is playing a solid third base.
- And he's doing it all - including being the fastest player ever to hit 400 home runs - without adding another 35-40 pounds of juiced up bulk or carrying around a 50 pound superstar chip on his shoulder or otherwise being a reprehensible, self centered, me first and last prick like Barry Bonds.
- Another four or five years of A-Rod level production and he may actually draw enough fans all by himself to Yankee games at home and on the road to be worth in the vicinity of $25 million.
- But hey, compared to Teddy Ballgame, he's no bargain to the team owners. In 1957, 39 year old Ted Williams, the top paid player in baseball at $135,000 a year, hit an astounding .388 (the highest average since he had hit .406 in 1941) with 38 homers and an OBA of .528. Sportswriter Harold Kaese wrote that the third place Red Sox had an attendance of 1,181,087 that year, "The Red Sox drew 181,087 and Ted Williams drew the other million."
Now that, folks, was a bargain.