Sometimes, your intrepid columnist is stuck. The day I’ve scheduled to write will start with me having no bleeding idea what I will write about. I’ll scratch my head for most of a morning and sweat and strain to get down five hundred or a thousand words worthy of the pixels I’ll expend — if it looks good and entertains you, so much the better. Granted, the Mets haven’t made it easy on us blogging-folk so far this fall. The news cycle has been quite draggy since that glorious day that R.A. Dickey took home some silverware. A Brian Bixler signing here, a Scott Rice acquisition there, a Brandon Hicks or a Carlos Torres show up… It’s not anything that will set the back-pages alight. Sandy Alderson has put his Marine training to good use, as all information has been vetted, parsed and honed before it is released to the general public. Word is coming out of Queens with an eye-dropper.
Today, it’s different. My piece is practically writing itself today and news is filtering out even as I compose today’s article. I live for stuff like this in the offseason. This morning, Fox’s Ken Rosenthal reported that contract extension talks with David Wright and Dickey are moving very slowly, slower than anticipated. Several outlets claimed that the Mets offered Wright a six-year, $100 million deal yesterday and were politely declined. Come noon-time today, the whispers were that the Mets had upped their offer to seven years, — kicking in after an already-picked-up 2013 option – at around a $17 million average annual value. Apparently, the Mets are pretty stoked that Wright will take ‘em up on this one. Of course Jayson Stark – a Met-hater if ever there was one – opines that a deal will not get done before the Winter Meetings. Stark is from Philadelphia, used to cover the Phillies, wrote a book about their 2008 world championship and will never shrink from tossing the wet blanket over Met fans’ hopes. The beat goes on…
When I can post a group of disparate links like these, all on the same subject, now that’s exciting stuff. Is it Edward R. Murrow in London during the Blitz? Not exactly, but it’s better to be in the thick of things than trying to piece together something remotely coherent right out of my head.
And so…
The snow falls outside my window. We’ve just had Thanksgiving. The Christmas holidays are gearing up. The football Giants are rolling through their division. All signs and facts point to winter and cold. My thoughts, though, go first to Nashville for next week’s Winter Meetings, then to a Florida February, to prep for the Summer Game.
Ain’t baseball grand?
I’m attending the Hope Shines for Shannon dinner this coming Thursday. It’s a fundraiser for Shannon Forde, the Mets’ VP of Communications who is battling stage IV cancer and is one of the best people you’ll ever want to meet. I’ll make a full report next week.
Follow me on Twitter @CharlieHangley
If reports are really true that they offered him a 7 year extension, i think that Wright would be an idiot not to take it and Sandy would be an idiot for offering that much. Do we really want another Santana situation in 4-5 years?
Wright has been a very durable player over his career save for 2011. Santana is an undersized power pitcher with imperfect mechanics and a gigantic innings workload. The situations are not comparable.
7 years and north of $134 million total and today we learn that there is a balk due to deferred money.
I don’t like this.
The greed in sports is beyond out of control, years ago, and there seems no connection between reality and numbers. What is the difference between 100 million dollars and 134 million? In practicality, I cannot imagine it. Does it mean buying one less house? Does it mean buying one less Benz?
I have been working since I was 12 years old. I have been working full time since I was 18. When a player can make more in a single game than a working man can make in a year, it doesn’t go well to hear of 100 million dollars being turned down.
What about saving the Mets some money to spend on making them a contender? Where did that spirit go?
“Since I am already set for life, why don’t I take less with the promise that some free agents will be pursued to give me a chance at that World Series ring?”
Nope. It has to beat the deal Santana got, even if by a dollar? Posterity sake?
I’m aware that the greed in sports is an old, worn out soap box and that our young will say that they should get every penny possible and why should there be rich owners?
I have always preferred a small minority of rich, nasty owners, with an entire squad of down to earth athletes, than a majority of rich, entitled athletes.
I’m sorry, i have to disagree with most of what you’re saying here.
First of all, the reasons ballplayers make so much more than the regular joe is mainly due to 2 reasons. The first is supply and demand. How many people can hit and field a baseball well? Not that many. How many people can work in a factory? Almost everyone. So Low Supply coupled with very high demand means that contract prices will be high. Basic Econ. The second factor has to do with risk and reward. There is a huge amount of risk in choosing a sports career. Most of the people dont make it. Those who do make it must get compensated for taking a huge risk. Basic Finance. There are more reasons than those 2, but those are the big ones.
As for players fighting for every last dollar, it’s about the principle rather than greed. Also, the difference in a few million may make a lot of difference. A lot of Latin ballplayers come from very poor communities, and they usually give back so that extra 10 or 20 million could affect a lot of people.
I certainly do not prefer rich nasty owners. Saw that with M. Donald Grant – have no interest in seeing it again.
I much prefer the players get as much money as they can. I know that they earned their money through hard work. An owner could have inherited it or he could have “Ponzied” his way to it. Very unlikely he started his career taking bus trips from Brooklyn to Mahoning Valley or Vermont.
Agree 100% Name and Brian.
The chances of making it big enough to be discussing a 100 M dollar deal are so small that when one does beat those odds the onus shouldn’t be on the player to leave money on the table especially in this situation where the Wilpon’s purposely avoided drafting elite talent which would have gone a long way toward keeping the stands full, the win column high and the payroll low enough with productive young players to give Wright full value.
Instead the idea was to select lesser players who cost less to sign, give away draft picks, and trade them for useless players as window dressing or for cash.
It’s not the players responsibility to make up for the shortsighted and skin flint ways the owners ran the team.
7train, well stated. You, Brian and Name are totally correct.
Boy do I agree, it has been beyond quiet. It looks like the big Bixler move didn’t excite you any more than it did me!
out voted and too old; not a good combination. Shame I can remember when it was a game more than a business. I predate the Me First Generation.
I suppose taking oneself out of a game to preserve a batting title is right up there with grab every last dollar too.
Last I checked M. Donald Grant wasn’t a rich owner.
Now that i think about it some more, by far the biggest reason why ballplayers make so much is because of…. Us, the fans. Yes, we are the ones to blame. If you think about it, supply of ballplayers has increased, but demand is outpacing supply by leaps and bounds. With the increase in media, the rise of technology, and increased exposure of the game, the game is getting more and more fans, which means increased reveneues for the game and increased salaries.
You can see how demand is the biggest factor by comparing MLB to WNBA. Both have a limited supply, but demand is huge for MLB and low for WNBA. That’s why the highest paid MLB stars are getting 20+ million while the highest WNBA player is getting only 100k.