They Could Make Pay Go a Long, Long Way

OK, this is rough figuring done by no math major. But if you calculate that Kevin Brown will pitch about six months a year for the Dodgers over the course of his seven-year, $105-million contract, with a little division and subtraction and addition and finally a calculator, it appears that the newest Los Angeles pitcher will be making about $600,000 a week . . . or $4,000 a pitch.

Or, as Westminster La Quinta High baseball Coach Dave Demarest figures, “Do you think Brown will win 105 games in the next seven years? Me either. So that means he’ll get more than $1 million a win. That’s mind-boggling.”

It’s still sinking in, this otherworldly baseball contract that a 33-year-old pitcher has received. The $105 million, guaranteed, that’s enough to make the eyes cross.

But then there’s the other stuff.

For example, the chartered jet, paid for by the Dodgers, 12 times a year so the rest of the Brown family can fly from Macon, Ga., to L.A., instead of moving like most families do when someone gets a new job. In the time it will take the Browns, wife and children, to hop on the charter, deplane in Burbank and get to Dodger Stadium, a family could drive from Fresno to see a game. And what do you bet, some families do just that?

And to pay off Brown’s $15-million annual salary, if the Dodgers do draw 3 million, which isn’t a guarantee, every one of those men, women and children would have to pay an extra $5, even at the four of five games Brown won’t be pitching. Close your eyes. Imagine sitting at Dodger Stadium when the hat comes by and you’re asked to drop in a five. Would you mind?

Brown sat with a straight face Tuesday at his introductory news conference to say that he felt there was no correlation between player salaries and ticket prices. Huh? He thinks ticket prices won’t go up because of his contract? This “Star Wars” buff must be thinking like C3PO.

And unlike new Angel Mo Vaughn, who said at his introductory news conference that he would be starting a charity foundation in this area as he has in Boston, Brown did not make any similar announcement Tuesday.

Paying close attention to all these doings are some local high school baseball coaches. And high school baseball players.

Nate Guerriero, who is the head coach at Santa Ana Century High, who grew up in Utica, N.Y., about 30 miles from the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, who roots for the Yankees and who dearly loves the game, says that his players are asking, “Coach, how is this fair?”

Guerriero, who has coached for 26 years, says that “by 2002 there won’t be any more pro baseball. The game is being killed.”

He laughed when asked what he would do with one week of Brown’s new salary.

“I’d hire three more coaches at $2,000 per,” Guerriero said. “I’d build a new 40-by-40 clubhouse with 20 lockers and a coaches’ office and phone. That’d be about $50,000. I’d buy a new Iron Mike pitching machine and some $2,500 portable batting cages. Three more protective screens, $500 each. Twenty more bats and all the busing I can get. Our busing budget is being cut and if you go over, it gets taken out of the next athletic budget. So unless we can play all home games, say, $7,000 for busing. Three tutors for my athletes.

“OK, that would cover the first $100,000 and I’d be happy to give the rest to someone else who needed it.”

Which leads to another point.

Guerriero says he would have liked to hear Brown or his agent Scott Boras announce some charity work on the same day it was announced that Brown would get that “unbelievable” amount of money.

“I look at [Angels] Tim Salmon and Troy Percival, they make way less money than Brown and they buy seats for kids at every baseball game, they’ve been to coaches’ clinics around here, they donate their time. It makes a difference.”

Mate Borgogno, head coach at La Habra High and a former player for Cal State Fullerton and in the Giants’ organization, says he has no quarrel with any player getting as much money as possible. But even Borgogno was astounded at the free chartered jet and said it would be “awesome” if he could get just $12,000 of Brown’s money. Why?

Well, like many area high school baseball programs, Borgogno’s kids do their own fund-raising. “We just got done selling Christmas wreaths,” Borgogno said. “We sell ads for programs, stuff like that. And our kids have to pay $70 for what we call a Spirit Package. You know, for stuff like socks and T-shirts and jocks.”

In other words, in high school, you pay to play?

“Yeah, something like that,” Borgogno says.

Bob Ickes, the head coach at Santa Ana Mater Dei and a baseball coach for 26 years, says Brown’s new contract has been the topic of conversation at school. “And not just among the coaches, but all the teachers and people I’ve come in contact have wanted to talk about it.”

Demarest says that this incredible amount of money isn’t being talked about by his players “because $105 million is beyond reality. You think kids can comprehend that?”

But Guerriero says that these contracts do affect his players: “They are asking me about it. They are dumbfounded. They say, ‘Coach, he’s a pitcher, he’s only out there every five days.’ They say, ‘Isn’t that greedy?’ ”

While Ickes is not as gloomy as Guerriero about the future of baseball, he is sad. He is sad that “families can’t afford to take their kids to games any more. Coaches can’t afford to take their Little League teams, buy a bunch of bleacher seats, go to the game. I only go now to see the Angels if one of my ex-players has made the majors and comes to town.”

If Brown doesn’t understand that his salary will keep even more families away from games, that’s sad too. And if Brown ever decides he has some spare change in his pocket, send it to a local high school.

As Borgogno said five times, “That would be so awesome.”

*

Diane Pucin can be reached at diane.pucin@latimes.com

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Inside the Salary

If he matches last season’s statistics, when he went 18-7 with a 2.38 ERA, here is what Kevin Brown will earn in 1999:

$19,455 per out

$428,571 per game

$58,366 per inning

$58,366 per strikeout

$833,333 per win