Not Bucking a Trend

Baseball was widely declared terminally ill earlier this week after the signing of Alex Rodriguez to a 10-year, $252-million contract by the Texas Rangers, but don’t shut the coffin lid just yet.

Rodriguez’s contract exceeds the estimated value of 18 major league teams and that’s what has so many calling for life support. The sport, they say, has finally choked on its own greed.

But this patient has been receiving last rites for more than a century.

Dire pronouncements on baseball’s future, or lack thereof, have been heard since the Cincinnati Red Stockings became baseball’s first all-professional team in the 1860s, horrifying those who felt pros would ruin the new game.

And down through the years, every financial jolt has been met with shock and hand wringing.

Example: When Babe Ruth demanded $80,000 a year, he was asked if he knew that would exceed the $75,000-a-year salary of the president of the United States.

“Yeah,” Ruth said, “but I had a better year than [President Herbert] Hoover did.”

Footnote: Next year, Rodriguez will make 100 times as much as the president.

Example: When New York Yankee superstar outfielder Joe DiMaggio was offered $25,000 for his third season, but held out instead for $40,000, he was told by Ed Barrow, the team’s general manager, that was more than Lou Gehrig was making.

“Then Mr. Gehrig is a badly underpaid player,” was DiMaggio’s reply, according to David Halberstam in “Summer of ’49.”

“DiMaggio is an ungrateful young man,” said the Yankee owner, Colonel Jake Ruppert, “and is very unfair to his teammates, to say the least.”

Footnote: DiMaggio eventually became baseball’s first $100,000-a-year player, considered the ceiling of success for many years to follow.

Example: Dodger pitchers Sandy Koufax and Don Drysdale, both of whom are now in the Hall of Fame, held out for six-figure salaries in 1965.

Wrote Drysdale in his book, “Once a Bum, Always a Dodger,” “In 1965, asking for $100,000 wasn’t like asking for the moon. It was like asking for the moon plus the rest of the solar system.”

Footnote: Koufax eventually got $125,000, Drysdale $115,000. But, to receive what a minor leaguer might reject 30 years later, they had to hold out for five weeks.

Example: Pete Rose, baseball’s all-time hit leader, proclaimed early in his career that one of his goals was to become baseball’s first $100,000-a-year singles hitter.

“It’ll never happen,” said some, decrying such an outrageous desire.

Footnote: When it did happen, in 1970, Rose’s $100,000 was one-eighth of the Cincinnati Reds’ total payroll of $800,000.

Example: When Ken Griffey Sr., never the hitter his famous son has become but still an integral part of the Big Red Machine of the 1970s, was in the minor leagues, Cincinnati Manager Sparky Anderson told him, “Listen to your managers, play the game the way it was meant to be played and, someday, you will make, oh, $70,000.”

Footnote: The year was 1973. That goal, for a player destined for less than superstardom, seemed like unimaginable wealth.

Example: When catcher Mike Piazza talked about becoming baseball’s first $100-million player, he was criticized, booed and eventually traded by the Dodgers.

Footnote: Two years later, Piazza’s total package of

$91 million puts him only sixth on baseball’s earnings list.

“Big money” disputes are hardly unique to baseball. When Laker owner Jerry Buss signed Magic Johnson to a 25-year, $25-million contract in 1981, even Johnson’s teammate, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, got swept up in the uproar, labeling Johnson Buss’ “favorite child.”

Said Johnson at the time, “I can tear the contract up . . . if I am causing problems on the team.”

When Buss signed Mitch Kupchak, now the general manager, then a power forward, to a $5.6-million deal that included seven years as a player and seven more years in the front office, Pat Williams, then the general manager of the Philadelphia 76ers, said, “This kind of thing frightens me. You just can’t operate with that kind of economic insanity. Boy, oh, boy.”

Sound familiar? Two decades later, it’s boy, oh, boy again, thanks to Rodriguez.

Out of Control

“I don’t even want to think about the people running baseball,” said Buzzie Bavasi, the former longtime executive with the Brooklyn and Los Angeles Dodgers and San Diego Padres. “They have no common sense. They have no intestinal fortitude. Or maybe it’s just that Donald Fehr and Gene Orza [leaders of the players’ union] are smarter than the rest of them.

“It just doesn’t make sense. Where is the money coming from?”

But isn’t the money simply a sign of today’s economic realities? Wouldn’t Bavasi be paying similar amounts if he were still a general manager?

“I’d retire,” he said. “When my son [former Angel general manager Bill Bavasi] gave Mo Vaughn $80 million, I thought I had brought the wrong kid home from the hospital. Maybe he turned out to be right, but I should have brought my kids up to be [player] agents.

“[Former Dodger owner] Peter O’Malley was the last one to operate with some sense.”

Unlike Bavasi, Fred Claire has been a Dodger general manager recently, having served until he was relieved of his duties during the 1998 season. But even Claire shakes his head at the soaring salaries.

“With the Dodgers having now signed Darren Dreifort and figuring in Chan Ho Park’s salary, the team’s five starting pitchers alone will make more than the total payroll I was permitted to have at the time I left, which was around $48-49 million,” he said. “And that was less than three full seasons ago.”

Taking Control

Claire, however, is optimistic about the future of the game, as are some others.

“I hear players are doing this and agents are doing that,” said Anderson, a Hall of Fame manager. “Well, who has the money? The owners do. If they offer it, what are the players supposed to say, no?

“I don’t want to think people who are that intelligent will give something they can’t afford. The money must be there. If I’m an owner and I ain’t got it, I ain’t giving it out.

“I don’t care how much players are making. Bless them.

“As for the game, it will survive. And the reason it will survive is that there are enough good people to make it survive. There are too many people who love the game too much.”

Claire sees more concrete solutions to baseball’s financial problems.

“Is it the end of the world? No,” he said. “Is it the end of the game? No. But if there is X amount of revenue generated, there has to be a system of dividing it. It could be a form of revenue sharing in which the teams receiving the money are obligated to spend it on players. That should help the competitive level.”

Claire thinks clubs could help themselves by sometimes uttering a single word in response to the huge demands of free agents: No.

“Would they get criticized?,” Claire said. “Yeah. But they can say, ‘This is as far as we can go. This is what makes the most sense for our business.’ They can develop good, young players and, if those players go out and bust their butts, the fans will respond.”

Dennis Gilbert has been on both sides of the issue. He was an agent and is now in the front office of the Chicago White Sox. He thinks baseball needs to look at the NFL, which has been successful in achieving parity through a salary cap.

“A baseball player wakes up in Milwaukee and he knows that, because of economics, his team has no chance of making the playoffs or the World Series,” Gilbert said. “Yet a football player in Green Bay, basically the same market, can count on his team being competitive most of the time. The NFL has a system that works. Baseball doesn’t have such a system.

“I don’t think baseball is doomed, but changes have to made and that will be up to both sides.”

And in the meantime?

“Salaries have gone straight up,” Claire said, “but nothing goes straight up all the time. To prove that, you only have to look at the Nasdaq.”

Taking the Money

Today’s players are certainly no greedier than those who came before. Former player and broadcaster Joe Garagiola recalls seeing DiMaggio at a golf tournament, long after he had retired, on a day when Yankee owner George Steinbrenner had signed a player to a huge contract.

“What would Steinbrenner have to pay you if you were playing for him today?” Garagiola asked DiMaggio.

Replied DiMaggio, “I’d have looked at him and said, ‘Hello partner.’ ”

But Garagiola wonders if today’s players will have the incentive they had in DiMaggio’s time.

“When I played, the incentive came from looking in the Sporting News to see what the guy at your position was doing in the minors,” he said. “Rodriguez doesn’t have to worry about security until around the year 4008.”

Garagiola said Rodriguez’s signing had been especially rough for him because, as an official with the Baseball Assistance Team, a group that helps former players down on their luck, he had just visited a former player, whom he wouldn’t identify, who has cancer and is trying to support a wife and three kids, one of whom is handicapped.

“And then I pick up the paper and see that Rodriguez is getting 25 gazillion dollars,” he said. “God, seeing [the disparity] just tears your heart out.”

Bavasi says even the incentive clauses in Rodriguez’s contract dumbfound him.

“The guy makes $25 million a year and he gets another hundred thousand for making the all-star team?” Bavasi asked. “If I was paying a guy $25 million a year, he sure as hell better make the all-star team.”

How did Bavasi handle such demands?

“One year, I offered Maury Wills $80,000,” Bavasi said. “He said, ‘How about giving me an extra $5,000 if I make the all-star team?’ I told him, ‘Fine, but if you don’t make the all-star team, you give me back $5,000.’

“He took that $80,000 and ran like hell.”

About years later, the class of 2000 is taking the money and running.

And thirty years from now, baseball will be alive and well and, whatever system is in place, players not yet born probably still will be taking the money and running.

And talking about what a bargain Alex Rodriguez was.

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Free Agent Signings

The 62 free agents who have signed, with name, position, former club if different, and contract. The contract information was obtained by the Associated Press from player and management sources. For players with minor league contracts, letter agreements for major league contracts are in parentheses:

AMERICAN LEAGUE

* ANGELS (3)--Re-signed Gary Disarcina, ss, to a $320,000, one-year contract; minor league contract; re-signed Tim Belcher, rhp, to a minor league contract; signed Pat Rapp, rhp, to a one-year contract.

* BOSTON (4)--Signed Frank Castillo, rhp, Toronto, to a $4.5-million, two-year contract; re-signed Tim Wakefield, rhp, to a $6.5-million, two-year contract; re-signed Pete Schourek, lhp, to a minor league contract; signed Manny Ramirez, of, Cleveland, to a $160-million, eight-year contract.

* CHICAGO (2)--Re-signed Jose Valentin, ss, to a $15.5-million, three-year contract; re-signed Cal Eldred, rhp, to a $1-million, one-year contract.

* CLEVELAND (1)--Signed Ellis Burks, of, San Francisco, to a $20-million, three-year contract.

* KANSAS CITY (1)--Signed Doug Henry, rhp, San Francisco, to a two-year contract.

* NEW YORK (5)--Re-signed Paul O’Neill, of, to a $6.5-million, one-year contract; signed Joe Oliver, Seattle, c, to a $1.25-million, one-year contract; signed Mike Mussina, rhp, Baltimore, to an $88.5-million, six-year contract; re-signed Luis Sojo, inf, to a $500,000, one-year contract; re-signed Dwight Gooden, rhp, to a minor league contract.

* SEATTLE (2)--Signed Jeff Nelson, rhp, New York Yankees, to a $10.65-million, three-year contract; re-signed Jay Buhner, of, to a $1.85-million, one-year contract.

* TAMPA BAY (1)--Re-signed Ozzie Guillen, inf, to a minor league contract.

* TEXAS (6)--Signed Andres Galarraga, 1b, Atlanta, to a $6.25-million, one-year contract; signed Mark Petkovsek, rhp, Angels, to a $4.9-million, two-year contract; signed Ken Caminiti, 3b, Houston, to a $3.25-million, one-year contract; signed Alex Rodriguez, ss, Seattle, to a $252-million, 10-year contract; re-signed Ruben Sierra, of, to a minor league contract; re-signed Mike Munoz, lhp, to a minor league contract.

* TORONTO (4)--Re-signed Mickey Morandini, inf, to a minor league contract; signed Dan Plesac, lhp, Arizona, to a $2.4 million, one-year contract; re-signed Alex Gonzalez, ss, to a four-year contract; signed Jeff Frye, 2b, Colorado, to a $1-million, one-year contract.

NATIONAL LEAGUE

* DODGERS (2)--Signed Andy Ashby, rhp, Atlanta, to a $22.5-million, three-year contract; re-signed Darren Dreifort, rhp, to a $55-million, five-year contract.

* ARIZONA (2)--Re-signed Armando Reynoso, rhp, to a $6.5-million, two-year contract; signed Mark Grace, 1b, Chicago Cubs, to a $6-million, two-year contract;

* ATLANTA (3)--Signed Dave Martinez, of, Toronto, to a $3-million, two-year contract; signed Rico Brogna, 1b, Boston, to a one-year contract; signed Kurt Abbott, 2b, New York Mets, to a minor league contract.

* CHICAGO (4)--Signed Julian Tavarez, rhp, Colorado, to a $5-million, two-year contract; signed Jeff Fassero, lhp, Boston, to a $5.1-million, two-year contract; signed Todd Hundley, c, Dodgers, to a $23.5-million, four-year contract; signed Tom Gordon, rhp, Boston, to a $5-million, two-year contract.

* CINCINNATI (1)--Re-signed Mark Wohler, rhp, Cincinnati, to a $1.5-million, one-year contract.

* COLORADO (4)--Re-signed Todd Hollandsworth, of, to a $5.5-million, two-year contract; signed Denny Neagle, lhp, New York Yankees, to a $51.5-million, five-year contract; signed Mike Hampton, lhp, New York Mets, to a $121-million, eight-year contract; signed Ron Gant, of, Angels, to a one-year contract.

* HOUSTON (1)--Signed Jose Vizcaino, inf, New York Yankees, to a $1.5-million, two-year contract.

* MILWAUKEE (1)--Re-signed James Mouton, of, to a minor league contract.

* NEW YORK (5)--Re-signed John Franco, lhp, to a $10.5-million, three-year contract; re-signed Turk Wendell, rhp, to a $9,399,999.99, three-year contract; re-signed Rick Reed, rhp, to a $21.75-million, three-year contract; signed Kevin Appier, rhp, Oakland, to a $42-million, four-year contract; signed Steve Trachsel, rhp, Toronto, to a $7-million, two-year contract.

* PHILADELPHIA (3)--Signed Jose Mesa, rhp, Seattle, to a $6.8-million, two-year contract; signed Rheal Cormier, rhp, Boston, to an $8.75-million, three-year contract; signed Ricky Bottalico, rhp, Kansas City, to a $1.5 million, one-year contract.

* PITTSBURGH (2)--Signed Terry Mulholland, lhp, Atlanta, to a $6-million, two-year contract; signed Derek Bell, of, New York Mets, to a two-year contract.

* SAN DIEGO (3)--Re-signed Tony Gwynn, of, to a $2-million, one-year contract; re-signed Ed Sprague, 3b, to a minor league contract; signed Alex Arias, 3b, Philadelphia, to a $1.3-million, two-year contract.

* SAN FRANCISCO (2)--Re-signed Mark Gardner, rhp, to a $2-million, one-year contract; signed Shawon Dunston, ss, St. Louis, to a one-year contract.

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MILLION-DOLLAR MADNESS

Some of the milestones of baseball salaries:

2001 Alex Rodriguez, Texas Rangers $25.2 million

1999 Kevin Brown, Dodgers $15 million

1999 Mo Vaughn, Angels $13.3. million

1999 Mike Piazza, N.Y. Mets $13 million

1997 Albert Belle, Chicago White Sox $11 million

1992 Ryne Sandberg, Chicago Cubs $7.1 million

1990 Jose Canseco, Oakland A’s $4.7 million

1982 George Foster, Cincinnati Reds $2.04 million

1980 Nolan Ryan, Houston Astros $1 million

1950 Joe DiMaggio, N.Y. Yankees $100,000