Baseball's Warts

In his regular ESPN Page 2 column, Bill Simmons has the following to say about Major League Baseball:

You wonder why baseball doesn't learn from the NFL. Like that luxury tax/revenue sharing idea which goes into effect ... how can you penalize teams who spend more than $117 million without inflicting a "You have to spend at least $XX million on your payroll" edict on the poorer teams? Wasn't that the dumbest thing ever? No minimum salary threshold at all? Huh??? What would stop a team like the Royals from spending a measly $10 million on payroll, then collecting revenue, royalties and taxes from everyone else? Basically, they're rewarding incompetence and indifference, and they're penalizing the franchises that actually care about fans. Savvy.

Yep, I agree.

Simmons also doesn't like MLB's guaranteed contracts:

The other thing that kills me about baseball is the guaranteed contracts (and yes, there's probably not much we can do about it at this point -- the owners blew it years ago by opening that Pandora's Box). For instance, here in Boston, Red Sox fans have been subjected to six months of the Artist Formerly Known As Tony Clark, a nice enough guy, improbably slated to earn $5 million this season, who also happens to be putting the finishing touches on the worst offensive season by a Boston player in my lifetime: 264 ABs, .212 batting average, three homers, .566 OPS, 51 strikeouts, and he's a freaking first baseman.

Maybe it's impossible to describe how badly Clark has played this season, but I'm going to try: During one game last month, Clark came up in a key situation with the bases loaded and one out. Watching the game at my Dad's house, Dad and I decided to root for Clark to strike out. Why? At least if Clark struck out, that would mean he didn't hit into a double play and end the inning. It was the lesser of two evils. And when Clark eventually did strike out, Dad and I high-fived. I'm not making any of this up.

Here's the point ... in the NFL, Clark would have been gone in May. Waived. Out the door. Without a guaranteed contract, he would have received something like 25 percent of his $5 million, and whatever signing bonus he secured, and that would have been that. Thanks for coming. Don't let the door hit you on the way out. And yet, in baseball -- the land of the guaranteed contract, where players aren't motivated by fear of losing their job, where you don't have any reason to live up to the terms of your contract other than pride and competitiveness -- Clark lingers around like a mutant disease.

[Posted at 21:26 CST on 09/17/02] [Link]