Considering MLB Team Salaries

While fixing the kids’ lunch today, I was watching the Sports Reporters.  They were talking about the economy’s effect on salaries, and just about every team but the NY Yankees.  The salary cap was mentioned, and one of the reporters repeated an oft mentioned error.  I can’t stand it when supposed experts (like this guy and Colin Cowherd) don’t know the facts.  I think Cowherd also passed on this bit of incorrect information.

2008 MLB Salaries

1. NY Yankees  $209 million
2. Detroit Tigers  $138.6 million
3. NY Mets  $138.2 million
4. Boston Red Sox $133.4 million

It will be interesting to see how it all stacks up come the beginning of this season.  Both the Red Sox and Tigers have dumped salary.  Lots of teams have.  The Red Sox spent more the first few years of John Henry’s tenure as owner.  But these knee-jerk reactionaries refuse to face facts.  The Red Sox have been implementing their plan of player development in order to reduce their salary (they spent more than $143 million in 2007).  They don’t want to depend on high priced free agents.  To compete until they could develop guys like Lester, Pedroia and Papelbon, they spent money.  But to think they ever actually competed with the Yankees salary-wise is silly.  John Henry knew that the Red Sox could not sustain a system where they spent ever-increasing amounts on free agents (as the Mark Teixeira sweepstakes showed, they picked targets and set limits- just as with the A-Fraud trade which the MLBPA, not Bug Selig squashed [sorry Colin]). 

Henry doesn’t want the Yankees to be in a completely different stratosphere when it comes to salary (they may near the $100 million gap this season).  But they also don’t want those team who receive revenue sharing to just pocket the cash.  They want them to spend money on players’ salaries so ALL teams are better increasing the competition and the MLB product.  As a result, I don’t find the talk of a salary zone by John Henry to be disingenuous.  Whether or not it is good for the game is up for debate.  But to take the comments out of context, including historical context, is unfair, and not solid journalism.

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Considering Damage Control

You’ve probably heard the story so much you want to bury your head in the sand.  “SpyGate” has been a buzz since September, plaguing the Patriots all through their run for a championship.  The day before the biggest game of the year, the SuperBowl and a chance to do the unthinkable- 19-0, the Herald released the story that took it to the next level.  They ran a story claiming the Patriots had taped the Rams final walk thru prior to defeating them in the SuperBowl.

You just can’t take something like that back.  I don’t know if it affected the team.  I know Tom Brady’s ankle and the Giants’ relentless pass rush were factors.  This … hard to say.  But slander and libel are still slander and libel.  Real journalists should make sure their facts check instead of settling for the sensational.  Tomase apparently didn’t, and neither did the editors.  Other journalists caught doing such things in high profile situations (and this was very high profile) have paid the price.  No word yet from the Herald beyond this short apology.

On Feb. 2, 2008, the Boston Herald reported that a member of the New England Patriots’ video staff taped the St. Louis Rams’ walkthrough on the day before Super Bowl XXXVI. While the Boston Herald based its Feb. 2, 2008, report on sources that it believed to be credible, we now know that this report was false, and that no tape of the walkthrough ever existed.

Prior to the publication of its Feb. 2, 2008, article, the Boston Herald neither possessed nor viewed a tape of the Rams’ walkthrough before Super Bowl XXXVI, nor did we speak to anyone who had. We should not have published the allegation in the absence of firmer verification.

The Boston Herald regrets the damage done to the team by publication of the allegation, and sincerely apologizes to its readers and to the New England Patriots’ owners, players, employees and fans for our error.

I’m not sure that cuts it.  In the Old Testament, if you falsely accused another of a crime you received the punishment they would have received.  You really can’t strip the Herald of a SuperBowl, but perhaps they should donate a few million to the NFL Players Association to help the retired players who don’t receive the benefits now enjoyed by players.  Perhaps Tomase and the editors need to spend endless hours answering questions how they could to something so heinous and reprehensible, and then be suspended for a year or two.  Perhaps Kraft and Belichik should be given the opportunity to investigate their lives and print up some tasty tidbits.  What do you think would be just in this matter?

Annoying Update: Senator Spector apparently has too much time on his hands.  The energy crisis and its ripple effect through the economy, the War on Terror, the Social Security crisis, our on-going infanticide (and I could keep going) don’t matter nearly as much to him as … football.  There are serious matters that affect the country and he’s concerned about football.  Someone please give him a reality check, like the daily paper or something.

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