Dodgers wise to call Manny's bluff
Posted: Friday, February 27, 2009 4:16 PM
Somebody ought to tell Scott Boras that you can’t use leverage if you don’t have a lever. While they’re at it, inform him that if he doesn’t think the Dodgers are throwing enough money at Manny Ramirez now, just wait and watch it evaporate.
Boras apparently has turned down $45 million for two years of Ramirez’ services; $25 million this year and an option for $20 million next year. It’s the same deal the Dodgers offered in November, except they want to defer $25 million to 2011-13, by which time the team doubtless hopes the economy is in better shape and they’ll be able to afford to pay it.
The most reviled agent in sports is apparently trying to tell the Dodgers that other teams are camped out by his door, wearing “Will Pay Bazillions for Manny” signs around their necks. And it’s only out of the goodness of the heart he doesn’t have that he’s giving the Dodgers first shot at signing one of the best right-handed hitters in the game’s history.
That game always worked in the past for Boras, but that was when the economy was humming along like a Ferrari on the Autobahn. It ain’t working now. The Dodgers are calling his bluff.
“We want Manny back, but we feel we are negotiating against ourselves,” Dodgers owner Frank McCourt said in a statement. “When his agent finds those ’serious offers’ from other clubs, we’ll be happy to restart the negotiations.”
Take that, super agent.
It’s time to ask somebody to beam you up, Scotty. The money tree is shriveling, and all sports are feeling it.
You must have seen that the NBA is taking the extraordinary move of borrowing $200 million to advance to teams that need a hand. The league itself has furloughed 80 of its staff in the United States.
At NFL headquarters, commissioner Roger Goodell has taken a $2 million pay cut and is cutting 169 employees – 15 percent of his staff. This is in addition to the staff cuts that individual teams are starting to make.
There’s no money in that big government bailout package for whiny left fielders. And while fans may just grumble at unbridled greed in good times, they’re going to be furious at it now, especially when they’re losing their jobs and homes.
Most of us tend to retreat into denial at times like this and tell ourselves that those brilliant folks in Washington to whom we owe this mess will surely get us out. And if we don’t, we’re too worried about our own futures to worry about the planet's.
I know this probably doesn’t belong in a sports blog, but Boras and everybody else need to be aware of exactly what’s at stake here. When you wrap your brain around it, whether Manny makes $45 million or 45 cents isn’t going to seem like anything worth worrying about.
I’m not an economist and I’m certainly not an investment advisor. But anyone who wants to read a little can get a bit of a handle on what’s going on. The key number to keep in mind is not a few hundred billion or a trillion or two in bailout money. It’s $600 trillion.
That’s not a typo. It’s the amount of money involved in those nasty derivatives everybody keeps talking about. If you’re interested – and I strongly urge you to be interested – you can read all about it here.
While you’re at it – and I’m talking to all of you, and not just Scott Boorish – you ought to read what Jared Diamond, who is probably the greatest living expert on why societies either succeed or collapse, thinks about the mess we’re in. Diamond has written “Guns, Germs and Steel,” and “Collapse,” two books that are absolutely required reading for anyone making decisions in government or business. If it were up to me, no member of Congress would be allowed to move into his or her office until said Congressperson had read both books and passed a quiz on them.
Anyway, here’s the bottom line: Diamond, the leading expert on the subject and a man not given to rash statements, gives the United States a 51 percent chance of surviving this crisis.
That, friends, is a coin toss.
And that, Scott, is why nobody gives a tinker’s damn about you and Manny. Take your money and run.
