A Word to the Yankees and Mr. Deep Pockets – Jerry Calliste Jr

With all the money Steinbrenner pays for all that talent on the Yankees bench the Yankees should have been winning the game by more than 1 run before the bugs arrived at Jacobs Field. There is no excuse for the bugs. Yes they were annoying but so is watching a bunch of extremely well paid men, cuh-millionaires not getting the job done when it counted most. So the Yankees swept the Indians this 2007 season. So what. That doesn’t matter if you lose the MLB ALDS 2007 playoffs three games to one.

Yankees, great attempt to try and win the division. Unfortunately I will harp on this until the angels sing. The Yankees with all the pay and talent should have been leading the way all season long. It’s the Boston Red Sox’s that should have been playing catch up.

Wang, Petite, Hughes and Chamberlain thank you for some exciting stuff. Clemens and Mussina it’s about that time. Clemens, dude. A hammie in the playoffs (if I’m not mistaken) AGAIN!!. At 40 plus you don’t know your body by now? Dude (Calliste musters up a look of bewilderment)? Mussina at $17 million per year. Give it up. In all due respect and in my opinion Mus I’m sure you are surrounded by beautiful people that would love to see more of you.

I also think some of the players should consider giving a portion of their salaries back to the organization due to lack of performance. Steinbrenner there’s an idea. For example, there are citizens of New York who work hard for their salaries, earn less than or an average of $80K per year, and in New York city that’s no money. They buy season tickets that assists in paying those high player salaries but let one of the citizens consistently mail a presentation to the wrong address or not meet their quarterly sales goals (year after year). They are let go with the quickness. Fired. Adios amigo. So how do you expect us the fans to keep hearing about this player making $17 million this year and that player is making $20+ million that year but they can’t deliver a first round playoff win? It’s their job to do so.

Steinbrenner and Cashman (if Cashman stays) moving forward think incentive. Once you pay out multi-millions of dollars to players the desire to work over and beyond is gone. That youthful adrenaline is gone. The marquee name in baseball does not equate to stellar performance. It’s satisfactory at best. The player has already reached one of their goals “extreme financial security”. Another, “marquee player”. The marquee rewards them lovely in endorsement income. They are set mentally (relaxed) there is no need to work hard to win. The mind is what drives, moves and motivates the body. This is a physical game. Not boxing or football physical but physical and psychological. It’s taxing on the mind and body at 30+ years old. I’m sure some of the players and their wives will agree. Day in and day out traveling from city to city. Their ankles, wrists, knees, elbows, necks, shoulders, backs, HAMSTRINGS and the players minds they just do not perform the same way anymore.

Their joints and tendons don’t realize the value of a brand name of a marquee baseball player. Their joints and tendons don’t realize, “Oh this is so and so the multi-million dollar marquee player so we need to deliver stellar performance.” Their joints and tendons are saying, ” Hey we could care less who you are, multi-million dollar marquee player and what you’re thinking up there. We are not doing that.”

Yes this player performed well in the early 1900’s (exaggeration of course) but that was then. So did Reggie Jackson 🙂 but we aren’t looking to pay him $50 million dollars next year to play for the Yankees – again. Get my drift? Either you had them on the team the year they delivered stellar performances and reaped the benefit or you missed the opportunity.

The question for this multi-million dollar pay moving forward is – what can you do today and throughout this season? What can you do for the team and this organization? With this manager and these teammates? Realistically how healthy are you? How productive are you and will you remain throughout the season? How healthy do you eat? Are you willing to stick to your daily regime of workout and nutrition? We all know they don’t get enough rest between games. Sleep is important for the muscles to recuperate.

Millions of dollars is just not going to change the fact that there are only 24 hours in a day and back to back to back to back to back games. In New York City one day then Kansas City the next on to Baltimore then Toronto and so on. The routing of the season games are not conducive to good health. There is not enough recuperation time between games. But that’s one reason why you should not pay exorbitant salaries.

You can for instance, reward a player for a job well done with bonuses AFTER they complete ‘performance stages’ throughout the year. This way they know the opportunity is there to earn $20+ million by years end but right now their only seeing maybe $10 million with a $10 million dollar salary increase based on their attendance and performance. I think the entire league, players and owners need to get a realistic grip on salary spending or restructure how players are paid or we will see fan rebellion once again really soon. Due to ticket prices potentially rising to pay these player salaries. It also doesn’t help that we currently have a President of the United States whose cabinet doesn’t spend more time on the economy.

I would pay the players a realistic base salary based on current health, ability, prior injuries and the lack thereof, then consider their overall prior performance (batting, pitching, fielding). Paying more attention to the ‘now’ more so than the ‘past’. The performance a player delivered a year ago or three to five years earlier as we can see with the Yankee’s players is not necessarily what you get present day.

jicici