Banking on Boras pays off
Posted: Tuesday, December 23, 2008 4:23 PM
Reading newspapers (I know that’s near foreign to the 25-and-under demo, my son, 22, declared upon seeing me with the Sunday sports section and Cheerios, “Still reading the paper, huh?”) these days is fascinating.
This morning, I spent most of a 90-minute flight devouring stories about our economic plight, the criminal behavior of a wealthy New York investor, the plight of unemployed families in Florida dancing around creditors and foreclosures, the accountability of the auto industry demanded by the President-elect and the concern that taxpayer money is being used by troubled banks to pay year-end bonuses.
Yeah, real uplifting stuff.
Then, I unfolded the sports section and couldn’t help but laugh at the absurdity that is baseball free agency in this offseason. It’s a big money, high-stakes farce. And the tour de farce is engineered by agent Scott Boras, trying to justify his positioning of Mark Teixeira and Manny Ramirez amidst a less-than-robust market.
He apparently has succeeded with Teixeira if reports that the first baseman -- pending passing a physical -- will sign an eight-year, $180 million deal with the Yankees.
Boston had offered Teixeira eight years for $160 million or so. But Boras wanted more. Washington was in the mix but if Teixeira wanted to be the lead dog on a bad team, he could have stayed in Texas for a deal that would look good today. The Angels clearly didn’t want to be used by Boras but as Yankees general manager Brian Cashman admitted during the CC Sabathia derby, great players can control the timing of when they sign. And no one likes to control the timing more than Boras.
The Angels were 66-40 (.622) BEFORE Teixeira, 34-22 (.607) WITH Teixeira. Atlanta was 49-56 with Teixeira and for the record he has played in exactly one All-Star Game.
The Angels acquired Teixeira for October and in four playoff games, he had zero extra-base hits and one RBI. The Los Angeles Times characterized that performance this morning as “shining,” a passage obviously ghost-written by Boras.
No one in the real world can get money right now but the best players in baseball are immune to reality. And make no mistake, baseball is healthy -- for now. But I have talked to savvy sports businessmen in the last week and they see NBA games in many cities played before scads of empty seats, they hear whispers that at least one NHL team may have trouble meeting a payroll, they see Tiger Woods (TIGER!) lose a sponsor, they see General Motors drop out of sports and they wonder how long before baseball feels the pinch.
This year is safe for MLB but will sponsors, suite-holders and ticket buyers who are locked in for 2009 quickly renew for 2010 and beyond? Boras cares not about these questions for his mission is to squeeze every last dollar for his clients.
Boras must deliver more to his clients. Now that Teixeira is apparently taken care of he must deliver, if not the absurd five-year deal he proposed for Ramirez, then a lucrative three-year deal.
