Thirty-one years of free agency in baseball, and it finally dawns on Hal Bodley:
"It boils down to this: When revenue goes up, salaries go up."
He also lives in blissful ignorance:
"I can't remember an offseason when owners have spent so much on mediocre talent."
Well, I can't remember an offseason when they didn't.
My mind is still reeling with nightmarish memories of Dave Collins, Melido Perez, Pascual Perez, Mike Witt, Kenny Rogers, Jack Clark, Danny Tartabull, Rick Rhoden, two guys named Niekro, Sterling Hitchcock, Hideki Irabu, Jose Contreras, Javier Vazquez ...
Ouch! I just thought of Steve Sax! How could I forget about that clown? ...
The mind is racing now ... the memories are flooding back ...
Jim Abbott, of course, if am I allowed to criticize the Inspirational Jim Abbott. Yeah, he was inspirational, alright ... to the other team's hitters ... when Abbott was pitching, they hit lots of inspired fly balls that went all the way over the outfield wall ...
Terry Mulholland, who made as much money as Paul O'Neill, if you can believe it ...
Raul Mondesi, Jesse Barfield, Rondell White ...
and those are just Yankees.
I mean, you've got to take inflation into account. Dr. Bodley has surely heard of "inflation." Is Jaret Wright's $7 mill in 2005 really any more ridiculous than Rich Dotson's $900,000 in 1988?
When the Yankees signed Steve Kemp, he was actually among the top ten highest-paid players in the major leagues, and he would have maintained that status ... except he was demoted to the minor leagues.
If Bodley really doesn't remember these offseason signings ... if he really doesn't remember Wilson Alvarez and Darren Dreifort and Jason Kendall and Chan Ho Park and Rick Helling and Bobby Higginson and Edgardo Alfonzo ... then I just have one question for him.
What is he taking, and where can I get some?
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