Column: Baseball's just a business

By Brad Minkow, Sports Columnist
Oct. 30, 2007

As the Boston Red Sox captured their seventh World Series championship and their second in four seasons, it was not the players, fans or ownership who received the most attention. Rather, it was Scott Boras, the miracle worker/egomaniac agent for dozens of Major League Baseball superstars. In a profession driven by contracts and endorsements, Boras has positioned himself at the forefront of an ever-changing sport as a hard-nosed negotiator who will leave teams penniless.

On Sunday, Boras committed an action believed to be unthinkable, even for him. The agent interrupted Game Four by announcing on national TV that third baseman Alex Rodriguez, his star client, would opt out of the last three years of his record-setting contract with the New York Yankees. During an event dedicated to honoring the fans and genuine athletic performances, Boras took the sport's most sacred moment and turned it into an auction.

Bob DuPuy, the chief operating officer of Major League Baseball, said he was not pleased with the timing.

"There was no reason to make an announcement last night other than to try to put his selfish interests and that of one individual player above the overall good of the game," he said.

DuPuy's disgust offers even more insight into the direction professional sports are heading toward. Boras' comments highlighted everything wrong with baseball today. Not only did they undermine the goals of the World Series, they also outlined the lack of loyalty by players to their organizations.

Major League Baseball, like all professional sports leagues, is producing its own runaway wage inflation. In addition to Rodriguez's absurd salary, teams around the country are paying lavish prices that undermine the very foundation of the game. Once upon a time, a player's value was earned through performance on the field and character in the locker room. In the 2007 season alone, both these pillars were torn down.

To launch the season, the Boston Red Sox relinquished $51.1 million just to negotiate with Japanese pitching sensation Daisuke Matsuzaka. As it turned out, Matsuzaka played a key role in Boston's road to a title. But with another $70 million in salary, the Red Sox invested more than $120 million in a pitcher who had never thrown a pitch in America.

Then came the deteriorating allegiance by players to their respective clubs, as seen with icons, such as Roger Clemens, who somehow manage to hold out on their teams for half the season and still earn a contract of $28 million in that same year. Considering the Yankees finished only three games out of first place in the final division standings after a tragic start, one can speculate that Clemens' 15 missed starts could have been tremendously valuable.

Behind the finances, great stories remain relatively unnoticed. Boston's Jon Lester overcame cancer to pitch in the World Series, Colorado produced a winning streak for the ages and the Red Sox have now won two of the last four championships after failing to win just one in 86 years. Instead, we will remember how passion for the game was lost again, and how baseball is a business where money rules supreme.

bmm34c@mizzou.edu

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Column: Baseball's just a business

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