We are providing two observations on recent baseball headlines: (1) how can a small market team compete against a $765 million contract; and (2) Rickey Henderson was perhaps the greatest baseball player ever.
(1) Recently the New York Mets signed Juan Soto to a multi-year $765 million contract. To put that into perspective, that’s over 60% of the value of entire Cincinnati Reds team franchise. Obviously all small market teams envy the financial resources of the New Yorks, the Los Angeles’ and the Chicagoes. In business this disparity is addressed legally to try to assure smaller companies the ability to compete against the big box stores. It isn’t always successful but the courts and Federal/State lawmakers seem to try to protect the little guy. But not so with Major League Baseball. In 1978 the Reds acquired a Cy Young award-winning pitcher named Vida Blue. He was in the prime of his career and anxious to play for his new team. Those were the days of the “The Big Red Machine”. Players like Rose, Bench, Morgan, Foster, Griffey and others had led the team to a very successful decade in the 1970’s. And in 1976 the Reds had acquired Tom Seaver who produce even more success. Unfortunately this pattern caught the eye of Bowie Kuhn, the MLB Commissioner. He voided the Vida Blue trade saying this would tip the scales and make the Reds too strong for fair competition. Fast forward to today. The LA Dodgers won the World Series in 2024 by buying the best players at every position and they are the bettors choice to win again in 2025. The team was so loaded that Clayton Kershaw–who had retired the previous year–UNRETIRED. He said this would be too good a team to miss. Now the Mets have forked over $765 million to re-build. Question: at what point will the MLB Commissioner recognize that small market teams are sliding into the “unable-to-compete” category and look for ways to control money ruining the game? If this slippery slope continues every high potential player on every small market team will be gobbled up by the big buck teams and the two MLB divisions will be The Major Leagues and The Minor Leagues. The advertising dollar is already chasing the “haves” and abandoning the rest of the league. We don’t think any fan wants to think his/her team cannot compete on any given day. Step up to the plate, Commissioner, it’s your turn to make sure the game is played on a level field. (pun and meaning intended)
(2) Another recent headline called Rickey Henderson possibly the greatest baseball player ever. We disagree. And before we start. let us just say that this is not a recommendation that Pete Rose be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. Let us also say that your blog editor lived and watched both Rickey Henderson and Pete Rose play baseball. And they were both incredible on-field talents. But baseball is reduced (or should be reduced) to on-field statistical accomplishments and there can be no doubt that Pete accomplished much better numbers than Rickey. Pete had higher offensive numbers than Rickey in all but two categories, home runs and stolen bases. Pete had more games played, at-bats, career batting average, hits, doubles, triples and runs batted in. Defensively, Pete had a higher fielding percentage (fewer errors) for his 1,334 games played in the outfield. He made half as many errors as Rickey. Despite coming to bat over 3,000 times more than Rickey he struck out over 500 times less than Rickey. In post season (playoffs), again Pete outdistanced Rickey in all categories despite playing in about the same number of games. Pete had a few more games, more hits, more doubles, the same number of home runs, more runs batted in and a much higher batting average. Individual distinctions: number of years batting .300, Rose had 14; Rickey had six. number of years with 200 or more hits, Rickey had none (179 max); Rose had 10. number of league batting titles, Rose had 3; Rickey had none. Pete was named to the Baseball All Century Team; Rickey was not named to that team. Pete was Rookie of the Year in 1963. Rickey did not earn that title. There is no disputing that Rickey Henderson was a terrific talent but he was far behind the on-field accomplishments of Pete Rose. Yes, Rose gambled and that’s why Rickey is in the Hall of Fame. But numbers don’t lie or gamble. Pete played 5 different positions in an under-sized, chunky, slow and average armed body. Rickey was sleek and fast and knew how to play the game. Both were excellent at their craft and will forever be respected for their team dedication and love of the game. But for ESPN and the USA Today to call Rickey Henderson maybe the greatest player of all time—NOT EVEN CLOSE.
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