Dorfman: 60 Million Reasons To Shout
By Daniel I. Dorfman
CHICAGO (WSCR) I have no idea what it would be like to have $60 million and I doubt I ever will. But I couldn't help but think of that figure on Sunday while watching the local baseball teams.
$60 million, OK $59,375,000, represents the combined salaries of Carlos Zambrano, Adam Dunn, Jake Peavy and Alex Rios. Right now they look like investments that would make the makers of Edsels, Betamax and New Coke proud.
For those of you that had 57 games on the over/under of Zambrano's first tantrum of the season, congratulations. 344 days after his meltdown against Derrek Lee at U.S. Cellular Field, Zambrano was at it again, publicly calling out Carlos Marmol in St. Louis for his pitch selection on Sunday. Even if Marmol had thrown underhanded, who is Zambrano to go after a teammate after all of his episodes? If it had been Ryan Dempster or Kerry Wood who launched an attack like that, they would have earned the right to do so. But then again, they are professional enough never to do such a thing.
If Zambrano had limited his barrage to the fact that the Cubs should be "embarrassed" for their play this season, fine. That is kind of like saying the sun is going to rise in the east. But every Zambrano outburst feels like the one an eight-year-old has because he or she hasn't received enough attention lately. Yes, Zambrano has pitched well this year, but his checkered past means he has forfeited the right to ever do what he did on Sunday.
It will be interesting to see if the Cubs do anything to punish Zambrano, but with a salary of $18.875 million this year and a no-trade clause, it's hard to see how he isn't going to be a pain on the North Side until 2012, and possibly longer. Nobody has to like it, but it is the way it is.
Meanwhile, the White Sox found the answer to the six-man rotation dilemma, but not in a good way. Jake Peavy is hurt again, this time with a groin injury. For those who remember Jim McMahon playing for the Bears in the 80s, this is beginning to sound very familiar. Peavy can't stay healthy and it is something new all the time. In other words, classic signs of a body that can't take the wear and tear anymore. What was more troubling is that Peavy was apparently having problems in his last start and didn't say anything. There is determination to fight through an injury and there is selfishness. Peavy seems to have crossed into the latter in this case. He has to realize that he is fragile and can't risk making situations worse, which appears to have occurred at the Cell on Sunday.
Switching to the battles of the $12 million DH Dunn, whose average is .179, has all of nine hits at the Cell this year and looks hopeless at the plate. On Sunday, some in the crowd stopped booing him for a moment in order to give him a sarcasm-laced standing ovation when he got a leadoff single in the sixth inning, among another three strikeouts. In the fifth inning, Brent Lillibridge came up with runners on second and third with two out, and for half a second, you wondered if the Tigers would intentionally walk Lillibridge to get to Dunn. The Tigers did in fact pitch to Lillibridge, who struck out, but that just shows bad things are for Dunn right now.
Then there is Alex Rios. He didn't do anything bad on Sunday, because he wasn't playing. And there is no reason to expect Rios and his .199 average to be seen all that much anytime soon. Ozzie Guillen didn't like his outburst Friday night in the dugout. So now a player earning $12.5 million this year is a benchwarmer.
All GMs are going to make mistakes and Rios and Peavy - and so far Dunn - have been huge blunders for Kenny Williams, who has plenty of deft acquisitions and a World Series trophy to point to. But what makes matters worse, is that a team that's as financially "behind the eight ball" as the White Sox are, has almost one third of their total team salary tied to three players whose production has been, at best, minimal.
I've never begrudged any athlete for how much money they make. Market forces are market forces and everyone has the right to earn as much as they can. But then there are days like this one, when the people writing these checks really have to look at themselves in the mirror.
Do you agree with Daniel? Post your comments below.
Daniel I. Dorfman is a local freelance writer who has written and reported for the New York Times, Philadelphia Inquirer and the Boston Globe among many other nationally prominent broadcast, online and print media organizations. He is also a researcher for 670 The Score. You can follow him on Twitter @DanDorfman To read more of Daniel's blogs click here.
