A Sporting View

A-Rod

Scott Boras submitted A-Rod's opt-out paper work sometime Sunday nite (28 Oct). He says he didn't expect it to become known until the next day. He said he didn't realize a reporter would pick up on it. He's sorry about upstaging baseball's premier event (the World Series) so that some portion of the spotlight would make it's way to A-Rod and Scott Boras.

What Scott Boras did was offensive. And he offends us even more by saying he "didn't know" this or he didn't know that. Scott Boras makes his mega-millions by KNOWING quite a LOT about this and that. And even if "the reporter" didn't pick up on it Sunday nite, if Scott planned on it being known Monday, why in the hell would he even do that? The World Series could've still been playing on Monday, so the upstage would've still occurred. And if by some small possibility, Scott submitted the papers AFTER the World Series was concluded Sunday nite, then why make your story ANY part of the post World Series celebration? Jeez, Boras, who do you think we are? No, don't answer that. You seem to have a pretty good idea of who we are. We're here for YOUR playing field and the pageantry and excitement of the World Series shouldn't belong to the teams on the field and their fans and fans everywhere, some of that needs to belong to you and your client, A-Rod.

I don't know A-Rod personally. I know his stats. Both regular season and post-season. I know that the last two teams he played for GOT BETTER when he was no longer on their team. I know that A-Rod came on board with the Yankees and they won not a single World Series from that point forward.

Why did his previous teams improve with his departure? I have two theories:

1) The other players could no longer "rely" on the big man. Instead of knowing or hoping or believing A-Rod would get the big hit(s) to pull a game out, they now knew it was ENTIRELY UP TO THEM. That kind of "necessity level" is a compelling motivation.

2) The enormous salary that A-Rod was getting paid actually alienated other players. Yes, I know publicly the players would never say they're bothered by someone who gets 20 times the money that most of the other players were making. But I don't believe it. The "team" was not really a team. It was a group of players and A-Rod. Look at the last bunch of World Series winners (and losers) and almost one-for-one, you'll see teams with superb chemistry. Teams comprised of players that really care for each other, want to live and die for each other, and really enjoy playing with each other.

Okay, maybe I went a bit too far with "live and die for each other," but it's a basic fact that gets overlooked so many times in professional sports: A group of supremely talented players do NOT always finish first. A group of players who really WANT to work together as a TEAM can finish ahead of the supremely talented bunch.

If someone were to tie me down to a chair, slap me in the face a few times and then demand I tell them what was wrong with professional sports, I'd say:

Scott Boras and A-Rod.

When Scott Boras negotiated A-Rod's contract with the Texas Rangers, he wanted the figure to end up at $252,000,000. Not 250 million. 252. Why? Because he wanted the world to know that his client was getting DOUBLE the next most lucrative sports contract: Kevin Garnett's 126 million.

Yes, yes, yes it's a free marketplace. And yes, people should make as much as they can and certainly as much as someone is willing to pay them. But we're also talking about preserving some of the core values of team sports and anything (and everything) that detracts from a team concept is capable of reducing that team's ability to perform. Removal of those negative factors often results in an immediate upsurge in the performance of the team.

Do I think Scott Boras has no appreciation of the team concept? No, I think Scott Boras has an excellent idea of the team concept, but it extends only to HIS team. "Oh, but that's my job," the agent says. "To get my client the most I can." Your job, Mr. Agent, doesn't occur in a vacuum. You work in a community with others: other players, management, fans. Are you so arrogant that you don't see the overall team?

Sorry if I sound too pissed off with this one. It wasn't just poor timing on Scott Boras' part. It was one of too many moments where greed was once again more compelling than compassion and respect for the sport itself.

Football in London

Today the first National Football League game outside of North America took place. Well, the first one that was part of the regular season. There have been a few others but they were pre-season games and therefore not very meaningful.

There are no doubt a number of things that could be learned and projected from this "milestone event" but there was one peculiar item that really appealed to me.

In the first quarter, I noticed on 2 different plays something that is not witnessed here in the States. On each of these plays, someone made a good tackle or caught a pass and the person making the play then ran a few steps out from the crowd and strutted forward making some kind of gesture clearly stating: "Yo! Look at me! I am the reason this great play occurred. Can you dig how cool and great I am?"

And you know what I distinctly heard from the London crowd? Boos. Yes, boos! How refreshing. Maybe I was imagining it, but I believe there was a healthy group of London fans who just don't go in for the "look how great I am" athlete and they made themselves known to the two players who felt compelled to strut their personal stuff.

This phenomenon of individual players showing the world how great they are individually seems to happen most often in football. You do see it sometimes in basketball, very rarely in baseball (the player who hits a home run and then stops to admire it) and almost never in ice hockey.

When an athlete does something absolutely incredible and wants to celebrate it because it made a impact on their team's success, that's very cool. But it's easy to see the difference between that kind of celebration and the one where the individual is making a statement mainly about himself.

The less we see of the latter the better.

Joe Torre and the Yankees Part Ways

I see both sides of this issue.

Joe Torre says it was an insult to reduce his pay to 5 million and to add incentives to the contract offer.

The Yankees say, "hey, Joe, we hired you to win World Series, not just get us to the playoffs."

If Joe took the offer, his salarly would be reduced to $5,000,000. The next highest paid manager is Tony LaRussa at $3.5 million per year. So even with a reduced salarly, Joe would've made one and half million dollars more than the next highest paid manager.

The contract offer that Joe rejected also provided for an additional $1,000,000 for reaching the playoffs; an additional $1,000,000 for reaching the League Championship Series; an additional $1,000,000 for reaching the World Series.

So, he would've made $8 million if he made it to the World Series in 2008, without even having to win the World Series.

Without question, Joe Torre was a key ingredient to turning the Yankees around and bringing them to the playoffs 12 straight years. But I think he and most of the rest of the baseball world knew that the expectations for his performance were World Series wins.

IF that's the expectation and you don't reach that plateau five years in a row, why wouldn't management have the right to scale down your salary as a result?

When a player gets 100 million dollars based on 3 or 4 great years, he feels he deserves the big bucks, right? Understood. So what do we do when that same player fails to perform anywhere close to that previous level and is now earning mega money? Can we come back to him and ask him to give some of the money back?

I think expectations can be fairly factored into this contract offer that Joe rejected. Joe felt it also should be a longer contract. Understood. But once again, expectations for a team that is commanding $200 plus million dollars in player salaries are going to be enormously higher than a team with a fraction of that payroll.

But there is the other side of the ledger:

Did the Yankees handle this contract offer in a way befitting of Joe's 12 years of service? Definitely not. I agree with Joe that if the Yankees wanted him back, they could've offered something different and with some rational negotiations back and forth, we'd have Joe in the Yankee dugout next year.

But it seems the Yankees did use a bit of business "low-balling" and it didn't work. Or maybe they just offered something they knew would blow Joe off but also give Joe a chance to leave without "being fired."

So, there are certainly some parts to this story we may never know.

But I am here to tell you that Joe knew what the expectations were and being given a salary offer that is one and a half million dollars MORE than any other manager with the opportunity to earn another 3 MIL in the same year — well to many fans, that seems a no-brainer.

But pride did enter into this equation and expectations and pride don't always see eye-to-eye.

A Lesson from the World of Sports

I love sports. I loved playing baseball, football, basketball, even soccer. When I was a bit younger, I was pretty good. But I still immensely enjoy watching a Stanley Cup playoff, some March Madness, a really tight World Series.

I enjoy many of the things most spectators enjoy: the competition, the intensity, the passion to win, and of course watching extremely talented people do incredibly talented things.

But I also enjoy other key aspects of the game. I like to pay attention to the fine points of winning, the small details. What is very intriguing is watching how two or more players will work together to make something happen (score a basket, a goal, etc.). For example, in sports like hockey, basketball and soccer, a great deal of importance is placed on the ability to PASS the ball (or puck). There are players who derive greater satisfaction from a precisely-delivered pass than from actually scoring. Seasoned basketball fans are awed by the combination of a fantastic pass culminating in a score. I certainly am.

A game is played to win. In order to win, individual players blend their skills and their actions with other players. Teams made up of JUST individuals, even those highly talented, often fail against teams composed of people who work hard on working together.

The next time you watch a well-played game, observe the degree of teamwork on both teams. Look for the subtle details and you'll see some really exciting give-and-take that you might not ordinarily see.

The more a group of people works together as a team, the more that group gets done and the easier it is to get things done. This is true in sports and of course is true in every other area of life.

Creating a Winner Versus Supporting a Winner

The following is an article I wrote a few years ago that was published in the sports section of The Tampa Tribune.

Fans express themselves in two very basic ways. One is to support a winner and the other is to CREATE a winner.

Many fans will come out and support a winner. They’ll cheer madly, they’ll proudly wear the team merchandise, and they’ll boast to out-of-town friends about how great their team is.

But what happens if the team performs poorly? What if the team performs poorly over a long stretch of time? Some of these supportive fans now become not so supportive. You start to hear boos. They call in to talk shows complaining about the players, the coaches, the strategies, the playing styles. Some complain with incredible vehemence.

Now let’s turn to the fan who is intent on CREATING a winner. This fan does not boo the home team. Interview any professional player and they will tell you there is nothing gained when their own fans boo them. Many will tell you that it actually undermines them, as they often count on the "home team fan" to be the extra player. Home team advantage is not a mere theory … it is a statistical fact. But the home team advantage erodes when more and more “fans” boo their own players.

Each and every fan has a part in creating a winning team. That may sound farfetched, but just as each member of a family or each member of a group contributes to the survival of that family or group, so it is with fans and their local team.

Creating a winner. What does that mean? Let’s take an example from everyday life. Let’s say you’re a salesperson and you’ve just put a tremendous amount of effort into closing an important deal for the company. Closing it means that you’ll get a excellent commission and your company will have a ton of business to deliver over the next 6 months. But something goes wrong and the sale doesn’t close. You come back to the office and your boss meets you at the door and says: “You crummy piece of dirt! I can’t believe you didn’t close that sale!” You walk down the corridor and an associate sees you and yells: “Thanks for nothing!” The rest of the day goes pretty much like that.

Now, I’m sure there are a handful of people on this planet who just love to be criticized and they do their best work when people spit on them, but my observation is that people perform best in a different type of environment. The more positive and the more encouraging people are around you, the better you do. People just accomplish more when that’s what others around them are intending them to do!

That last line is very important. When people around you are intending for you to succeed, your likelihood of success increases. When people shift from supporting you to criticizing you, you are less likely to succeed.

Does a fan have the right to boo? Of course. And I guess your associates have a right to make your life miserable if you don’t get something done well at the office. But you certainly appreciate it an awful lot more if your associates show you some understanding and then keep right on intending that you’re going to get the job done right.

Should a fan keep completely silent and never voice his displeasure with a team that is under-performing? No and yes. There are different ways and different forums for that. But when your team is in the heat of battle and they don’t complete a first down or get a key basket or goal, that is the last place to voice it.

When the players sense, really sense, that the fans are really, really behind them, the majority of players will up their intensity level and play like crazy to win.

Yes, we have other factors permeating professional sports these days: money, free agency, unions, strikes—all of these contribute to a scene that can make the “old days” seem a long, long time ago.

And if the home team has very little talent or if the team owner doesn’t really care if his team wins or loses as long as he makes a profit, then the prospects for success are dramatically affected.

But this article is simply about how you can play a part in creating a winner. You can support the home team when it wins or you can help create the home team into a winner. As a fan, you make a big difference.

Marion Jones, It's Possible It Hurts Us Even More

Marion Jones announced to the world that she had indeed been using performance-enhancing drugs and that doing so made it possible for her to have a significant advantage over other athletes.

Yes, she'll most likely lose her three gold medals and her two bronze medals from the 2000 Sydney Olympics. And yes, she'll most likely be stripped of other medals (World Championships 2001). And she's probably going to spend some time in jail. From what we're told, she's broke and will be facing fines in addition to prison time.

So, Marion, this is definitely a major, major fall from grace. You were once the world's most admired female athlete. And now, you face a very uncertain and rough future.

But with all of that's ahead for you, Marion, it is possible it hurts us even more. Why? Because we BELIEVE in the integrity of sports. At least we try very hard to. There are millions of people who deeply respect the spirit of competition that is the Olympics. When we find out that someone of your calibre competed with an unfair advantage and that you asserted for years that you were an honest and ethical competitor, and then you admit to us that you had been lying all along...well, the impact this has is enormous. It affects millions of people.

You must fully consider the impact you have had on the world of sports. And you must realize that a tear-filled apoloy, no matter how sincere, will not make up the damage you've caused. Factually, you CAN make up the damage, Marion, but it will start with an unselfish recognition of the impact you've had on others and then devising realistic things you can DO that will, in some way, improve the integrity of sports. You can do this. You can figure this out.

Maybe I'm being a bit harsh here. You, me and the rest of the sporting world are not in the same boat as Marion Jones. And truth be known, we do NOT have to lower our viewpoint of sports simply because a famous athlete or two (or more) have gone awry. We can conclude that people on this planet are flawed and this shows up in every area of life, sports included. Okay, I'm not so bummed out by what you did, Marion, and I hope you make a complete recovery for yourself and for your fans.