Now This is Worth the Money!!!!!

Hey I was just wondering, thinking out loud really. I don’t know, maybe it’s me, maybe I’m bonkers or maybe I’m just turning into a curmudgeon. But I listen to all the blah, blah talk from the desk at the MLB Network and sometimes I laugh out loud!

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I mean really, aren’t these guys supposed to be “experts”? You know it’s taken me a while to simply accept and live with the fact that former players are the soup de jour when it comes to color guys or commentators or analysts or even the play by-play guys. I understand the perspective they bring, I do, honest I do. And I like the fact that the MLB has a pretty decent mix of former players and broadcasting professionals (you remember them don’t you?). But good God listening to virtually every one of these guys (thanks Mitch Williams) gush about what a huge deal the Dodgers made with the Red Sox. What a lineup they will feature, how great this will make them yada, yada, yada! It makes me scratch my head!

Simple question, if you had a baseball team and were looking to invest a quarter of a billion dollars, that’s billion with a B, how would you do it?

Would you pay 129,000,000.00 over the next six years for a 31-year-old first baseman?

The Dodgers will pay 21.5 million a year to AGone through 2017.

Would you pay 32,500,000.00 for the next two years to a 32-year-old pitcher who has spent the better part of the 2012 season getting his clock cleaned and a good portion of the last three season nursing various and sundry ailments to his back and shoulder, (oh yea, his pitching shoulder)? Oh and by the way Beckett made his debut last night in Dodger Blue and he was well, Beckett. He served up a homer to the first batter he faced, gave up three runs in 5 2/3rds and took the loss.

Josh Beckett will receive $15,750,000.00 per year through 2014.

And then would you cap off your shopping spree with an outfielder of enormous athletic talent who two days before underwent a surgical procedure that takes at least a year (maybe less for an outfielder) from which to recover?

Carl Crawford is owed $102,500,000.00 through 2017.

I’m not really sure about such things but then again I’m not a baseball executive or even an analyst, or TV commentater and nowhere near an expert. I’m just a guy who’s been watching and loving this game since Ted Williams was playing left field for the Red Sox!

And I do know one thing which is the best part of this whole damn deal, and that is that this guy,

Excited by the Dodgers spending spree, Vince Skully announced he will return to the booth next year to announce Dodger games.

will be back! And that my friends is worth a billion dollars of Dodger money! So I guess they made out after all!

And so it is on this day in Fenway Park history, August 28,2012.

About fenwaypark100

Hello and welcome, my name is Raymond Sinibaldi. A retired history teacher, after 26 years in the classroom, a baseball fan for three score and five, I have authored 13 books. Eight about baseball and her glorious history; most recently Yankees in the Hall of Fame and Dodgers in the Hall of Fame. An aficionado of the Kennedy Administration, I have written four books in that realm and also co-authored a book of motivational stories for coaches. The first, The Babe in Red Stockings which was co-authored with Kerry Keene and David Hickey and released in 1997. It is a chronicle of Babe's days with the Red Sox. We also penned a screenplay about Babe's Red Sox days so if any of you are Hollywood inclined or would like to represent us in forwarding that effort feel free to contact me. In 2012 we three amigos published Images of Fenway Park in honor of the 100th birthday of Fenway Park. That led to the creation of this blog. The following year, 2013 came my first solo venture, Spring Training in Bradenton and Sarasota. This is a pictorial history of spring training in those two Florida cities. The spring of 2014 brought forth the 1967 Red Sox, The Impossible Dream Season. The title speaks for itself, and it also is a pictorial history. Many of the photos in this book were never published before. The spring of 2015 brought 1975 Red Sox, American League Champions. Another pictorial effort, this will be about the Red Sox championship season of 1975 and the World Series that restored baseball in America. The spring of 2016 brought 61 Motivational Stories for Every Coach of Every Sport. My first JFK effort was in 2017 with John F Kennedy in New England, which was followed by JFK From Florida to the Moon (2019) and JFK At Rest in Arlington (2020). Jackie's Newport came about in 2019 and in 2023 came both Yankees in the Hall of Fame and Dodgers in the Hall of Fame. I was fortunate enough to consult with sculptor Franc Talarico on the “Jimmy Fund” statue of Ted Williams which stands outside both Fenway Park and Jet Blue Park Fenway South, in Fort Myers Florida. That story is contained in the near 300 posts which are contained herein. Throughout the years this blog has morphed from an exclusive Red Sox focus, to a broader baseball perspective to a blog about life, with baseball a large portion of it. This year, 2024, I have reactivated this blog which lay dormant for quite some time. Welcome aboard, pass the word and feel free to contact me about anything you read or ideas you may have for a topic. Email me at fenwaypark100@gmail.com.

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1 Response to Now This is Worth the Money!!!!!

Tom Marino says:

August 28, 2012 at 2:58 pm

I’m not upset about losing those over paid under achieving players, but I would have like to receive more than a low end first baseman with no power, a utility infielder who was given every opportunity to start but has never done it; a 23 year old right handed pitcher who is damaged goods and a bad attitude. An outfielder from Smithfield, NC with some pop, who has not shown he can hit big league pitching. The other right handed pitcher (also from NC) has had only moderate success at the A and Double A levels and if he reaches his full potential has a chance to become a Bob Stanley.