In this weekend's opener to Saturday Night Live -- you know, the half-hour before the show always falls off the cliff -- Fred Armeson does Michael Bloomberg riffing on Occupy Wall Street. At the 4:30 mark, after listing corporate fatcats, he mentions the Yankees' collapse and takes a whack at our 3B: "Technically, I might be richer than A-Rod, but I think we can all agree, he has done less to earn it." The crowd applauds.
Get used to this. When the Yankee season ended, A-Rod Season began. And OK, yeah, he'll always deserve shit. Long ago, his life became an American punch line, along with, "Hey, if I can find my car keys, we can drive out of here."
But lemmie ask: Do Hank and Hal Steinbrenner earn their money? Because even if they take home less in salary than A-Rod -- which is questionable, because their salaries don't get printed in the papers -- they get to cash out. They never worry about next year's contract, or a batting slump, a hip replacement, or even a losing streak.
Listen: The hell with A-Rod. He's made his bed. But baseball players - even the overpaid ones - have one brief window to make their money in life. One torn elbow, one broken bone, and it's over.
Next time an owner blocks crashes headfirst into a wall, chasing a ball, I'll change my tune. But the owners are the Bobby Abreus. The players are the Paul O'Neills.
But if A-Rod breaks that bone, the Yankees still pay him $30 million for each of the next 6 years.
ReplyDeleteSo, what are you talking about?