CC Sabathia

My college pledge son frequently told me that money wasn't the most important thing in life but it was miles ahead of whatever was in third place. In the movie; Wall Street, Gordon Gekko, aka Michael Douglas, told us that "greed is good". That little phrase has wormed it's way into our everyday vernacular. I utter it frequently. I kind of like the phrase. Greed's okay if you use it wisely and for the correct reasons. I like money. Money is fun. Having money allowed me to take trips to Europe, buy nice Christmas presents for my wife and children, put my children through college and marry them off. It allowed me to play some very nice golf courses after I had purchased some top of the line golf clubs. I do have to mention, just so you'll know, I'm not a complete snobbish boob. Having had money allowed me to donate to churches and my favorite charities.
I was doing some of my good thinking on the treadmill this morning while watching ESPN. The major story of the day was the imminent signing of a free agent baseball contract by the New York Yankees to one, CC Sabathia. Mr. Sabathia, last season, started out as a star pitcher for the Cleveland Indians but mid-way through the season the Tribe unloaded the guy to the Milwaukee Brewers. I write "unloaded" because the contract for CC----from now on let's call him Cash Cow---- was going to expire. The Indians didn't want to see the guy take a hike and get nothing so they sold him to the Brewers for players and money. This sort of sounds like slavery but it isn't since Cash Cow gets to approve the deal. In the old days this didn't happen and it was pretty close to player/owner slavery. Anyway, at the end of the 2008 season the bidding for CC's services began in earnest. CC was only beholden to Milwaukee through the end of the season. I'm new to using eBay but what has transpired is pretty much the same. Sabathia put himself up for auction and watched the bidding wars for his services spiral upward. It appears that the New York Yankees have won the contest for CC at the rate of $160 million dollars for a period of seven(7) years. Yep! You read this correctly; $160 million dollars for seven years. Let's break this down. Seven years into 160 works out to $22,857,000 and change per year. The Yankees will be moving into a new stadium in 2009 with a sticker price of $1.3 billion dollars. Seating capacity is 51,800. In today's major league games a pitcher goes to work, takes 'the hill' for those of us in the know, once every five days. If he's very valuable and very strong, every four days. The idea is to get this pitcher to go seven innings; a grand total of 21 outs. Baseball is all about statistics so if that pitcher can get through the seventh inning by throwing 120 pitches or less then he is more than worth his salary price. After the seventh inning or 120 pitches there are other expensive players to pitch the eighth inning and a "closer"to pitch the ninth. The 'closer' position is getting to be really important. There are now 'closers' who have been elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame who pitched in the ninth inning only. Embarrassing to us old-timers, isn't it?
Grab yourself a calculator and divide the number of pitches made into CC's salary. You can come up with all kinds of statistics as to how much the guy is paid for each inning, each pitch, each time he gets a drink of water, each time he takes a potty break. It's almost breathtaking.
51,800 is the total number of bodies that can fit into the stadium, excluding standing room only types. Normally, except for opening day, a series with the hated Boston Red Sox, and end of the year crucial games plus playoff games most of those 51,800 seats will be dust collectors. It takes a lot of bodies in a lot of seats to pay for a salary of almost $23 million a year and, don't forget, CC's salary is just a small part of the entire salary of the New York professional baseball team. They are vying with the Chicago Cubs to have the best team money can buy.
The new stadium is across the street from where the old stadium, "The House That Ruth Built", was constructed. This means it's in the Bronx. If you've never been there the townsfolk can be a pretty tough crowd. I know since I see their kind on the Law and Order TV series. When their team doesn't win they hate like poison. I'm wondering how many of these Yankee fans, in their seats next April, watching Cash Cow perform, will have super bad thoughts about the salaries paid to those who run big business; those who are the CEO's of the Big Three. I can promise if CC throws a five hitter, strikes out 12 batters, and the Bronx Bombers take two of three from the evil Red Sox, $160 million will be an afterthought. So, you guys who actually work from nine to five, going nutso for a $160 million dollar man, thinking about the Gordon Gekko's on Wall Street consider this: Gekko just might be on 'the hill'.