All About the Benjamins
We're all abuzz about how calm camp is, if you can believe it, but this week Jonathan Papelbon decided that he would try his darnedest to provide copy by complaining about his sad, unfair contract. I have to say, the man has a point. Really, $425,550 is just so unfair.
Give me a break. Look, I realize that Papelbon, Pedroia, Buchholz, Youkilis, etc. are key to this team, but they're playing by the rules that their union agreed to. They aren't victims of a team's right to renew young players for the first handful of years, they're just part of the cycle. It's been depressing over the last few days to see all the articles reporting on how Prince Fielder and Nick Markakis are upset with their contracts. With all the steroid news finally in the background now that camps are open, picking at this stubborn scab just doesn't seem to be in anybody's interest.
The young players that have come up over the last several years have been a breath of fresh air for the game of baseball. When contracts appeared their most bloated and players their most distant, in came a class of rookies ready to just play baseball. They hit, ran, glove, threw, pitched and slugged their way into the hearts of fans everywhere. When they start using the press in that time-honored tradition as mouthpieces because they don't have the stones enough to just sit down with management, it turns me off completely. Even guys like Papelbon, whom I love to watch play.
Perhaps most surprising is that this contract nonsense (which has been settled, by the way, with Paps getting $775,000) comes on the heels of the team's visit to Walter Reed last week. All anyone could say was that the trip made it so obvious how lucky the players were to be allowed to have a game as their living. So many people would give anything for just a day in a ballplayer's hoes, and even more would give more for just a day of their pay. When you turn on the radio to hear stories of people scraping by below the poverty line followed by Papelbon's bitching about being a victim to poor salary, it just make me shake my head.
Jonathan Papelbon, grow up.
Give me a break. Look, I realize that Papelbon, Pedroia, Buchholz, Youkilis, etc. are key to this team, but they're playing by the rules that their union agreed to. They aren't victims of a team's right to renew young players for the first handful of years, they're just part of the cycle. It's been depressing over the last few days to see all the articles reporting on how Prince Fielder and Nick Markakis are upset with their contracts. With all the steroid news finally in the background now that camps are open, picking at this stubborn scab just doesn't seem to be in anybody's interest.
The young players that have come up over the last several years have been a breath of fresh air for the game of baseball. When contracts appeared their most bloated and players their most distant, in came a class of rookies ready to just play baseball. They hit, ran, glove, threw, pitched and slugged their way into the hearts of fans everywhere. When they start using the press in that time-honored tradition as mouthpieces because they don't have the stones enough to just sit down with management, it turns me off completely. Even guys like Papelbon, whom I love to watch play.
Perhaps most surprising is that this contract nonsense (which has been settled, by the way, with Paps getting $775,000) comes on the heels of the team's visit to Walter Reed last week. All anyone could say was that the trip made it so obvious how lucky the players were to be allowed to have a game as their living. So many people would give anything for just a day in a ballplayer's hoes, and even more would give more for just a day of their pay. When you turn on the radio to hear stories of people scraping by below the poverty line followed by Papelbon's bitching about being a victim to poor salary, it just make me shake my head.
Jonathan Papelbon, grow up.
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Ryan Brodeur at 9:05 PM
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