The 'V' Spot: Thank You, A-Rod

Thank You, A-Rod.

No this is not Derek Jeter masquerading as the V-Spot. Alex Rodriguez did all of baseball a favor by taking Tom Hicks' ridiculous 10 year, $252 million contract to play shortstop for the Texas Rangers. Mark my words, when the history of baseball is written, this contract will be considered as epoch changing as the actions of Curt Flood and Marvin Miller.

As baseball slowly recovers from the ticket shock of one quarter of a billion dollars to play baseball, it must finally resolve itself to say that something really is wrong with a policy that permits Hicks to give two million less to his shortstop than he paid for the entire team.

Quite frankly, this contract is so stupendous that the traditional arguments brought against excessive spending will no longer offer solace to the small market teams. For the past few years, one only needed to look at the antics of Peter Angelos and the Baltimore Orioles and realize that money does not buy success. And even as the payroll of the vaunted New York Yankees ratcheted ever skyward, at least Yankee fans could point to the core of their team as homegrown--Andy Pettite, Mariano Rivera, Bernie Williams and, of course, Jeter.

But this contract is a slap in the face to the entire economic system of the game. The Seattle Mariners are by no means a poor team. They have a brand new, well-attended facility in Safeco Field, and they offered Rodriguez somewhere around $150 million to stay put. The fact is that GM Pat Gillick has done everything right over the past couple of years to bring his club to the precipice of contention.

Running under the premise that pitching wins championships, he brought in stud young arms when he was forced to trade Randy Johnson. He has systematically improved his bullpen, most recently by signing Jeff Nelson from the Yankees. And he implemented some addition-by-subtraction by removing clubhouse cancer, Ken Griffey, Jr. Through it all, he kept the brilliant leadership of the colorful Lou Pinella.

They had something special developing in the land of Starbucks, but the loss of homegrown superstar Rodriguez through Hicks' sheer absurdity renders his efforts null and void.

On top of that, Texas--though certainly acquiring what Hicks termed "cache" around the majors--has no guarantee to be that much better next year. Manager Johnny Oates still has to hand the ball to his "ace," Kenny Rogers, every fifth day (insert The Gambler joke here).

But the fact is, not only cannot the small market teams not compete with expenditures of $252 million, even the mid-size teams cannot conjure up this kind of cash. Entire teams are not worth that much. ESPN.com broke it down: Rodriguez' contract would be the 13th most valuable baseball franchise. It would rank fifth in the NBA; only the New York Rangers are more dear in the NHL. At least it falls $50 million short of the poorest NFL team.

And through the good graces of president-elect W, there is no state income tax in Texas.

Looming large after this season is the October expiration date of the collective bargaining agreement. There is no way that over half of the owners can put their names on the dotted line of a system that allows the Yankees, Mets, Dodgers, Orioles, Braves, Red Sox and now the Rangers to spend them in oblivion. These smaller markets cannot permit themselves to be a de facto minor league operation for the big clubs, developing talent until they become available free agents. Yes, it's possible for a team like Oakland to compete, but GM Billy Beane has been nothing short of brilliant, and he has no room for error. How much will the pitchers he's devloped like Barry Zito be worth on the open market? Denny Neagle just got $10 million per year. Hell, Darren Dreifort, who in my estimation is nothing better than a third starter, just commanded $11 million.

Beane, and teams like his, must constantly be forging new talent, taking a couple of down years for the sake of experience in hopes of one great run before prematurely disbanding the squad and rebuilding.

This is unacceptable and now the owners, if they have half of a brain, must have resolved themselves to make a change. Though Rodriguez' contract certainly makes Donald Fehr and Gene Orza, the heads of the players union, giddy, they cannot in good conscience say that there is not a problem--presuming, of course, Fehr and Orza have a conscience. Watch when October hits for owners to put together a salary cap or a serious luxury tax proposal to do something to limit salaries--or force a team to accept tradeoffs if they overspend on a free agent.

My own proposal would be an extreme luxury tax. Set the limit at something around $70 million and, in fairness to the union, set a minimum overall salary of around $30 million. When a team oversteps the limit, take the amount it is over by and tax it at around 50% and distribute that money to the bottom third of the league to give them more capital to compete. I see this as a win-win situation overall because it curbs the utterly ridiculous salaries like those of Rodriguez and Manny Ramirez (Yeah Sox fans, stop bitching about the Yankees when you just gave Manny $20 million per annum--wait till Nomar wants to renegotiate).

From the players persepective, while the top talent won't be enriching themselves like before, forcing the bottom teams to have a minimum salary will equalize wage distribution throughout the league. Teams won't be able to make the calculus before a season that since they can't win with a payroll of $45 million, they should just pare it down to $15 million and take their chances. It forces every team in the league to compete. And if your market is too small to meet this burden, then it is time to either fold up shop or move.

Seriously, why is there baseball in Montreal anyway? Even the god-like Canadiens suck.

My solution will bring about both fairness and some equity in baseball. Though as a fan of the New York Mets, I would like to remain one of the five-to-eight teams that can realistically compete, I recognize that the game can only prosper if a team is not precluded from contention before the season even begins.

The situation now is so bad that even the owners now must have the fire to fight for a remedy. Teams are losing enough money that I am sure they are willing to miss games once again for the sake of fiscal solvency and overall league competitiveness.

If the public objects, all they have to point to is A-Rod.

Thanks, Ranger.