You gotta pay to play
Are you watching the World Series this week and wondering why
the Oakland A’s didn’t make it into the fall classic again this
year, despite making another post-season appearance?
Whatever you do don’t blame a guy like Ken Macha for the A’s
annual October choke.
You gotta pay to play
Are you watching the World Series this week and wondering why the Oakland A’s didn’t make it into the fall classic again this year, despite making another post-season appearance?
Whatever you do don’t blame a guy like Ken Macha for the A’s annual October choke.
But that’s exactly what Billy Beane did when he opted to let the A’s skipper go last week. I was thinking about writing a column this week on the genius behind a G.M. that can take a team of no-name players and a bankroll that would please even Ebenezer Scrooge and make them annual winners.
Beane does that time and time again – and he does it by stealing guys like Frank Thomas for $500,000 and putting together an entire team salary that is one-third that of the New York Yankees’ $194, 663, 079 team payroll.
To put the Yankees payroll into perspective, A-Rod makes $11,000,000 a year more than the entire team salary of the Florida Marlins.
If football has a salary cap, so should baseball, but that’s another column.
Imagine how the A’s would do if there were a cap with a financial dealmaking wizard like Beane in the clubhouse? Can you say World Series? There’s no doubt Beane is great at assembling a team with a small checkbook but letting Macha go was a major mistake.
Apparently, the undertone surrounding the Macha firing was that many of the players on the A’s didn’t get along with him. I say, so what?
Do you think the Dallas Cowboy players get along with Bill Parcells? A lot of people didn’t like Bobby Knight either, but he won games.
Isn’t that the objective No. 1 for professional sports franchises?
Here was a guy who managed a team to an American League West title and a record that was 24 games over the .500 mark, who is now ass out. What the Mach happened?
The A’s made the playoffs four years in a row! That certainly wasn’t a fault of Macha’s – it was his achievement, but it might have been Beane’s fault for not giving Macha the personnel to go another step in the playoff game by bringing in a big time stars and/or letting others go.
People say the A’s should consider a guy like Dusty Baker because he is well liked by the players. Would you rather have a coach that finished dead last in his division some 30 games under .500 or a coach that sent a team to the playoffs year in and year out on a penny-pinching budget?
The problem wasn’t Macha at all. The first place I look is on the stat sheet.
When a guy like Frank Thomas goes 0-for-13 in the A.L.C.S. you don’t point the finger for the A’s demise in the playoffs at Ken Macha. When a guy like Barry Zito puts up an ERA of 12.27 you don’t blame it on Ken Macha.
And you don’t dump a guy because his players don’t like him. Not everyone liked Bill Walsh and Vince Lombardi either, but they respected them and the results speak for themselves.
When a player is making $25,000,000 a season, he shouldn’t be more concerned about his clubhouse relationship with the coach than his performance on the field.
Today’s athlete seems to want to just take the money and cut and run. Don’t you love how all athletes perform their best during the final year of a contract? Then after the contract skyrockets the following year they put up lack luster performances and bitch and moan about not getting the ball enough.
Or how about the guy who has an off year and has to settle for less and then has a stellar year and wants his contract renegotiated right in the middle of it. Why can’t the owner renegotiate a contract if the player doesn’t perform up to his potential?
My personal favorite is the athlete that holds out or doesn’t show up for training camp despite the fact that already signed an astronomical contract just weeks earlier.
Today’s athletes focus too much on the “I” in team, even though there isn’t one. It’s sad but true.
I say if a player doesn’t like Macha maybe he should leave. But don’t send a coach packing who has arguable been one of the biggest overachievers, based on his roster and budget constraints, down the river.
