The Game of His Life, continued

Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig, who three years ago created a new position in his office especially for Alderson, never comments on player contracts. But Alderson sure does. When Kevin Brown signed with the L.A. Dodgers for more than $100 million, he called it "an affront to baseball." He castigated Mike Hampton for pointing to the quality of the Colorado schools as an impetus to sign with the Rockies rather than the $121 million on the table. And he was "stupefied" when the Texas Rangers signed Alex Rodriguez for more than a quarter of a billion dollars over ten years. "Clearly we have a crisis situation in the game," he said on the day the deal was announced, "and it's time for us to deal with it."

He speaks with the passion of the truly reformed. Alderson came to his current job, he said, "with a certain amount of baggage." He represented a small market team forced to trade players--Mark McGwire most prominently--whose salary demands the ball club could not afford. Before that, he had committed some of the same transgressions that he so vigorously decries today. For example, Alderson signed Bob Welch to a substantial, multiyear contract after he won 27 games for the A's and the Cy Young Award in 1990. Welch won a total of 35 games in the next four seasons.

"You've got to learn from your mistakes," Alderson said. "We continue to rationalize these decisions in ways that are disingenuous. . . . I do not believe that teams with large payrolls have an entitlement to year-after-year success. I don't think that's the way the game ought to be perceived."

Teams with smaller payrolls have little chance to win, Alderson notes; at the time of the game at Fenway in late July, all six division leaders were in the top ten in payroll, continuing a pattern borne out over the past decade. Fans in several cities across North America know--before the season starts--their teams will not make the playoffs.

The commissioner's office wants to change that. The office established a "blue ribbon panel" on the economics of baseball whose report released last year may serve as a first volley in upcoming negotiations. It recommends increased sharing of revenue from local broadcast rights, a 50 percent "competitive balance tax" on teams that spend above a designated payroll level, and a revised draft system that would allow the worst teams to pluck players from the best. The negotiations promise to pit not only owners against players but high-payroll owners against low-payroll owners. If an agreement is not reached before the 2002 season, MLB may face its ninth strike or lockout since 1972.

But Alderson will not talk about the collective bargaining agreement. Neither he nor anyone in Major League Baseball headquarters will. Baseball fans, of course, would rather talk about the game on the field, anyway. So would Alderson, who cheers with everyone else when Mike Lansing stabs a sharp grounder at short and rifles a throw to first for the out. He jokes to the Red Sox fan sitting beside him: "You don't need Nomar" Garciaparra, the team's star shortstop, out for the year till that point with a wrist injury. He doesn't mention that Lansing, a mediocre big-league player, is making $6 million this year.

Because, after all, this is fun, even for Sandy Alderson.

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