Enough is Enough
By lefty
Pedro Martinez, earning $17.5 million in the final year of his seven-year, $90 million contract, declared his free agency intentions with the words "Enough is enough."
"I would be disrespecting my career and the future of the game for the other players coming up," Martinez, the highest-paid pitcher in Baseball, explained of his frustration with Red Sox management’s lack of a "fair" counter-offer to his proposed acceptance of a lower salary. See the Boston Globe’s story.
Two questions Pedro:
The first is: What’s enough?
Of the 35,000 "Average Joe" Fenway fans cheering for you at every home game, the well-educated, Boston-area professional finds his "above average" salary of $75,000 "enough." Still, it would take that "Average Joe" 233.3 years to make what you did last year alone. Pedro, that has him working away - without a raise - until September, 2,237!
When you were growing up in that Dominican Republic town of Manoguayabo, and playing "beisbol." with those rolled up socks and the heads of dolls borrowed from your sister, what was your sense of "enough?" And what of your friend Jose whose arm wasn’t as golden as yours, and is now living on the average per capita Dominican income of $1,600. That "Average Jose" would have to work 10,937.5 years to earn as much money as you do. Pedro, that’s October of the year 12,941. The Yankees would have won 2,600 pennants by then. You have every right to bargain for your best deal. God bless you. You deserve every penny the owners think you’re worth.
And this brings me to my second question: What about the fan?
The owners will pay whatever they can make off you, because they pass the cost down to the fan. They’ll up the prices of tickets, parking, soda, Fenway franks and Sam Adams. They’ll get a TV deal and justify earning back your salary through the wallets of the asses that warm their wooden seats. The TV commercials will cost more, so the guy at home pays more for his tires, his shaving cream and his nacho chips.
Pedro, the real question is: What will make you happy? You mention respect, and then you say you’d be just as happy to don those pinstripes. To free you from the Sox lineup, "The Boss" will buy you and own you and move you to the Bronx. With the amount of money you’ve made in baseball you can afford to have this contract be about other things. If you want to be closer to home, sign with Florida. If you like the heat, look at Texas. If you want the money, your pinstripes are already being tailored. You say, "I have to earn a living. I have to keep a job." OK. So maybe $17,500,000 per year isn’t "enough" of a living.
But if you’re really looking for respect from the fans of the game of baseball, you’ll retire wearing socks of red.
