Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site dciem.UUCP Path: utzoo!dciem!jeff From: jeff@dciem.UUCP (Jeff Richardson) Newsgroups: net.sport.baseball Subject: Re: Gooden signs (comments on long-term contracts) Message-ID: <1421@dciem.UUCP> Date: Mon, 25-Feb-85 14:34:19 EST Article-I.D.: dciem.1421 Posted: Mon Feb 25 14:34:19 1985 Date-Received: Mon, 25-Feb-85 17:17:41 EST References: <624@spuxll.UUCP> Reply-To: jeff@dciem.UUCP (Jeff Richardson) Organization: D.C.I.E.M., Toronto, Canada Lines: 28 Summary: > And speaking of Gooden, the Mets after much delay finally signed him to a > one-year contract worth up to 500K. Let's say that Gooden continues to rewrite > record books every year. Are the Mets going to repeat this courting rite > every spring, until -- gasp -- he is finally elligible for free agency and > demands 49% of the francise. Why don't the Mets do with him what the > Edmonton Oilers did with Gretzky at the start of his career: lock him > up with a 20-year contract? Is it that baseball as a business doesn't > lend itself to such contracts? Can Doubleday simply be more conservative > than Peter Puck? Are the Mets reserving Number 99 for Shawn Abner?? :-) Suppose they did lock him up with a long-term contract. If he flops, and the tendency to flop is greater once you have lifetime security, then the Mets are locked up too and they have to continue to fork out all that money to someone who isn't really earning it. If he does continue to rewrite the record books, then in about five years he'll presumably be making significantly less than the league's other top pitchers that are eligible for free-agency (because they wouldn't bother to lock him up unless they figured they could do it for less money than free-agency would cost them), and that fact could hurt his play so the Mets would have to renogotiate his contract anyway. It seemed pretty obvious that the Oilers weren't likely to get burned with Gretzky, but with baseball pitchers, especially rookies, you never really know. However, I must admit that I probably would have tried to sign Gooden for 3 years anyway. Maybe they want to see what he can do this year, and then they'll go for a longer term next time. -- Jeff Richardson, DCIEM, Toronto (416) 635-2073 {linus,ihnp4,uw-beaver,floyd}!utcsrgv!dciem!jeff {allegra,ihnp4,linus,decvax}!utzoo!dciem!jeff