Manny Being Manny, Part II

I wrote about Manny Ramirez around last season's trade deadline when he was traded to the Dodgers.  I said back then that he would "work hard to try and get the Dodgers into the playoffs."  Indeed he did.  After his trade to LA, Manny hit .396 with a .489 OBP, 17 HR's and 53 RBI's in only 53 games.  He was the spark that helped the Dodgers get into the playoffs and sweep the Cubbies in the first round before bowing out to the eventual World Series champion Phillies in the LCS.

Well, Manny is at it again, only this time it's not on the field.  He is pulling his usual antics and causing a media circus.  Okay, this time, it cannot all be attributed to him.  Infamous agent gloryhog Scott Boras probably has something to do with it as well.  Manny has turned down at least 3 different offers that the Dodgers have made him this offseason.  Most recently, it was a $25 million/1 year deal with a $20 million player option for 2010.  In other words, he would be paid an average of $22.5 over the next two years to play baseball.  Let go a little further on the math on this one, shall we?

At best, Manny will play 324 regular season games in this two year span, which is laughable because he hasn't played in more than 154 games in any season of his entire career.  In fact, a more accurate guess of how many games he'll play in that span is 284.  That number comes from his average games per season (142) over the course of his career once he started playing full time in Cleveland.  So, what's $22.5 million dollars divided by 284 games? He'll be making $792,253/game with that contract.  And you know, let's be honest, he's not much of a defender, so he'll be doing nothing for more than half of those games.

Now, let's put this into the "Matt's insanely jealous about the amount of money that this guy is going to make" telescope.  The lowest base salary for a United Methodist pastor is roughly $31,000.  I would have to work for 25 years to make what Manny just turned down for a single game.  So where am I going with this?

Manny, take the contract.  Whatever it is they offer you.  Take it.  Put it into perspective.  The fans that work so hard to make it out to one of your games will never come close to seeing that kind of money.  I physically feel ill when I look at the disparity between my annual salary and your paycheck for a single game.  I'm not even joking.  My stomach is a little upset right now.