By Tim Clark / / Column, Tim's Two Cents
Two

“I want to see the players make what they deserve.”

“The players should have the ability to make as much as they can.”

“In a free market players shouldn’t have any salary restrictions.”

Please.

I get the capitalism rants, free market and so on. I get that these guys can do things most can’t. I get that we always pay top dollar for entertainment.

I have always said I think sports should be viewed through a slightly different lens. It isn’t like running a typical business. The more teams/players that feel competitive, the better it is for your overall sport.

Yet the quotes I typed above are typical of things I hear those who cover sports saying. The latest example was Jeff Passan, a guy who is very good at what he does for ESPN. Passan suggested there could be a holdout by the MLB owners after the 2026 season in an effort to institute a much needed salary cap/floor. Passan said the players wouldn’t accept a cap so he hoped they could find another solution, admitting the luxury tax system isn’t working. Before he ended he stated how important it was to him that players make what they are worth.

For the love of mercy.

Can we please have a reality check?

Shohei Ohtani signed with the Dodgers a year ago. At the end of the day, his contract will be worth a billion dollars. For playing baseball. He is the best player on the planet, but is that really worth a billion dollars? A billion? With a B?

Bryce Harper is one of the best players in baseball. The Phillies signed him to a 13 year contract, which means they will pay him just over 25 million when he is 38 years old. I am not sure Phillies fans will still be enamored with Harper’s contract at that point.

I won’t bore you with stats showing how much Harper makes per at bat, but again I must ask if he is worth all of that. Harper will total over 330 million from just this contract. Add in endorsements and other money from appearances and such, and Harper will clear well over half a billion dollars for the length of this contract.

Again, reality check please.

Juan Soto is making even more now. He will make a whopping 61+ million dollars per year until age 30. Then until he is 40 years old Soto will make 46 million dollars per year. Soto will clear 765 million dollars. Soto is a great hitter, but you know where I am going with this.

Reality check please.

Players would still get paid with a salary cap in baseball. They would just be paid by a larger variety of teams. And if it reigns in salaries a bit, so be it.

Fans struggle to relate to such ridiculous numbers.

NBA contracts are even more absurd.

Steph Curry is making 55.7 million dollars this year, and when he is 38 years old Curry will earn over 62.5 million. Steph is a star, but that’s a lot of money for a guy well past his prime. 48 players are guaranteed over 100 million dollars on their current contracts, and that is just the current contracts. That includes Boston Celtic Jaylen Brown, who is guaranteed over 2 billion dollars. I had to read that about ten times when I saw the figures.

You know it, reality check please.

Jimmy Butler cried and wouldn’t play for Miami because they wouldn’t give him a new contract worth more money. The Heat weren’t interested in paying Butler more than the 56 million he was due in his age 37 year. So Butler whined until he was traded. Hey, I guess that’s called the American way. At least for spoiled athletes.

Joel Embiid is the second highest paid player this year at over 51 million dollars. Embiid won’t come close to even playing 51 games this season. This is the current situation for Embiid and his hapless team.

 

The Sixers should have traded Embiid after last year but instead extended his contract. Good luck eating that kind of money Philly.

The biggest issue I have with the NBA contracts is that almost all players load manage. Certainly the stars do. So the guy making $60,000 a year that wants to take his kid to a game may not see the guy making 60 million because he is a little too tired.

 So, tell me again how you want these players to make what they deserve?

Finally we have the situation in golf.

When players started jumping to the LIV Tour and taking the Saudi’s dirty money, many other golfers on the PGA Tour had some rather harsh words for those players. The words were justified. Players like Brooks Koepka, Bryson DeChambeau, and John Rahm left a successful tour for a clown show in order to get a huge pay day. The Saudis got their wish to help sports wash their human rights atrocities.

Now, with golf fans clambering to see all the great players together in more than just majors, the players who spoke out are singing a different tune. They want to negotiate with the Saudis, even bringing in President Trump for the talks. Sure they would like to get all the players back together but more importantly they want the Saudis to throw some cash into the deal. Then the PGA players who held steady can get some of that money.

Some 32 year old guy who nobody has heard of won the PGA Tour event in Mexico this weekend. He earned over 1 million dollars for beating a field full of nobodies. That isn’t a reasonable pay day? Last week in a “signature event” Ludvig Aberg won 4 million dollars. That isn’t reasonable? Scottie Scheffler made over 76 million dollars last year. Just in winnings. That wasn’t reasonable?

Seems like it’s time for a reality check.

Look, I don’t begrudge anybody from making as much money as they desire. It truly is the American way. But when I hear these talking heads insinuate the players aren’t making what they deserve infuriates me. I am not accusing Passan and the like of suggesting the players are underpaid. But sports are better when it isn’t simply about money. Team sports are better when lots of teams have a chance and those teams’ fans have something to cheer. Sports can’t simply be about the bottom line.

So give me a break on the players making what they deserve. They went way past that number long ago.

It is time the sports world gets a reality check on all this money.

Two Cent Takes

NHL

~The Pens paid tribute to the legend Mike Lange, who passed away last week. Check out my Musings of a Sports Fanatic podcast from this past weekend for my thoughts on Lange. He was one of the best to ever do it.

 

~PK Subban is just as annoying as an analyst as he was as a player. This weekend he railed on Pens GM Kyle Dubas for not giving Sidney Crosby a better team. Subban is apparently too stupid to realize the Pens are in rebuild mode. The young players improving in the minors coupled with a ton of high draft choices the next few years will have the Pens competitive in a few years. It sucks for Crosby, but he knew how things were when he signed his most recent extension. He is a Pen through and through. He doesn’t need to win anymore to solidify his greatness.

~The Flyers are in a similar situation but with a faster timeline in place. Don’t expect any big trades at the deadline for Philly. They are holding on to all of their top young prospects.

MLB

~Spring training games are underway, so let the Pirates first base battle between Adam Frazier and Jared Triolo begin. First to maintain a .210 batting average the longest wins.

~The Pirates signed lefty pitcher Andrew Heaney. This seems like a move that potentially signals a trade coming. That’s a lot of starting pitching now in Pittsburgh.

~Who starts in centerfield for the Phillies is one big question this spring. Brandon Marsh and Johan Rojas don’t inspire, so maybe rookie Justin Crawford will get called up from AAA sometime early in the season. The Phillies appear to be quite high on Crawford.

College Football

~So the SEC and Big Ten have had talks about creating a “super conference”. We know it’s coming, but the ruination of college football seems to be coming faster than expected. The two power broker conferences are calling all the shots, and you can bet money is the center of the conversation.

College Hoops

~Duke beat Illinois by 43 points at Madison Square Garden. Duke is certainly really good, but what the heck is going on with Illinois? The flu can’t be your excuse for an entire month.

~I did a deep dive on the ACC for last weekend’s Musings podcast. Pitt, SMU, and Wake Forest all appear to be playing their way out of the tournament. Other than Duke, Louisville, and Clemson, is any other team playing their way in? I would argue that North Carolina is trying.

~It appears the Indiana players are playing extra hard for outgoing head coach Mike Woodson.

 

Maybe they should have played this hard two months ago.

~Matt Painter, who is one of the best in the business, gave a great answer when asked about the Indiana coaching job.

 

~Very smart to put Robbie Hummel in a crew with Bill Raftery.

 

Hummel should be the heir apparent to Raftery in calling the national title game.

~Many people tried to explain how bad travel would be in an expanded Big Ten for basketball. First, UCLA coach Mick Cronin was critical and now it is USC coach Eric Musselman’s turn to voice some valid concerns.

 

The West Coast teams are clearly at a disadvantage with this current system, and anyone with a brain knew it would be that way.

The Weekly Shiny Penny

I watch a ton of college basketball, and I realized without really thinking about it that something was missing this year. Bill Walton on the call. Walton and Dave Pasch made staying up for the 10:30 West Coast games more than worthwhile. A guy who knew the game inside and out but insisted on it being fun with life lessons included, Walton made every broadcast entertaining. He was a lesson in how to live life and treat others. He would have hated UCLA, USC, Washington, and Oregon playing in the Big Ten. He would have been right to feel that way. UCLA gave Walton the ultimate tribute on Sunday, and it was clear how much he meant to all involved.

 

 

A Penny For My Final Thought…

By week’s end it will be March.

By week’s end we will begin easing our way through the threshold of Madness.

Starting next week my columns will lean heavily on college hoops and I, along with my partner Eric, will begin our Two Guys Gone Mad podcast. We will talk who’s in and who’s out, bubbles bursting, and Cinderella possibilities. So let me get this out of the way now so I can focus on the fun stuff later.

There is one thing that is frustratingly bad about the college basketball product.

Officiating.

This call quickly became the poster child for this subject over the weekend.

 

The thing is, the officiating had been poor all game. Most games I watch the officiating is poor. What is a foul one half is not the next half. Hard contact is ignored, while touch fouls on the perimeter get called. There is just far too much inconsistency.

Here is another prime example from over the weekend.

 

First, the official is staring at point blank range the kick to the groin. Second, the play was reviewed for a flagrant foul. The end result was no foul call at all. Embarrassing.

One of the big problems is having the same officials call games night after night after night. Watch carefully and you will see the same officials three times a week or more. Roger Ayers, who is 59 years old, has officiated 92 games already this year. The season is approximately 107 days old. That’s not many days off for a 59 year old, and it’s like that for many officials. There is no way they stay mentally sharp with that kind of schedule.

 

That is just silly.

Too many of these guys are confrontational, and in fairness it may be because they are mentally tired. Here is mild mannered Kentucky coach Mark Pope causing an official to actually stop the game to stare down Pope.

 

Finally, most fans dread seeing a game get to the last two minutes because the rules state plays can be reviewed under two minutes. What do we get? Literally every play gets reviewed either for possession or to put a tenth or two seconds back on the clock. Two minutes takes 15 minutes to play. Game momentum is lost, teams get freebie timeouts, and players cool off.

The review system must be at the top of the list of things to fix heading into next season. And don’t get me started on the length of time the officials spend at the monitor.

College basketball is fantastic. It blows the NBA product out of the water. The officiating is the one downside. I would much rather see more young guys being worked into games rather than see veterans do stuff like this.

 

Yikes.

Maybe we should just hope they stay out of the way and allow the players to play and the fans to enjoy the game.

You will always have missed calls, but with March Madness right around the corner the officials need to be better. College basketball is too good to have poor officials.

Just my two cents…