Willie Mays

Roger Clemens resigned today with the Yankees, for a reported $4.5 Million for each month he pitches. I figure that will work out to around $22 Million for the balance of the year, or about a million dollars for each start. The first two years he pitched for Houston, he had thirty-three starts each year. He’ll need some time in the minors to ramp up, so twenty-two starts is a pretty good guess.

Those same two years with the Astros, Clemens pitched about 210 innings each year. So if he gets two-thirds the number of starts, that will mean around 140 innings of work this year, for the $22 Million. That’s also probably a good guess, as he worked only 113 innings last year, when he signed late. And at that rate, Roger will earn more than $150,000 for each inning he pitches. Inning.

Who still remembers Willie Mays? For those who don’t remember him, in 1999, the Sporting News voted Mays the second best ball-player ever. I never saw Babe Ruth play, but Mays was the best and most complete player of the modern era, certainly the best I ever saw play the game. He could do everything; hit for average, steal bases, cover extraordinary ground in center field, and hit home runs. And he could do it with more style and flair than anyone else, then or now. The hat flying off as he ran down fly balls; the wide turn on his way to first, knowing he was going for extra bases; the basket catch, back when everyone else settled under the fly ball, and held up two hands to make sure.

In 1952 and ‘53, Mays was out of baseball; it was the Korean War era, and he missed two years in his prime. When he returned in 1954, he had more than 30 home runs by the all-star break, but Leo Durocher told him he needed to hit for average, not for the fences. He ended up winning the batting title, and of course the Giants won the series. Then in ‘57 he was moved west and played the bulk of his career in Candlestick Park. Windy Candlestick Park, with no short porches, and no McCovey cove. Despite all that, he ended up with 660 home runs. In today’s world, he would have hit 900 easy. And the point of all this reminiscence – in any inning he pitches this year, let’s say three up and three down against the Devil Rays, Clemens will earn more money than Mays ever did for an entire season, until the 70s, until he had played for twenty years. In fact, in any month he pitches this summer, Clemens will earn more than Mays did over his entire career.

I know the market is different today, TV, merchandise revenues, Fenway sold out every game. But one reason that’s so, one reason guys can make $4 Million dollars in a month, is that Mays, and Mantle, and Aaron and Ted Williams, inspired generations of fans, who still turn out, who now take their sons, and their grandsons to the park, and who have enough dough in their pockets to let guys like Clemens make that kind of money. I just hope Roger appreciates that.