NEW YORK (AP) -Randy Wolf was offered a $27 million, three-year contract by the Houston Astros in mid-November. A week later, Astros executives realized they couldn’t afford him.
They called Wolf’s agent the following day and withdrew the offer. With spring training a few days away, the pitcher remains unsigned.
It’s been a most unusual offseason for a sport coming off a record $6.5 billion in revenues last year. The economic downturn is just hitting baseball, where uncertainty has replaced anticipation as pitcher and catchers prepare for the start of workouts on Valentine’s Day.
More than 75 players remain unsigned from the group of 171 that filed for free agency after the World Series, about a dozen more than at this point last year. Other jobseekers include some players from the pool of 42 cut loose in mid-December, when teams failed to offer 2009 contracts.
a., following the end of the 1994-95 strike.
“We’re living in very tough economic times, obviously – the toughest economic environment I think since the Great Depression,” commissioner Bud Selig said in a telephone interview Thursday.
Sluggers already have shrunken, thanks to drug testing. Will attendance and revenue be next?
Management executives think the impact soon will be felt at the gate and in their sales offices – ads and sponsorships are bound to be off when current contract expire.
“I don’t think Lehman Brothers is buying anything, because they don’t exist anymore,” Astros president of baseball operations Tal Smith said.
Several teams say season-ticket sales are at or above 2008 levels. However, executives are worried that the impact of the recession will be felt more with individual tickets, which some haven’t put on sale yet.
“I started last October at the playoffs – I said owners should not get cocky,” Selig said. “Look, whatever anybody else says or thinks, baseball is related to the environment we live in. And, therefore, I don’t sense anything but the same concern that I hear everywhere I go from people in every business, including the other sports.”
Clubs also are just beginning to gauge whether there will be cutbacks on spending for ballpark signage, yearbook and program advertisements, individual-game luxury suite rentals.
ct – no club will – until at least 2010,” Boston owner John Henry wrote in an e-mail to The Associated Press. “There is no doubt that the fear and uncertainty within the global financial system found its way into MLB board rooms. None of us know to what extent we will be impacted by this continuing crisis. But we all know that we will. Clubs had good reasons to be cautious this year.”
In Milwaukee, where the outlook in his office is sunny no matter the weather, Selig is cautiously optimistic.
“There’s something about spring training, and I think maybe even more so this year with all the things that have gone on,” he said. “People really look forward to it. It’s sort of a beginning again of hope.”
Three teams have new training bases this year, with the Los Angeles Dodgers and Chicago White Sox moving to a shared facility in Glendale, Ariz., and the Cleveland Indians shifting to Goodyear, Ariz., where the Cincinnati Reds will join them in 2010.
The White Sox had been based in Tucson, Ariz., and the Indians in Winter Haven, Fla.
Los Angeles created a stir by boosting its top spring training ticket price to $90 from $20 last year at Vero Beach, Fla., which had been the team’s spring home since 1948. Many other teams, however, have kept ticket prices level – both for spring training and the regular season.
rly November that after 14 consecutive years of increases they would leave prices the same at $12 to $125 for single-game tickets – and give discounts for any season tickets purchased before Dec. 17.
“The Yankees move into a new ballpark this year with much higher prices and much higher revenues. We knew we couldn’t keep pace with them, but we thought we had to try to generate higher revenues in 2009,” Henry wrote. “The economy’s impact on our fans, however, was our overriding concern.”
At the new, $1.5 billion Yankee Stadium, where a steak house and martini bar are among 13 restaurants, lounges and food courts for the public, tickets are priced at up to $2,500 per game. At the Mets’ $800 million Citi Field, top tickets average $495.
After missing the playoffs for the first time since 1993, the Yankees committed $423.5 million to add pitchers CC Sabathia and A.J. Burnett, and first baseman Mark Teixeira. The spending spree sparked Milwaukee owner Mark Attanasio to say baseball should push for a salary cap when the current labor deal expires after the 2011 season.
“If you’ve got some owners that are upset, I’m just not going to let it worry me. I’m not going to lose sleep over it,” Yankees co-chairman Hal Steinbrenner said.
Lesser players, however, struggled to find teams.
t it to $120 million, which had been planned. The outfielder was eligible for salary arbitration, and Smith projected he would earn $5 million to $6 million. Instead, the Astros set him free, and Wigginton agreed to a $6 million, two-year deal with Baltimore.
Philadelphia, coming off its first World Series title since 1980, made only a few major moves, signing Raul Ibanez to replace Pat Burrell and adding pitcher Chan Ho Park. The rival Mets added closer Francisco Rodriguez and J.J. Putz to repair a bullpen that imploded when Billy Wagner got hurt. And Atlanta gave Derek Lowe $60 million over four years in an effort to catch up in the NL East.
The Chicago Cubs, swept in the first round of the playoffs for the second straight season, added a big left-handed bat in Milton Bradley, let Kerry Wood sign with Cleveland and promoted Carlos Marmol to closer.
Out West, the Dodgers tried to reach a deal to re-sign Ramirez, while letting go of Lowe and Andruw Jones, and watching Greg Maddux and Jeff Kent retire. San Francisco added Randy Johnson, who at 45 is five victories shy of 300.
on Garland.
“There was a big difference at the general managers’ meeting and the winter meetings in the way clubs approached any trade deliberations,” Smith said. “There was generally a very thin market, if any, for the more senior, more established, higher-paid players, and an unwillingness on clubs to part with their younger players who are, as a result of their service, not yet eligible for arbitration. It was an inactive marketplace and still is.”
Two teams head to spring training with new managers: Ken Macha replaced Dale Sveum in Milwaukee and Don Wakamatsu took over from Jim Riggleman in Seattle.
Fans will be able to watch more from home because of the MLB Network, which launched Jan. 1 with all-baseball, all-the-time programming.
“I just came up in an elevator today, and a woman I don’t know said, ‘I’m hooked on MLB,”’ Selig said. “I told her she had made my day.”
Add A Comment