Items

So, you ask, what exactly does $94 million buy these days?

Well, for one thing, they buy a team forecast by most experts (yours truly decidedly excluded) to finish third within its own division.

The Inquirer carried a story today listing the Phillies 2006 salaries. For every line item that dismays us ($9 million to Randy Wolf, who may be available by mid to late summer; $22 million to the departed Jim Thome over the next few seasons) there are the relative bargains for which we and surely management are grateful: Chase Utley about $450,000 and Ryan Howard roughly $390,000.

* * * * * * *

There was another interesting piece in the paper regarding the annual Photo Day, during which various organizations set up stations in which players are photographed for everything from baseball cards to video games.

The part of the story that caught my eye was not the photographic part (though I have more than the usual interest in such things); rather, it was the comments by Aaron Rowand on how he is portrayed in one final video product:

"I've got a better arm than they give me," Rowand said. "That's crap. The hitting is usually pretty close. Defensively, I suspect I'll cover more ground in center this year. But they always short me on the arm. It's not weak, but it's not as good as it should be. I have a better arm then they give me credit for."

Did anyone know this about our new centerfielder?

* * * * * * *

The other day I tracked the results of an ESPN instant poll that asked whether we wanted to see Barry Bonds break the all-time home run record. The final, overwhelming results showed 78% of the respondents across the nation did not want to see him break the record.

At the same time, Bonds gave a series of contradictory and combative interviews regarding everything from his retirement plans to his feelings about the media and about baseball in general.

What struck me then as well as over the last year or so is how this genuinely great baseball player and unpleasant human being has gone from being nearly everyone’s hero on the diamond to the poster boy for those qualities we most dislike in many of today’s professional athletes. Writer after blogger after talk-show caller have expressed contempt for Bonds recent supplement-inspired production on the field and his antagonisms and peccadillo’s off it.

Notably, few if any baseball players themselves, active or retired, have come to his defense.

No one wants to touch him. They just want him to go away.