Baseball Gets Worse:
West Valley College
By Michael Saltzman
After the seven year $105 million deal given to San Diego Padres pitcher Kevin Brown to cross towns to L.A., it appeared baseball had reached an all-time low. Unfortunately, they found a way to make it worse.
Four time Cy Young award winner Roger Clemens was traded to the New York Yankees for ace pitcher David Wells, relief pitcher Grahme Lloyd, and second baseman Homer Bush.
David Wells was the heart and soul of a Yankees team that won 125 games and the World Series in 1998.
He lead one of the strongest staffs in baseball that includes future Hall of Famers David Cone and Cuban defector Orlando Hernandez.
New York does not care about heart and soul. They don't care about toughness and guts.
It was the same reason the New York Knicks traded Charles Oakley to Toronto for shot blocker Marcus Camby. Oakley had all the intangibles of a leader. Camby has long arms.
Wells was living his dream. He was playing in New York City. He was playing for his childhood favorite Yankees. He was wearing number 33 in honor of his idol, Babe Ruth, who wore number three for the "Bronx Bombers."
Wells was "inconsolable" according to one reporter after hearing the news of his dumping to Toronto.
Yankees owner George Steinbrenner missed out two years ago to get Clemens from free agency and said he was very upset on missing out.
When he heard who Toronto wanted for Clemens the team jumped on the offer.
This makes me sick as a sports fan. Wells and Oakley are some of the few hard workers left in pro sports. And yet New York tossed them away like yesterday's garbage.
This is the sad truth of baseball. Another team that is more familiar to us in the Bay Area is Oakland. Despite all of their young talent, the A's will not be able to keep them all.
1998 Rookie of the Year Ben Grieve will be gone within five years despite his all-star ability. So will Eric Chavez, a likely front runner for this year's Rookie of the Year award.
Mark McGwire could have hit 70 home runs in Oakland if a big corporation was owning the team.
So expect the first perfect season from the Yankees, Braves, Dodgers or Mets if Major League Baseball continues at the rate it's going.
Well, not the Dodgers. They will never get past the San Francisco Giants. And nobody can make me feel different.