12/18/24
December 08, 2009
Scott Boras Throws Some Heat at Whitey Herzog: After newly chosen Hall of Fame manager Whitey Herzog said that the St. Louis Cardinals signing Matt Halliday might be budgetary "suicide," his agent Scott Boras fired off this response: "It's understandable that a man who was a GM 20 years ago when the revenues were $1 billion -- over six times less than the $6.5 billion revenues of today -- questions the modern-day contract structure. I don't think modern GMs, particularly Cashman, with a new ring on his finger, characterize signings like Mark Teixeira -- who akin to Holliday achieved near MVP status (both second in the MVP voting in their career) and taken [his] team to the World Series -- as 'suicide.'"
I wish ol' Whitey were 30 years younger. Then he could play Nolan Ryan and Boras could play Robin Ventura rushing the mound.
posted by beaverboard at 01:29 PM on December 08, 2009
Honestly, it's a lot more respectful than I would've expected. Boras is a master manipulator, which is no wonder he gets what he wants most of the time.
He'll probably get a VIP table in hell.
posted by dfleming at 01:59 PM on December 08, 2009
Scott Boras represents absolutely everything that is wrong with Baseball today.
The game is not won or lost on the field, it's won or lost before the season begins. The winners aren't the players or the fans, the winners are slimebag agents and other "business" people in baseball.
posted by cixelsyd at 02:14 PM on December 08, 2009
He'll probably get a VIP table in hell.
Probably?
posted by BornIcon at 02:25 PM on December 08, 2009
Isn't Scott Boras hired to get teams to pay the maximum dollar possible to his clients? All I see is an agent doing exactly what he's supposed to be doing.
posted by dusted at 02:39 PM on December 08, 2009
Did Boras then start firing soft pretzels at Herzog?
"You could call them Whitey Whackers".
posted by Ufez Jones at 04:16 PM on December 08, 2009
While I agree that his numbers were Colorado-inflated, he played quite well for the half of last season he joined the Cardinals for, and he was one of the primary reasons the Cardinals won the Central and were one of the NL elite last season (until the playoffs, of course.)
posted by boredom_08 at 07:00 PM on December 08, 2009
Well damn it. Finally had a chance to check and that was Whitey Ford getting belted by cartoon pretzels. I figured I had a 50/50 shot.
Oh well, like my old neigbor Amos used to say "Whack one whitey, you've whacked 'em all".
posted by Ufez Jones at 10:01 PM on December 08, 2009
It's understandable that a man who was a GM 20 years ago when the revenues were $1 billion -- over six times less than the $6.5 billion revenues of today
Grrr.
One-sixth.
Not "six times less". That would be 6.5-(6*6.5)= negative $32.5 billion
I hate it when people do that.
Also, I'm going to side with dusted on this one. Boras is doing exactly what his clients want him to do, and he's one of the best ones in the business at doing it. I mean, he convinced the NY Yankees to sign ARod to a BIGGER contract than what he opted out of, even though there wasn't a single other team that would have paid that amount. This was after the Yankees postured that if he opted-out, they wouldn't sign him again.
The last time I checked, he hasn't held a gun to any owners head and demanded they signed the contracts.
posted by grum@work at 12:08 AM on December 09, 2009
If you've sextupled your income, why shouldn't the staff get a bigger chunk of change?
posted by rodgerd at 02:57 AM on December 09, 2009
One-sixth.
Not "six times less". That would be 6.5-(6*6.5)= negative $32.5 billion
I hate it when people do that.
I didn't want to go there but I am glad that there's another person out there who feels my pain.
posted by dfleming at 09:11 AM on December 09, 2009
The last time I checked, he hasn't held a gun to any owners head and demanded they signed the contracts.
You're absolutely right. I think a lot of the animosity that is directed towards Boras is misguided anger at the owners who sign these ridiculous contracts that nobody else would sign and then raise ticket prices so that the average fan can overpay to see them play.
Boras is an absolute master at what he does and some owners do stand up to his big talk, hot-air tactics. Those owners are quickly finding out, however, that there's always someone out there who is willing to pony up if they don't.
posted by dfleming at 09:17 AM on December 09, 2009
Boras is a tool for talking down to Whitey Herzog as if the guy is a has-been who can't figure out modern baseball. Twenty years ago is not so long that a GM from those days would not recognize that rapacious sports agents and big-wallet owners are in a death spiral that hurts the game. Baseball is pricing itself out of the reach of families, and a big factor in that is player salaries.
posted by rcade at 09:32 AM on December 09, 2009
Dear Scott Boras,
Have you been the GM of a World Series team?
Whitey has.
Have you managed several pennant winning teams?
Whitey has.
Thanks in advance for shutting the fuck up and showing some respect.
Frazer
posted by wfrazerjr at 11:55 AM on December 09, 2009
I think Boras has a right to defend his client's value, even against a hall-of-famer. It's his job. He did so, while congratulating Whitey twice for his recent accomplishment.
Whitey is right that one huge contract can kill a team, however Boras doesn't want people thinking that one contract is Holliday, which is what Whitey did when he declared St. Louis good enough without him.
There is no hall of fame for agents, otherwise Boras would be well, well on his way.
posted by dfleming at 12:45 PM on December 09, 2009
Dear Scott Boras,
Have you been the GM of a World Series team?
Whitey has.
Have you managed several pennant winning teams?
Whitey has.
Thanks in advance for shutting the fuck up and showing some respect.
Frazer
1 World Series? 3 pennants? In 19 years as a manager?
And it took almost 20 years since he retired to get into the HOF?
Pfft. Sounds like a loser to me.
/sarcastic snark
posted by grum@work at 08:07 PM on December 09, 2009
Whitey's response should be "Hey Scott, F$&^ Off. I am a Hall of Famer and you are a piece of crap."
More likely would be to point out that there is a big difference between Cashman's budget of infinity and what the Cardinals can spend. That's why it would be suicide for a team like the Cardinals to make a mistake and overpay a guy with Colorado inflated numbers.