I recently discovered a truly wonderful baseball website called Wezen-ball.com. I haven't spent a lot of time there yet, but suspect that I will -- there's even a whole area of the site dedicated to calculating the baseball stats of Charlie Brown, Snoopy, Joe Shlabotnik and the whole Peanuts gang.
what led me there was a link from one of the fabulous blog posts Sean Forman leaves on the greatness of BaseballReference.com -- the story linked to was a 2009 feature by Larry Granillo called "The History of the Highest-Paid Player in Baseball." Seriously, go read it. Like, now!
Okay, you back now? Settlle in ...w hat follows are a few thoughts about those men who have been, at least for a short time, the highest-paid players in the history of the game -- at least since Nolan Ryan became the sport's first milllion-bucks-a-season man back in 1980 ...
Players are listed roughly in order of when they were highest-paid, at least according to Granillo (What, you haven't read it yet? What the hell??). Snarky commentary next to some names is the sole responsibility of this author, with apologies to Granillo.
1980-90 seasons
Note: 10 of the 14 listed here are not -- and will not be -- Hall of Famers!
- Nolan Ryan million-dollar arm earned first million-dollar deal.
- Dave Winfield anyone remember all the "Mr. May" controversy?
- Eddie Murray as great as he was, I had no idea he'd be on this list.
- Orel Hershiser He's from my alma mater, so I have no rude comments.
- Frank Viola A Minnesota Twin???
- Bret Saberhagen Once upon a time an obvious mortal lock Hall of Famer.
- Kirby Puckett TWO Twins? How times have changed!
- Rickey Henderson Rickey thinks Rickey should have remained at the top of this list.
- Mark Langston Nice pitcher, but overpaying for lefty starters is not apparently a new thing.
- Mark Davis Worst contract in the history of the game?
- Dave Stewart Fourth future Jay hero on this list ...
- Will Clark Almost 2200 hits, nearly 300 homers, a Gold Glove ... why does he seem like a disappointment?
- Don Mattingly Well, that took a while, but look! A Yankee!
- Jose Canseco Had to pay for all that juice he drank somehow ...
1991-2000
Note: a little better, as depending on how the whole PED thing shakes out, about half of these listed are or will be Hall of Famers.
- Roger Clemens Once thought of him as the greatestt SP of my lifetime. Not so much!
- Bobby Bonilla Never thought of him as the greatest anything of my lifetime. Still true!
- Ryne Sandberg You want a HOF DP combo? Howzabout Ryno ...
- Cal Ripken Jr. ... and Cal? Might win a few rings that way ...
- Barry Bonds Hightest-paid before his head grew nine cap sizes!
- Cecil Fielder Cue up "One of these things is not like the others ..." One great season, three or four pretty good ones ...
- Ken Griffey Jr. Best (clean) player on this list
- Albert Belle Apparently now we enter the era where ...
- Gary Sheffield ... "highest paid" also meant ....
- Barry Bonds (again) ... "attitudinal issues."
- Greg Maddux Unlike Clemens, say it without hesitation -- greatest SP of my lifetime ....
- Pedro Martinez ... unless maybe it was this guy?
- Mike Piazza Greatest player to never be in danger of winning a Gold Glove?
- Mo Vaughn Mo Vaughn? Really??
- Kevin Brown Borderline HOFer, great pitcher, never quite deserved as much dough as he got.
- Ken Griffey Jr. (again) See earlier comment.
- Roger Clemens (again) See earlier comment
- Carlos Delgado An actual (not future) Blue Jay ....
- Mike Hampton Hey Mark Davis -- you have genuine competition!
2001-present
- Alex Rodriguez (twice) Probably deserves -- or at least deserved -- the ranking, but certainly not the absurdly high total. Twice!?!
Your comments, snarky or otherwise, noble Bauxites?
P.S. Again, seriously, if you haven't yet, go read Granillo. Like, now!
