A-ROD’S MILESTONES ARE YANKS’ MILLSTONES
By Murray Chass
February 12, 2015
The Alex Rodriguez issue never goes away. Make that plural – issues. There seem to be enough of them, a ceaseless string of issues, so that there is always at least one on the table.
This week’s issue of choice is the agreement that Rodriguez has with the New York Yankees under which he could earn up to $30 million in marketing payments on top of the guaranteed $61 million he is owed for the last three years of his 10-year, $275 million contract.
When the Yankees gave Rodriguez that contract and the home-run bonuses in 2007, they desperately wanted him to stay with them after he had opted out of his 10-year, $252 million contract.
To be accurate, I should say it was Hank Steinbrenner who wanted A-Rod back. Hank was running the team in place of his principal-owner father as senior vice president while his younger brother Hal served as …
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DUKE OF BALTIMORE IS STILL THERE
By Murray Chass
February 8, 2015
Nelson Cruz, Nick Markakis and Andrew Miller are no longer with the Baltimore Orioles, but Dan Duquette is, and his presence may be more important to the team’s success than the contributions of the others.
The three players left the Orioles and went elsewhere as free agents: Cruz, the major league-leading home run hitter, to the Seattle Mariners; Markakis to the Atlanta Braves, Miller to the New York Yankees. The Blue Jays wanted Duquette to join them in Toronto, but he wasn’t a free agent. He was – and is – the Orioles’ executive vice president of baseball operations. The Blue Jays wanted to hire Duquette as their president and CEO, replacing Paul Beeston.
It is the industry practice that an executive under contract can leave his job for one with another team if …
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MARVIN MILLER FAN JOINS MILLER’S UNION
By Murray Chass
February 5, 2015
As a Major League Baseball executive – general manager of the Montreal Expos and the New York Mets, senior vice president of the San Diego Padres – Omar Minaya had unique thoughts of a man a friend cautioned him to keep to himself. This week, however, Minaya began working for the Major League Baseball Players Association, a.k.a. the players union, and can openly and freely express his admiration for Marvin Miller.
“When you work with a team you have to be careful about what you say about Marvin,” the 56-year-old Minaya said Wednesday.
No longer with a team, Minaya said of the founding director of the union, “He was always …
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