Randy Smith: Prices Are Going Up In San Diego

If you plan on attending a San Diego Padres baseball game this season, you had better plan on bringing plenty of money with you. Not that a lot of people from Chattanooga will be among the folks in the crowd this season, but the ones who are there will have to pay even more for beer, soda, hot dogs and Cracker Jacks. The Padres yesterday agreed to pay free-agent Manny Machado $300 million over ten years, which is the biggest free-agent contract in American sports history. Only the New York Yankees contract with Giancarlo Stanton involved more total money. ($325 million over thirteen seasons)

The Padres really needed to do something. They haven't made the post season in the National League in twelve seasons but the front office is gambling on Machado to be the" straw that stirs the drink " as Reggie Jackson used to say. Current ownership in San Diego has proven they plan to spend money to bring a championship to the city. In addition to having Machado, a four time all-star at the age of 26, the Padres also have the highest rated minor league system in baseball.

The biggest question here is this. Can one man make that much difference on one major league franchise? I have no answer to that question, but I do know that it's highly unlikely. Machado hit 37 home runs last year splitting his time with Baltimore and the Los Angeles Dodgers. He is also a two time Gold Glove award winner at third base and is considered to be one of the game's top young stars. But is he worth thirty million dollars a year?

Free agency in Major League Baseball has made a lot of great players very rich. It's also made a lot of mediocre players rich as well. It is always a big gamble when you agree to pay that much money to one player over a long period of time. Both sides must always think about injuries or what happens if he just doesn't pan out.

I think back to my younger days when Mickey Mantle, Willie Mays and Hank Aaron were the biggest stars on the MLB stage in the 1950s and 1960s. Mantle's highest salary was $100,000 a year and people back then wondered if he was worth that much money. It's all a matter of perspective.

Football and basketball have also thrown around a lot of money to "buy" championships. My favorite quote ever regarding free-agency came from the late Johnny Unitas who was being interviewed a few years before his death in 2002 about the big money contracts being handed out. The reporter asked Johnny U. how much money he could have made if he were playing at that time. Unitas replied, " I'd probably make a couple of million a year." The reporter seemed surprised as he said, "only a couple of million a year?" Unitas said, " Well hell man, I'm 65 years old!"