Report: NFLPA to oust Upshaw

If the standard is solely money, maybe. Who's to say it is?

How well has the MLBPA done by a guy like Carl Crawford, who got drafted by a team that has no hope of ever reaching the playoffs?

How well has it done by the 1994 Montreal Expos?

How well has it done by a generation of clean baseball players who will, once or many times in their life, have to be asked, by media or just the next door neighbor, if they used steroids?

 

What about all the NBA and NFL players tarred with a weed offense because their union was too weak or too scared to fight recreational drug testing?

And I'd say Carl is doing OK. He can sign with a playoff team in '09, '10, or '11, if his options aren't exercised. Either way, he has oodles of guaranteed money coming way. And his contract is actually worth the paper it's printed on, which can't be said for the NFL.

Carl Crawford of
4 years/$15.25M (2005-08), plus 2009-10 club options

* $0.5M signing bonus
* 05:$0.5M, 06:$2.5M, 07:$4M, 08:$5.25M, 09:$8.25M club option ($2.5M buyout), 10:$10M club option ($1.25M buyout)
* 2010 salary may increase to $11.5M with escalators
* award bonus: $25,000 for All Star selection
* assignment bonus of up to $0.8M if traded
* signed extension 4/05, replacing 1 year/$0.37M deal for 2005 which included a $20,000 bonus for reaching 500 PAs
* Tampa Bay exercised 2009 option 4/1/08
* 1 year/$0.32M (2004)
* 1 year/$0.3M (2003)
* agent: Brian Peters
* ML service: 5.072

 

The baseball players -- including Carl Crawford and the '94 Expos -- are and were OK with their decisions.

Crawford, by the way, is a 26-year-old who signed a four-year, $15.25 million contract before the 2005 season. The Rays just exercised his 2009 option ($8.25 million) and they have another option at $10 million for 2010. The Rays have an excellent organization and a very good chance of becoming a postseason club in the next several years. Crawford isn't dissatisfied with his circumstance, nor is he suffering.

Likewise, the guys on the Expos knew very well (in fact for more than a year prior) that the owners were plotting to try and break their union by bargaining to impasse and posting work rules that included a salary cap among other onerous terms. They rightly felt that they had no other choice. They were among a class of baseball players who made a great and willing sacrifice for their fellow baseball players and those who are following them today.

Re: PEDs, every athlete in every sport gets steroids/PEDs questions because sports governing bodies have seen fit to consider athletes guilty until proven innocent. It's the world we live in and it isn't specific to baseball.

And it isn't "solely about money," either. Read the CBA someday. Baseball players' contractual rights go far beyond the economic and are superior to those in any sport.

 

Those teams might be bad currently (thought the Royals and Rays might beg to differ), but the Giants employed Barry Bonds for the past 15 years and enjoyed much success; the Pirates have stunk for even longer under many different financial systems; the Rangers had the ability to sign A-Rod; and the Nats now have pretty much leveled the playing field between them and everyone else save the Yankees and Red Sox with their new stadium.

As you write, the Marlins have already p0wned the system. The Twins are coming off about a half-decade run of success.

Still waiting on Alma to list the 10 teams who have absolutely no chance of winning the World Series because of the current financial system in place.

 

Interesting now as you look back at deal that Upshaw struck. It turns out it was pretty dam good for the players. Too good really from the owners standpoint.

 

Actually, part of the NFLPA's problem now is that that was the negotiation in which the NFL tried to prop up Upshaw as a "tough" negotiator, and people believed it based on lies like the players getting 60 percent. Now when the NFLPA points out, accurately, that it's really closer to 50 percent it's a more difficult point to sell.

The NFL players have a crappy deal beginning with no guaranteed contracts and an inadequate pension. Now the league wants to take back money and force two extra games on the players.

 

The owners in all 3 major sports (NFL, NBA and MLB) are going to crush the players unions like little bitty bugs in the upcoming lockouts, which will all last a full season in order for the owners to achieve unconditional victory.

-- 30-50% pay cuts across the board

-- Ironclad salary caps

-- Ironclad, greatly reduced and strictly slotted rookie wage scales -- the minute a player is drafted, he will know exactly what he's getting paid, therefore no more holdouts

-- Complete elimination of guaranteed contracts

-- Dramatically-increased authority for team and league executives to fine, suspend and terminate contracts for a wide variety of infractions (i.e. criminal offenses or drug violatons), with near-complete elimination of appeals

-- Owners get complete control of scheduling. If they want to have 16, 18 or 28 games, that's how many they will play.

 

This line was great:

"How well has the MLBPA done by a guy like Carl Crawford, who got drafted by a team that has no hope of ever reaching the playoffs?"

 

http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=6081062

This is a big one. The league negotiated its TV contracts to pay out in 2011 even if there's no football, with rebates to the networks on the back end. The players said this was bad-faith negotiating and asked for a minimum of $60 million in damages. The special master allowed the owners' deal to stand but gave the players $7 million.

So the owners get their full share of TV revenues, which should work out to about $125 million per team, even if there's no product. The players receive a slush fund amounting to roughly $3,500 for every player on the picket line.

This will not end well for the players.

 

There will not be a work stoppage in baseball. For starters, Bud Selig won't want that on the record as the last thing he accomplished as commissioner.

To think though... MLB is actually the most stable of the four sports labor-wise. Wow. I never, ever thought I'd see that in my lifetime.

 

I have not seen a single report that has indicated baseball is headed for a lockout.

 

For a minute I thought the NFLPA was mighty slow.