#The American League East -- Money for Something#

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By Anthony Mormile 
SportsTicker Staff Writer 

The Wheel of Fortune has landed squarely on the American League
East. Now the question is whether or not the owners in
baseball's best division have put the economic structure of the
grand old game in Jeopardy. 

While teams like the Florida Marlins and Montreal Expos have
been forced to play Sale of the Century, the New York Yankees,
Baltimore Orioles, Toronto Blue Jays and Boston Red Sox have
spent the off-season playing Let's Make a Deal. And don't forget
to include the expansion Tampa Bay Devil Rays, who have shown
they are not afraid if The Price is Right. 

As baseball heads into the next millenium, the game is divided
into those who have the ability to spend and those that do not.
Ironically, five free-spending teams are grouped together in the
same unit. Not so ironically, it remains baseball's best
division top to bottom. 

Last year the division produced two of the AL's four playoff
teams and this year it is poised to do the same.  Over the last
two decades, the AL East has been the best division in baseball,
despite restructuring twice in the last five seasons. 
  
One reason for that success has been the staple -- New York
Yankees owner George Steinbrenner, the original free-spender who
does not mind building his team through his checkbook.  But he
is now challenged by one of the game's most aggressive and
controversial owners -- Baltimore's Peter Angelos. 

How serious is Angelos about closing the gap between his team
and his neighbor to the north?  Serious enough to have a payroll
close to $70 million. 

"It's no surprise," said Angelos, when asked about the cost to
keep the defending American League East champions intact. "It's
consistent with our policy that the team must remain competitive
and we need to spend the dollars to keep it that way." 

Remember, that Orioles payroll includes the $5.5 million they
saved when closer Randy Myers fled to (where else?) division
rival Toronto.  Angelos still has 17 players under contract at
salaries in excess of $1 million per season and three -- Brady
Anderson, Cal Ripken and Mike Mussina -- at over $6 million. 

While Baltimore paid through the nose to remain competitive,
Steinbrenner did not sit idly waiting for his youngsters to
develop.  No, he countered Angelos' aggressiveness by acquiring
two veteran stars, designated hitter Chili Davis and second
baseman Chuck Knoblauch.  For Davis, he paid $9.8 miliion over
two seasons. For Knoblauch, he "helped" the financially strapped
Twins by taking his $6 million salary off their hands and
throwing them back some low-cost prospects and $3 million in
cash. 

Such is the way deals are made in 1998.  Big-budget teams wait
around and let small-market pretenders like Montreal, Pittsburgh
and Minnesota serve as supplemental farm teams at the
major-league level.  The 1997 payrolls of those three clubs
totaled $62.4 million --- less than that of the Orioles alone. 

"In this business, it's tough.  It's a sport, but at the same
time it's a business," said Seattle Mariners manager Lou
Piniella, a former Yankees skipper who has seen teams on both
sides of the economic coin. 

You can make a very competitive squad out of players acquired by
Eastern division teams in cost-cutting deals.  The Yankees got
Tino Martinez and Knoblauch, the Orioles added Geronimo Berroa
for the stretch run last year, Tampa Bay got Paul Sorrento,
Toronto got catcher Darrin Fletcher and Boston got Cy Young
award winner Pedro Martinez. 

Ah, Martinez.  Perhaps no player in baseball history represents
the economic situation of baseball, and the AL East, better than
the 5-11, 170-pound Dominican fireballer.  To understand the
whole story, flash back to the offseason of 1996, when Boston
superstar Roger Clemens decided to leave Beantown for the
greener pastures -- and dollars -- of Toronto. 

The Blue Jays, battling the perception that they were prepared
to live off their two World Series titles earlier this decade,
made a bold offer of $24.75 million over three years to Clemens.
The Rocket, he of the four Cy Young Awards, then turned his back
on Red Sox fans and headed north of the border. 

Boston general manager Dan Duquette probably could have survived
the sacrilege had Clemens begun to show his age (35) and posted
mediocre numbers.  Instead Clemens regained his old fire, went
21-7 with a 2.05 ERA and captured the AL Cy Young Award.  It
became not only a public relations nightmare but also a bad
baseball decision.  The Red Sox struggled through a mediocre
season in which the focus of the division is squarely on the
Yankees and Orioles. 

With aspirations for a new stadium, Duquette was forced to try
to energize the Boston baseball community by making blockbuster
off-season transactions. After signing former Red Sox Dennis
Eckersley, Duquette went for the whole ball of wax and landed
the premier player available -- Martinez.  More than a half
dozen teams submitted offers to Montreal but the Expos accepted
Boston's proposal of highly touted prospect Carl Pavano and a
player to be named. 

Montreal got what it wanted -- a low-cost alternative, they
hoped, to Martinez, while the Red Sox got what they hope will be
the answer to Clemens.  Only there was a problem.  Martinez was
a free agent after the 1998 season and said he wasn't locked
into remaining with Boston.  Duquette then took out the big
market wallet and signed the 26-year-old ace to a staggering
six-year, $75 million contract. 

The contract made Martinez the highest paid pitcher in baseball
and eclipsed the earnings of four-time CY Young Award winner
Greg Maddux of Atlanta.  The deal shook the economic scale of
baseball, rocking the AL East the most and in particular Boston,
where star first baseman Mo Vaughn was awaiting a contract
extension. 

"Obviously, the Red Sox acquired the premium pitcher in the
National League," said Montreal GM Jim Beattie, who should have
his "sorry we couldn't afford him" speech memorized by now. 

Duquette summed up the differences three decades can make. 

"When I first started in baseball in 1980 with Milwaukee, I had
the opportunity to break in with Bob Uecker.  He was a backup
catcher with Philadelphia.  When he played, major leaguers had
to turn to a second source of income.  His biggest year was in
1965 when he earned $21,000 and $17,000 was from selling the
other players' equipment.  We have come a long ways since then.
I do not think Pedro is going to need another job in the next
short while." 

Had that been the only outlandish expenditure of the off-season
for Boston, it would have been enough.  But the Bosox completely
upset baseball's financial applecart by inking Nomar Garciaparra
to a reported seven-year, $38 million contract. The 1997 AL
Rookie of the Year wouldn't have been eligible for arbitration
until the year 2000. 

And now they are left with slugging first baseman and local hero
Vaughn, who has reportedly turned down $50 million over five
years. 

Hello.  This is Boston, which plays its games in revered but
antiquated Fenway Park -- the stadium with limited luxury boxes
the smallest seating capacity in the majors.  The Red Sox'
commitment of $150 million to Vaughn, Garciaparra and Martinez
should be the icon of competitiveness in the AL East. 

Duquette, who bolted from the tight-fisted constraints of
Montreal in 1994, wasted little time in explaining that ticket
prices would go up and even cited his stadium as a liability. 

"Our resources are strained by the burden of playing in a park
86 years old this year. We all share a great love for Fenway
Park," he said. "However it has become economically obsolete,
especially in comparision to the higher revenue-generating new
state-of-the-art ballparks being built all over the country by
our Major League competitors. 

"The challenges of operating within Fenway Park's constraints
and with the smalling seating seating capacity in the majors,
coupled with the increased costs of running our business in the
economic climate of professional sports today, are becoming near
insurmountable." 

Toronto knows full well what is like to be at the top of that
mountain.  Once, SkyDome ruled the baseball world as the premier
attraction and Toronto turned those revenues into veteran
players, regardless of salaries.  They rented players en route
to two world championships and were not afraid to pick up big
salaries to make the team better. 

As the uniqueness of the retractable dome wore off and
management underwent some fiscal hardship, the Blue Jays
attempted to go with younger, cheaper players.  They got rid of
some high-priced veterans and didn't re-sign All-Star second
baseman Roberto Alomar -- who went to, you guessed it,
Baltimore. 

But that strategy doesn't fly in baseball's best division and
now Toronto, under the ownership of Interbrew S.A., is pressured
into spending to keep up with the Joneses, in this case guys
named Steinbrenner and Angelos. 

In need of a closer, who better to pluck from the free agent
field then the Orioles' Myers? And what better way to show you
are willing to be as financially irresponsible as the other
owners in your division then to throw $18 million over three
years at a 35-year-old reliever? 

Toronto also went shopping at the Expos' annual fire sale and
came away with Fletcher, a bargain-basement catcher at just over
$2 million a season for two years. 

Think Tampa Bay is holding the line?  Guess again.  Let's not
forget that this is the organization that threw $10.2 million at
pitching prospect Matt White. 

They picked right up on the divisional trend by signing closer
Roberto Hernandez to a four-year $22.5 million pact and starter
Wilson Alvarez to a five-year, $35 million deal.  They then gave
Sorrento $5.25 million over two years and pleased career .262
hitter Kevin Stocker with a three-year contract extension. 

"We are going to be as competitive as we can as quick as we can
and never lose sight of our long-term goals," said Devil Rays GM
Chuck LaMar. 

If you think the payrolls in baseball's best division are capped
out, guess again.  One of these teams will be the frontrunners
should Seattle decide it can't afford ace Randy Johnson. 

And you can bank on the fact that while Steinbrenner and Angelos
are secretly loathed for their inflated budgets, they will be
the first ones teams turn to when looking to slash payroll. 

"We are not bound to a hard and fast budget, because if we were,
then we wouldn't be able to give the fans the product they're
paying for," said Angelos. "We have lost money in a given season
before.  If we think it's appropriate to make an expenditure,
we'll make it.  Payroll will not inhibit us if we think we can
win." 

"The mission statement here always has been the same -- to win
now," added Brian Cashman, the Yankees new GM. 

Win now -- that's the mantra of the American League East, where
the competitors are not afraid to play Russian roulette.