Why Can’t We All Just Be Like Tiger?

Great article in this months Golf Digest on El Tigre called, The Year of Living Dangerously

…And on that title when I was at the Tiger Woods Invitational, aka The Target World Challenge, the other day and I was lucky enough to cross paths a few times with Mr. Woods, it got me to thinking: Why don’t we ever hear any crazy car jacking, shoot out type of stories with the Tiger Wood’s and Alex Rodriguez’s of the sportworld? I keep hearing how athletes are becoming targets because of their money and random guys envy, but the more i think about it, that doesn’t fly. Who has more money than Tiger, or A-Rod, or Bron-Bron? We all know how much they make, or can approximate from what we read in the paper. But we never hear about shoot outs and home invasion with them do we? You can bring up google earth right now and probably find their homes. I know that Alex Rodriguez made about $187.5m from his last deal and could make almost twice that in the next 10 years. I know that Bron is building a castle somewhere outside of Cleveland and that he has a condo close to the Quicken Loans Arena that he stays at the night of games because he doesn’t want to drive out to the country late at night. To make it even more broad, Will Smith makes about $25m when he attaches his name to a movie script, and his life has been drama free since he left Philly to hang out with Uncle Phil. I hate to say it, but there has to be something about the guys that are getting caught up in this. It’s not a stretch to probably say that they aren’t “bad guys” but I do think that maybe they aren’t making the best decisions. But even that assessment is difficult though because I am not talking about the guys who are getting their houses broken into, and I don’t think we can even fault the guys who are “out to dinner” and get jacked for their necklaces. But there has go to be something there right? It has to be more than just random crime. Unfortunately, I don’t know what it is. Why must this stuff even happen at all. Why does one man or woman believe that they deserve to steal what someone else has rightfully obtained? What happened to a hard days work and earning. The guys, these athletes, have talent which they are being rewarded for. Yes, I will give you that guys like Mark Blount or Tim Thomas some of them don’t deserve it, but I know that most of them work very hard at being really good at what they do. It’s not their fault that our society places their jobs in such a high regard, or high enough that we are willing to spend a weeks paycheck on tickets to a game and all that comes with game night. But it is our fault that society places a premium on getting and not earning. Look at this whole housing debacle, if the brokers, and appraisers, and agents, and underwriters, and hedge fund managers, and homeowners weren’t only worried about “getting more” we wouldn’t be in this mess.

It’s Official

A-Rod has crazy dough! Oh yeah that is nothing new, but the deal has been finalized for the richest contract in baseball history… for the second time. $275m over 10 years for the base contract, with the potential to top out at $306m if certain incentives are met. Those incentive are home run related, so passing Willie Mays, Babe Ruth and Barry Bonds on the home run list could be very lucrative some more pocket change for Mr. Rodriguez. They should should just start calling this cat moneybags because its getting a bit ridiculous. This is some good news for the bombers and baseball on a day that could have a black cloud over the game. The Mitchell Report is coming out today… I can’t wait to see all the other names that are not Barry Bonds. I sure hope they give the rest of these guys the same drama they have been giving BB.

Mo’ money

I would be lighting up too, if the reports coming out of ESPN are correct. After a historic season turned in by Alex Rodriguez which included the regular season totals of 54 home runs 156 rbi 143 runs scored while batting .314, A-Rod collected a third MVP trophy, a silver slugger award, an all-star appearance. He is now close to collecting something else, a contract that could total up to $314m over the next ten years. As reported by espn.com here, representation for both Rodriguez and the Yankees are working the final kinks out on a deal that would pay around $275m in base, with some $30m in home run related incentives and $9m in deferred compensation. OMG. For that kind of money, you could talk about me all you want, who cares what the New York media writes about! More pictures of the slugger below