AZZenny
Registered User
Glaus enjoys unique perk to his new contract
The Denver Post
Mar. 15, 2005 01:46 PM
Tucson, Ariz. - Some guys have all the perks.
Free-agent baseball stars want more than financial security. They expect amenities.
Carlos Beltran, the winter's top free agent, is wearing a New York Mets uniform in part because of the team's willingness to lease a state-of-the-art pitching machine. The Arizona Diamondbacks hope to ride Troy Glaus' bat into the playoffs, only after filling his wife's saddlebags with $1 million for equestrian expenses. In each case the money grabbed the players' interest, but the perks helped close the sale.
"She's accomplished in her field," Arizona lead general partner Ken Kendrick said of Glaus' wife, Ann, at the signing news conference, "and we wanted them to both know that we respected that and realized how important she was in the process."
In baseball circles, Beltran is known as a nice guy, the kind of player who slides hard into second base, then asks about your family.
He is deeply religious, at times shy and unusually modest. But he wanted to be treated like a king as much as the next guy when he became a free agent this winter. In their pursuit, the Mets didn't break any rules, but they took advantage of a system that permits lavish adulation.
Their first big step was a seven-year, $116 million contract. Their second move was adding the extra benefits, making available the best 15-person suite for all home games and leasing a conditioned ocular enhancer, a contraption that shoots out bright-colored, numbered tennis balls at 150 mph - at a cost of $85,000.
"When the balls are coming at you at 80 or 90 miles an hour you recognize (the numbers on them), but not at 150," Beltran said. "But after seeing it at 150, when it slows down again, it seems like the ball is coming at 40 miles an hour. It helps me lay off a lot of bad pitches in the dirt."
Perhaps after rescuing the Mets' reputation, Beltran can drive across the street and win the U.S. Open.
The important thing for the Mets is that Beltran is happy. Even if the Kansas City Royals, the team that raised Beltran, had money to keep the center fielder he would have rebuffed them, according to his agent, Scott Boras, because of their refusal to pay for the machine and its operator.
No contract in recent memory personified a team's eagerness to bring a star into the fold more than the Arizona union with Glaus.
In 2000, Glaus hit 47 home runs. In 2002, he belted 30 and was named the World Series MVP for the Anaheim Angels. Arizona, undergoing an extreme makeover after a 111-loss season, didn't just court Glaus. It listened to Ann's needs as well.
The result? A four-year, $45 million deal, with a stipulation Glaus be reimbursed up to $250,000 per year for his wife's equestrian expenses.
"They made everybody feel a part of it," Glaus said. "If the situation is right and I feel good and my wife feels good about it, then we were going to do it."
Word of Glaus' contract spread like the flu among general managers at the winter meetings in Anaheim. Said one National League general manager, "I thought we were getting away from that kind of (expletive deleted)."
Owners and GMs are sensitive to setting precedents. Once a perk is revealed, it becomes the jumping off point for future negotiations.
Take the seven-year, $105 million windfall pitcher Kevin Brown received from the Dodgers in 1998. He received 12 trips a year between Macon, Ga., and Los Angeles at a cost of about $480,000.
"Actually both Colorado and Los Angeles were willing to do it," Boras said.
Rockies reliever Eddie Gaillard had similar leverage when he negotiated with the Chunichi Dragons in Japan. He said he received $70,000 in 10 round-trip tickets from the United States.
"It made it a lot easier," Gaillard said.
As a stipulation of Gaillard's contract - remember he was a star closer - he didn't have to travel with the team, either. His teammates, he admitted, weren't fans of the clause.
"We would have an off day and the team would always leave. I wanted to enjoy that day with my family and leave the next morning," Gaillard said.
Nothing signifies status more than the road hotel suite, which dates to Greg Maddux's 1992 deal with the Atlanta Braves. Comb through offseason signings, and anybody who is somebody is living large at a five-star on the road: Giants reliever Armando Benitez, Mets starter Pedro Martinez, Tigers outfielder Magglio Ordoqez and catcher Jason Varitek, who uses the space to hold pitchers' meetings.
"If I get to the point where I have leverage, that would be my first request," said Rockies opening-day pitcher Joe Kennedy, his contract laced with incentives for innings pitched, but little else. "That would be nice."
The suite is an offspring from an original perk: a single room on the road.
"Young guys always had roommates," agent Barry Axelrod said. "And eventually you had veterans who wanted their (privacy)."
Just as in a divorce, contract wrinkles can complicate a player-team breakup. The Randy Johnson trade to the Yankees this past winter nearly became an airball over basketball tickets. His new Yankees contract ultimately permitted him to keep his two courtside tickets to the Phoenix Suns. He also has six Diamondbacks seats to use when he retires.
These were wonderful incentives when Jerry Colangelo operated both teams, but he was nudged out by investors.
Some players are enticed by superstition, signing with a team as long as their contract includes their favorite number - such as 21 for Roger Clemens and 99 for former Rockies reliever Turk Wendell. The Padres have long covered golf memberships for players. And the Rockies, under the radar, have provided flight tickets for a family member of at least one elite player.
Simply put, it's about special treatment, and that's nothing new in baseball. It was perhaps best exemplified by the 1984 pursuit of free-agent pitcher Rick Sutcliffe.
Suitors were tracking Sutcliffe like lovesick teenagers. As he sat down for a meal with Royals owner Ewing Kauffman, PGA star Tom Watson called with an invitation for a round of golf. A few minutes later, the mayor stopped by and promised Sutcliffe the use of his private fishing hole.
"I couldn't believe what was happening," Sutcliffe said. Just then the governor strolled by and talked about how his special hunting place was available. "If (President) Ronald Reagan walks through that door next," Axelrod told Kauffman, "we are going to have to sign here."
Without missing a beat, Kauffman replied, "You know, that can be arranged."
` ` ` ` ` `
LOL - I had heard the Suns tix were very important to RJ. Hope JC made George pay quadruple.
As to Glaus - only in the rather archaic good old boys world of baseball would someone think this is "(expletive)", as I am sure Kendricks knows. This is the first real evidence of his business acumen I've seen applied to baseball. (Too bad he couldn't use it to leverage the contract down to 3 years.)
Highly-recruited specialists in medicine, research, business, engineering, etc. OFTEN have their spouses professional interests taken into consideration to close a deal. Heck, not that I was anything out of the ordinary, but 22 years ago when females with good pedigrees were still a bit scarce and heavily desired in academia, two different universities made special arrangements for my husband to get job opportunities in his area of expertise, to try to recruit me.
The Denver Post
Mar. 15, 2005 01:46 PM
Tucson, Ariz. - Some guys have all the perks.
Free-agent baseball stars want more than financial security. They expect amenities.
Carlos Beltran, the winter's top free agent, is wearing a New York Mets uniform in part because of the team's willingness to lease a state-of-the-art pitching machine. The Arizona Diamondbacks hope to ride Troy Glaus' bat into the playoffs, only after filling his wife's saddlebags with $1 million for equestrian expenses. In each case the money grabbed the players' interest, but the perks helped close the sale.
"She's accomplished in her field," Arizona lead general partner Ken Kendrick said of Glaus' wife, Ann, at the signing news conference, "and we wanted them to both know that we respected that and realized how important she was in the process."
In baseball circles, Beltran is known as a nice guy, the kind of player who slides hard into second base, then asks about your family.
He is deeply religious, at times shy and unusually modest. But he wanted to be treated like a king as much as the next guy when he became a free agent this winter. In their pursuit, the Mets didn't break any rules, but they took advantage of a system that permits lavish adulation.
Their first big step was a seven-year, $116 million contract. Their second move was adding the extra benefits, making available the best 15-person suite for all home games and leasing a conditioned ocular enhancer, a contraption that shoots out bright-colored, numbered tennis balls at 150 mph - at a cost of $85,000.
"When the balls are coming at you at 80 or 90 miles an hour you recognize (the numbers on them), but not at 150," Beltran said. "But after seeing it at 150, when it slows down again, it seems like the ball is coming at 40 miles an hour. It helps me lay off a lot of bad pitches in the dirt."
Perhaps after rescuing the Mets' reputation, Beltran can drive across the street and win the U.S. Open.
The important thing for the Mets is that Beltran is happy. Even if the Kansas City Royals, the team that raised Beltran, had money to keep the center fielder he would have rebuffed them, according to his agent, Scott Boras, because of their refusal to pay for the machine and its operator.
No contract in recent memory personified a team's eagerness to bring a star into the fold more than the Arizona union with Glaus.
In 2000, Glaus hit 47 home runs. In 2002, he belted 30 and was named the World Series MVP for the Anaheim Angels. Arizona, undergoing an extreme makeover after a 111-loss season, didn't just court Glaus. It listened to Ann's needs as well.
The result? A four-year, $45 million deal, with a stipulation Glaus be reimbursed up to $250,000 per year for his wife's equestrian expenses.
"They made everybody feel a part of it," Glaus said. "If the situation is right and I feel good and my wife feels good about it, then we were going to do it."
Word of Glaus' contract spread like the flu among general managers at the winter meetings in Anaheim. Said one National League general manager, "I thought we were getting away from that kind of (expletive deleted)."
Owners and GMs are sensitive to setting precedents. Once a perk is revealed, it becomes the jumping off point for future negotiations.
Take the seven-year, $105 million windfall pitcher Kevin Brown received from the Dodgers in 1998. He received 12 trips a year between Macon, Ga., and Los Angeles at a cost of about $480,000.
"Actually both Colorado and Los Angeles were willing to do it," Boras said.
Rockies reliever Eddie Gaillard had similar leverage when he negotiated with the Chunichi Dragons in Japan. He said he received $70,000 in 10 round-trip tickets from the United States.
"It made it a lot easier," Gaillard said.
As a stipulation of Gaillard's contract - remember he was a star closer - he didn't have to travel with the team, either. His teammates, he admitted, weren't fans of the clause.
"We would have an off day and the team would always leave. I wanted to enjoy that day with my family and leave the next morning," Gaillard said.
Nothing signifies status more than the road hotel suite, which dates to Greg Maddux's 1992 deal with the Atlanta Braves. Comb through offseason signings, and anybody who is somebody is living large at a five-star on the road: Giants reliever Armando Benitez, Mets starter Pedro Martinez, Tigers outfielder Magglio Ordoqez and catcher Jason Varitek, who uses the space to hold pitchers' meetings.
"If I get to the point where I have leverage, that would be my first request," said Rockies opening-day pitcher Joe Kennedy, his contract laced with incentives for innings pitched, but little else. "That would be nice."
The suite is an offspring from an original perk: a single room on the road.
"Young guys always had roommates," agent Barry Axelrod said. "And eventually you had veterans who wanted their (privacy)."
Just as in a divorce, contract wrinkles can complicate a player-team breakup. The Randy Johnson trade to the Yankees this past winter nearly became an airball over basketball tickets. His new Yankees contract ultimately permitted him to keep his two courtside tickets to the Phoenix Suns. He also has six Diamondbacks seats to use when he retires.
These were wonderful incentives when Jerry Colangelo operated both teams, but he was nudged out by investors.
Some players are enticed by superstition, signing with a team as long as their contract includes their favorite number - such as 21 for Roger Clemens and 99 for former Rockies reliever Turk Wendell. The Padres have long covered golf memberships for players. And the Rockies, under the radar, have provided flight tickets for a family member of at least one elite player.
Simply put, it's about special treatment, and that's nothing new in baseball. It was perhaps best exemplified by the 1984 pursuit of free-agent pitcher Rick Sutcliffe.
Suitors were tracking Sutcliffe like lovesick teenagers. As he sat down for a meal with Royals owner Ewing Kauffman, PGA star Tom Watson called with an invitation for a round of golf. A few minutes later, the mayor stopped by and promised Sutcliffe the use of his private fishing hole.
"I couldn't believe what was happening," Sutcliffe said. Just then the governor strolled by and talked about how his special hunting place was available. "If (President) Ronald Reagan walks through that door next," Axelrod told Kauffman, "we are going to have to sign here."
Without missing a beat, Kauffman replied, "You know, that can be arranged."
` ` ` ` ` `
LOL - I had heard the Suns tix were very important to RJ. Hope JC made George pay quadruple.
As to Glaus - only in the rather archaic good old boys world of baseball would someone think this is "(expletive)", as I am sure Kendricks knows. This is the first real evidence of his business acumen I've seen applied to baseball. (Too bad he couldn't use it to leverage the contract down to 3 years.)
Highly-recruited specialists in medicine, research, business, engineering, etc. OFTEN have their spouses professional interests taken into consideration to close a deal. Heck, not that I was anything out of the ordinary, but 22 years ago when females with good pedigrees were still a bit scarce and heavily desired in academia, two different universities made special arrangements for my husband to get job opportunities in his area of expertise, to try to recruit me.
