Word: rods
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After the inhabitants of the mini-booths come the convention's real bottom-feeders. Wandering the halls alongside the buyers (and the dogged press hounds) are hustlers who can't afford any real estate but who are nonetheless determined to pitch their wares. I encounter a Rod Stewart look-alike in imitation snakeskin pants and a boating hat. Velcroed to his arm is a drop-dead gorgeous, svelte young Asian woman poured into a minuscule shiny black rubber dress. He introduces himself as "Flashman" (though when I encounter him a few hours and several beers later he fesses...
...Alex ("A-Rod") Rodriguez's $252 million deal [SPORT, Dec. 25-Jan. 1]: There have always been players whose salaries seemed to break the bank, and there will continue to be inequities in Major League Baseball's competitive balance. You neglected to mention how some teams are able to afford such players. Here in Boston, it's hard to be a Red Sox fan when the team has just signed Manny Ramirez for $160 million while trying to hit up Massachusetts taxpayers for $312 million to replace beloved Fenway Park...
...rest of the league can't compete? Even the Colorado Rockies, who finished second-to-last in the NL West last season, were able to go out this winter and make Mike Hampton the richest pitcher in the game. And, for that matter, before the results of the A-Rod sweepstakes were announced, who would have seriously considered Texas--which plays not in Dallas, but in Arlington--a big market...
...seems. When it comes down to it, what really riles people up is not who-is-signing-who, but what the fetching price is. Deep down, people are sickened not so much by the fact that a relatively small-market club like Seattle was unable to re-sign A-Rod, but that the ultimate price tag A-Rod fetched was so monstrously high...
...really none of our business. And even if it was our business, who are we to say these players are overpaid? If the Dodgers are willing to pay Darren Dreifort $10 million a year, then that is what he is worth. So don't blame A-Rod simply for taking what was coming...