NBA Quiz: 1) Name the only four players to lead the league in
scoring since 1987. 2) Who was the last player to average 20
rebounds for a season?
NFL Quiz: Last week Curtis Martin became the 16th rusher to hit
the 10,000-yard mark for his career. Name the only 3 on this list
to average 4.7 yards a carry or better. Answers below.
Baseball’s First Free Agents
Last Bar Chat we talked about the role that Andy Messersmith
and Dave McNally played back in 1975 when Major League
Baseball’s arbiter Peter Seitz ruled that the reserve clause in the
standard player’s contract could not bind one to his team. This
was what held salaries down since the beginning of the sport.
But over the course of the 1976 season, the owners and players
reached agreement on a new deal, with the result that some of
them then became eligible for free agency following the ’76
campaign. Some stories I’ve seen say 23 were free agents, others
24. Anyway, following are some notes gleaned from a 1990
piece in Sports Illustrated by Leigh Montville. [See, I told you I
don’t throw anything out.]
Among those in the first class of free agents was Bobby Grich.
When he started his career in 1970 he didn’t even have an agent.
Grich had his best season in 1976 as second baseman for the
Orioles with 13 homers, 54 RBI and a .266 average, big #’s for a
middle infielder in those pre-steroid, pre-juiced ball days. So
Bobby, who had made $68,000 in ’76, parlayed this into a 5-
year, $1.5 million contract with the Angels. Unfortunately,
Grich hurt himself before the season began lifting an air
conditioner and played only 52 games his first year under the big
deal. He then had back surgery but came back strong, to the
point where after the strike-shortened 1981 season (one in which
he led the league in homers with 22), he negotiated another 4-
year, $4 million package with California.
The average salary in all of baseball in ’76 was $52,300, while
for the free agent class of ‘76 in 1977 it was $201,000, including
Royle Stillman’s $25,000. With the exception of Stillman and
one or two others, the operative term in those days for the lucky
ones was, “Look at these guys. They’re set for life.” Indeed that
appeared to be the case.
Montville writes of relief pitcher Bill Campbell, who in 1976
went 17-5 with 20 saves for the Minnesota Twins. On
November 24 they held the first free agent draft, where up to 12
clubs could select each of the eligible players. That evening
Campbell was at the Plaza Hotel in New York when Oakland A’s
owner Charlie Finley called Bill and his agent over after spying
them at the bar.
“I’d never met the man,” Campbell recalled, “but he’d been one
of the guys to draft me. We went over. He immediately started
trying to make a deal. Right there. He offered a $100,000
signing bonus, plus $100,000 for three years. Said I had to sign
before I left the table.”
Campbell and his agent LaRue Harcourt (who Bill had found
after asking a teammate) had been thinking of asking for a
million over four years. They really didn’t have a clue what the
market was, but they knew that a year earlier Finley had sold
reliever Rollie Fingers to the Boston Red Sox for a million, until
commissioner Bowie Kuhn nixed the deal. As Montville writes,
“If an owner would pay another owner a million for a relief
pitcher, then why wouldn’t he cut out the middle man? Give the
million to the pitcher. Harcourt told Finley they wanted a
million.”
“Finley started laughing,” said Campbell. “He said, ‘A million
dollars! You know what? These dumb s.o.b.’s will give it to
you.’”
48 hours later Campbell was at a press conference in Boston, the
first of the free agents to sign, with the Red Sox giving him the
million over four years. A year earlier Bill Campbell had made
$22,000, the same salary he earned in 1975. He had asked for a
raise to $30,000 and would have accepted less but cheapskate
owner Calvin Griffith said, “Sign this contract or forfeit your
chance to go to spring training.” Campbell then had his
awesome year and the Sox rewarded him.
But while people now called Campbell a “millionaire,” he of
course wasn’t one. The spotlight was on him and he got off to a
rough start for Boston in ’77, though he got his act together and
finished 13-9 with 31 saves. On the financial end, though,
disaster would soon strike as his agent, Harcourt, put him in all
kinds of tax shelter deals that blew up. Campbell lost $800,000.
Steve Stone was another interesting case. He had had a mediocre
career, to say the least, going 3-6 with the Cubs in 1976. But 5
teams drafted him and the general manager for one of them,
Danny O’Brien of the Texas Rangers, called and asked Stone
what he wanted. “I breathed deep and told him I was looking for
$75,000 for one season,” Steve recalled. “O’Brien said he
couldn’t do that. I said, ‘All right, I’ll settle for $60,000.’ He
said I didn’t understand. I wasn’t asking for enough money! He
said Brad Corbett, the owner, wanted to pay a million dollars for
a pitcher. Corbett thought this would be good public relations. I
said that was fine with me. I would take a million. He said no. I
said I would take $60,000 and they could tell everyone I was
getting a million. O’Brien said he thought they could give Doyle
Alexander a million and that Doyle would take it. [Alexander
had gone a combined 13-9 in ’76 pitching for Baltimore and the
Yankees.] And that’s what happened. Doyle got the million.”
Stone then went to the White Sox for $60,000, the 4th-lowest
among the signees. He pitched two years then signed a 4-year
deal with Baltimore after the ’78 season. In 1980 he went 25-7,
but a year later he hurt his arm and was out of baseball.
Perhaps the most famous free agent in the class of ’76, though,
was Wayne Garland. Garland parlayed a 20-7, 2.68 ERA with
Baltimore that season into a 10-year, $2 million contract with the
Indians. He was just 26 and on top of the world, having signed
by far the longest contract in any professional sport.
In 1977 Garland went 13-19 for a lousy Cleveland team that
finished up 71-90. He pitched 283 innings and had a respectable
3.50 ERA, so no one could really complain. The second season,
however, he tore his rotator cuff and never won more than 6
games in any year thereafter. He was released in 1981.
You can imagine that in those last four seasons, Wayne Garland
was treated unmercifully by the fans. His car was often
vandalized, even as it sat in the players’ parking lot and, to top it
off, he was a victim of bad investments in real estate and oil &
gas, plus he suffered through a nasty divorce. Despite the
$200,000 a year, which kept coming in for the duration of the
contract, Garland filed for bankruptcy in 1988.
Ah, but there was one big success in the free agent class of 1976,
that being Reggie Jackson, who had a solid year with Baltimore
(27 HR 91 RBI) and then signed a $3 million deal with the
Yankees for 5 years. In 1977 Reggie clouted 32 homers and
drove in 110 as he led George Steinbrenner’s team to the World
Series title, including his 3-homer effort in the deciding Game
Six.
By the way, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was 950 on
November 24, 1976, the day of the first draft. Now where else
are you going to find that information, huh? [It was 776 in
August 1982 before the great bull market got going.]
More Stuff
–As a football fan, I hope Philadelphia and Green Bay get home
field advantage for the playoffs. You know, snow and 15
degrees would be fun to watch from the comfort of your home.
None of this indoor stadium crap.
–College bowl games. There are really only three worth
viewing.
Fiesta: Miami vs. Ohio State for the national championship, Jan.
3rd.
Orange: Iowa vs. USC, Jan. 2. Should be very entertaining with
two great QBs, Iowa’s Brad Banks and USC’s Carson Palmer.
GMAC: Marshall vs. Louisville, another contest pitting two
super QBs, Marshall’s Byron Leftwich and Louisville’s Dave
Ragone.
Oh, what the heck, I’ll also tune into Iowa State vs. Boise State
in the “Iforgotthefrigginname” bowl on Dec. 31, just to see if this
Boise State team can compete with the big conferences.
–Carlo Ponti, husband of Sophia Loren, just turned 90, which
means that in a few years, guys, Ms. Loren will finally be
available. The two have been married since 1957.
–So word is out that Pete Rose and Major League Baseball
Commissioner Bud Selig may be close to an agreement on
reinstating Rose, which would then clear the deck for him to be
selected for the Hall of Fame. He would first have to
acknowledge that he bet on baseball games, though, and Rose
has denied this for 13 years. He’s such a jerk, he’ll probably
continue to refuse to admit he was a dirtball. At least that’s my
opinion. If he does confess, however, I’d want Barbara Walters
to do the first interview.
–Bobby Joe Hill died the other day at age 59. Hill was one of
five black starters for the 1966 Texas Western (now UTEP)
basketball team that defeated all-white and top-ranked Kentucky
for the NCAA championship, in a game that changed the face of
the sport.
–Back to the NFL, a few records worth watching.
Indy’s Marvin Harrison is up to 118 receptions with three games
to play. Herman Moore holds the record at 123. Assuming
Harrison gets to 140 or more, this one could last a while.
Kansas City’s Priest Holmes now has 24 touchdowns. The
record is Marshall Faulk’s 26.
Oakland’s Rich Gannon has thrown for 4,205 yards. Dan
Marino is the only one to hit the 5,000 mark for a season 5,084.
#2 on the list is Kurt Warner at 4,830. Gannon already holds the
record for 300-yard games with 10.
–Wassup with Creighton? The school is on a roll. Not only is
the men’s basketball team ranked #23 in the country right now,
but the men’s soccer team has reached the Final 4, along with
UCLA, Maryland and Stanford. Semis – Friday, Final – Sunday.
–The PGA Tour held its annual hell week, as players who failed
to finish in the Top 125 on the money list (or qualify through
other means) attempted to regain their tour privileges in the 6-
round tournament which wrapped up this past Monday. The top
35 and ties received cards for 2003, which this year came out to
38. Among those who made the cut were Johnny Miller’s son
Andy and long-time pro Ken Green. Those who failed included
past tour winners Steve Pate, Bill Glasson, Scott Simpson and
my college classmate Gary Hallberg. Bob May, Tiger’s nemesis
at the dramatic PGA a few years back, also didn’t make it. But
this year’s event will be best remembered for Casey Martin, who
just needed a 74 in the last round to qualify but ballooned to a 77.
–The current issue of Golf Digest has an interview with famed
sports psychologist Bob Rotella. I liked his comment on children
and sports in today’s world.
“More and more parents are shipping their kids off to junior golf
academies. If the kid is from a foreign country and stands to
derive a cultural benefit, fine. For the most part, though, I think
it’s nuts. The academies are mass producers of mediocrity,
because everybody is taught the same thing. If you want to be
great, you have to find your own way. Another thing: I thought
the point of parenting was to raise well-rounded children and to
spend time with them.”
–From the Times of London, a minister has been forced to
apologize for telling children that Santa Claus would
undoubtedly die from delivering his presents so quickly. He
told children and their parents that Santa’s reindeer would burst
into flames if they went at such high speed, killing the once jolly
fellow. Then again, they are traveling fast, you know. And now
they have those giant windmill turbines that are sprouting up all
over the world to negotiate around.
Top 3 songs for the week of 12/11/71: #1 “Family Affair” (Sly
& The Family Stone) #2 “Theme From Shaft” (Isaac Hayes) #3
“Have You Seen Her” (Chi-Lites)
NBA Quiz Answers: 1) Since 1987 the only four to lead the
league in scoring are Michael Jordan (‘87-’93, ‘96-’98), David
Robinson (’94), Shaq (’95, ’00), and Allen Iverson (’99, ‘01-
’02). 2) Wilt Chamberlain was the last player to average 20
rebounds for a season, 1969, 21.1.
NFL Quiz Answer: The only 3 (out of 16) in the 10,000-yard
club to average at least 4.7 yards per carry for their careers are
Jim Brown (5.2), Barry Sanders (5.0), and O.J. Simpson (4.7).
Next Bar Chat, Tuesday if you keep it where it is. [Copyright:
Sportscaster Sal Marciano.]
