Reacting like he has read one too many stories about Mark Cuban and Jerry Jones, Dallas billionaire Tom Hicks made it official. The craziest owners in professional sports live in the land of Stetson hats, chicken-fried steaks and the grassy knoll.
Hicks, a 52-year-old radio titan, did more than make Alex Rodriguez the highest-paid player in baseball Monday. He signed off on a 10-year, $252 million contract. It doubles the previous high in pro sports–a six-year, $126 million deal for the NBA’s Kevin Garnett.
Rodriguez hardly grew up dreaming about spending the prime years of his career at The Ballpark in Arlington. He admits he never had given the Rangers serious consideration before paying a visit on Nov. 27. But agent Scott Boras found the perfect dance partner in Hicks, whose acquisition of Brett Hull delivered a Stanley Cup to the Dallas Stars in 1999.
“I like to win,” Hicks said. “I like to build things, whether it’s a $2 billion corporate acquisition or trying to have a chance to win the World Series. Those things excite me.”
Rodriguez didn’t speak to the media Monday, but is expected to be introduced at a news conference here Tuesday.
Determined to make a name not only in baseball but his local market, where the Cowboys’ Jones and the Mavericks’ Cuban had a visibility he envied, Hicks forced a fit between Rodriguez and a team that was 20 games worse than .500 last season and has an all-time playoff record of 1-9. He outbid the Seattle Mariners, who drafted Rodriguez with the first pick overall in the 1993 draft, and the Atlanta Braves in the final round of negotiations.
Many expected Texas to address a pitching staff whose 5.52 earned-run average was the highest in the major leagues. But instead the Rangers added Rodriguez’s unprecedented production at shortstop (42 homers, 122 RBIs per year for the last three years) to a lineup that already included All-Stars Rafael Palmeiro and Ivan Rodriguez.
Hicks hopes the signing will bring both pennants and an increased attention span in a market where baseball is relegated to the inside of the sports section after the Cowboys break out the blocking sleds in July.
“The Rangers have never had the cachet in our market that we now have,” Hicks said.
The Rangers certainly have people talking. Sandy Alderson, Major League Baseball’s director of baseball operations, strongly criticized the size of the deal.
“I’m stupefied by the numbers,” Alderson said. “It’s beyond alarming.”
When Colorado signed left-hander Mike Hampton to a $121 million deal on Friday, Rockies General Manager Dan O’Dowd referred to it as “a partnership” between the team and its new headliner. The Rodriguez signing takes a step beyond that, guaranteeing the player $2 million more than Hicks paid when he bought the team from a group headed by Texas Gov. George W. Bush in 1998.
Alderson was asked if that merging of salary and equity made Rodriguez a franchise player.
“Depending on the teams to which you are referring, he could be the first three-franchise player,” he answered.
Rodriguez’s contract pays him more than 18 of major league baseball’s 30 franchise are worth, according to the 2000 valuations by Forbes magazine. It is worth more than the two bottom teams, Montreal and Kansas City, combined.
Many baseball executives worry that the ongoing escalation of salaries will lead to another work stoppage after the 2001 season, when the current union agreement expires. But Boras argues that modern revenue streams can sustain the growth of salaries. It is an issue many experienced baseball executives have faced throughout their careers.
“We’ve been asking that question for a long period of time,” Seattle GM Pat Gillick said. “I’ve been talking about it for 15 or 20 years. It keeps on. You can’t really fault the players. If there’s someone willing to pay this amount of money, the player shouldn’t be bashful. I don’t think anyone held a gun to any of the owners’ heads to pay this kind of money.”
Rodriguez, who last season earned $4.362 million, will get a $10 million bonus and will earn $21 million annually in 2001-04, $25 million annually for 2005-06 and $27 million annually in 2007-2010. That includes $36 million in deferred salary, which Hicks said reduces the present value of the contract to $180 million.
Rodriguez has a unilateral right to declare free agency after the 2007. Escalator clauses in the contract after the 2008 and 2009 seasons can increase the value if Rodriguez is no longer the highest-paid player.
While Hicks signed the 25-year-old Rodriguez for the long run, it is certain to create pressure on GM Doug Melvin and manager Johnny Oates, who are entering their seventh seasons with the franchise. The Rangers won American League West titles under them in 1996, ’98 and ’99 but were eliminated in the first round of the playoffs by the New York Yankees each year.
“Alex,” said Hicks, “is a player we believe will be the player who will allow the ballclub to fulfill its dream of a world championship.”
But only the contract is guaranteed.
