Aaron Judge Doesn’t Owe Us Anything But the Biggest Contract Doesn’t Necessarily Give Him What He and Other Professional Athletes Need

Photo by Jeffrey Hyde

I was prompted to write this via a friend who did not take kindly to Aaron Judge turning down a 7 year 213.5 million dollar offer. “You should do a story on the selfishness of professional athletes,” he excoriated, but for me, the issue isn’t necessarily selfishness and greed. 

The troubling component is a long standing trend toward misguidedness. 

So let’s start with Judge. Two hundred million dollars on the table and a long injury history, the man bet on himself. Sorry, at this point, someone is going to have to back up the brinks truck.  If you’re a Yankee fan it hurts, and I do wish players did give more consideration for the hometown discount.  

But not to the extreme that many fans expect and the home team wants.  Come next year, some owner is going offer Judge $400 million, and number 99 is just supposed to walk away.  Man, if he’s that bad at math, I don’t think I want him on my team.

On the other hand, the owner in question is the one who’s math is bad. Judge will probably not live up to the dollar value, and the team will have to carry the weight. 

That’s not really the point, though. What is the appropriate give that Judge should take to show the loyalty we think he should have. I simply refer to the likes of Derek Jeter and Tom Brady.

These are two players who took less money because they wanted to be in a winning situation. Of course, neither played for free and what’s admirable is they arrived at their decision by taking more than money into account.  

Happiness, a work and living environment that suited their needs, reflects the sound reasoning of a well adjusted person. Thus, my observation is that too many professional athletes only consider money in their decision.

Misguided is the word I use.  I think ARod might be the worst example.  His contract coming up in Seattle, he had every right to take full financial advantage of his unbelievable career, and he did just that.

At $250 million, he became the highest paid player in history. Good for you ARod, but you sign with a last place team. Didn’t you sell yourself a little short. Well, not according to his flawed thinking. Well adjusted is a trait never associated with ARod, and it makes sense that he wanted to be able to brag that he was the highest paid player in baseball history.

How about taking a little less money in exchange for a more fulfilling work environment.  So misguided and now I give you LeBron James. One Billion dollars, you deserve every penny, and I hope you someday own an NBA team.

But despite having an unquenchable desire to win, here’s where you bottomed out.  “They all didn’t wanna listen to me about the start of the season. I knew exactly what would happen. I only wanted to protect the well being of the players which ultimately is the PRODUCT & BENEFIT of OUR GAME! These injuries isn’t just “PART OF THE GAME”. It’s the lack of PURE, he tweeted on June 16 2021.

Seriously because he and the players insisted on a full schedule and refused a shortened season. Not out of any sense of obligation, the players could not accept the lower dollar amounts that would have been reflected in their pay. Instead, you screwed yourself and the rest of us out of a potentially great postseason. 

Herein lies my biggest gripe with single minded players. Basketball and baseball are just too long. We know how bad it is for baseball. Trying to keep up with the grind, a long history of greenies and steroid use tell us all we need to know.

As for basketball, do I really want to watch a game where one team is fresh, and the other has had four games in the past five nights.  Hello load management and what’s the appeal when half the Spurs are kicking back at Chick-fil-A.

How about you knock ten games off each season, while agreeing to take a 10% pay cut. You get a better standard of living, I get a better product, and who knows, increased interest might let everyone make up the financial difference. 

Out here, we make these kinds of decisions and have a lot let disposable income. Don’t you want to be happy or do simply not know how misguided you are?

So here you are Aaron Judge. Selfishly, I’d like to see him retire with the Yankees. But objectively, I hope he signs his contract with more in mind than just the number on the bottom line.