I've seen a few comments here and online and I got a few e-mails related to my opinion that C.C. Sabathia didn't really love it in Cleveland and that all he wanted was the money. One said I was a hypocrite, that I would never turn down more money if offered somewhere else. This is a relative statement. 
If we're talking a difference of, say, $40,000 and $4 million, yes I would take the money. Candidly, I admit that fact. But if the difference were totals that would still allow me to live a decent life and take care of my daughters, there would be other factors. Lifestyle, location, climate, the schools … all enter into it. Fact is I did just that once in my career. I took a pay cut to return to journalism, to work for a newspaper, because that was better suited for me. I loved the job I left, and was treated extremely well by good people. But this was a better fit — even with less money. Now, this does not make me a hero. In fact, in some eyes it might make me dumber or dumpier than I think I am. It's just a fact; we all make decisions at one time or another and they're not always based completely on money.
But … when comparing our personal situations let's be honest and state that there's a big difference between comparing jobs that pay, to throw out numbers, $80,000 and one that pays $65,000, and jobs that pay in the millions. Sabathia's contract extension offer from Cleveland was worth $91 million. That's $91 million dollars. Count the zeroes — 91,000,000. OK, he gets taxed. Let's say after tax he takes home $55,000,000 — and I have no idea, I'm just guessing. If we went out to spend $20,000 per day, it would take us 2,750 days to spend that $55 million. That's 7 1/2 years of spending $20,000 per day every day. Can't be done. At least not in my world. I suppose you could buy a Prius every day, but even then you'd get tired of all the cars. (Figure it with $91 million and it's 4,550 days.)
Sabathia has an opportunity the rest of us can only dream of. He can handpick where he wants to live and play baseball — and it was because of the amount of money he will make. No matter where he signs, his contract will be huge. And I would submit that in that instance things like quality of life and a place where you are happy gain importance — because the more the money increases the less relevance it has on your lifestyle. Sabathia will have more money than he will ever need. No matter where he plays, he will be able to do whatever he wants. Unless he's the kind of guy who likes to buy a Porsche every day. So the money mattered, but where he made the money might matter more.
Which is why I say that though he may have meant it when he said he loves Cleveland, he really didn't love it as much as he loves the idea of the big contract. He loved it as long as the Indians offered him the most money. The money and the total deal was more important than anything. I don't know where that pressure comes from — maybe he wants to be baseball's highest paid player. Maybe he's waited for this his whole career. Maybe the Players Association put amazing pressure on him (A Players Union official once told me that doesn't happen, and a baseball exec said: "That's what they want you to think. The sky is purple and things like that.") I don't know. But the money clearly meant more to him than the fact he could stay in Cleveland, a city he said he loves.
This certainly is Sabathia's right. He can do whatever he wants as far as his contract. My only quibble is that he shouldn't try to tell us that his feelings for the Indians and Cleveland matter. Because they don't. Or more correctly they don't seem to matter (we'll find that out in free agency). If it's the money you want, that's fine. Just don't tell us it's about other things.
Back to Yellowstone …
There's something about buffalo, one of the true American animals. Hard to fathom that they almost went extinct after there were 100 million roaming our plains. They wander free at Yellowstone, and as one friend said: "They think they own the place." They pretty much do. To the point that they'll stop traffic for hours if they feel like crossing the road and standing there. I'm not going to mess with a buffalo. And my daughters and I think they may be in cahoots. At one point, two or three were standing in the road, blocking our car. Another buffalo was faced away from us on the side of the road. At one point he turned his head and stared right at our car, then turned back away from us and … well … let loose with a No. 2. Almost seemed schemed. Course my daughters laughed hysterically.
Here are some more pleasant views of buffalo roaming the Yellowstone ranges. And there were a lot. My daughters counted in excess of 1,100 in a week. Too, one advantage to visiting when we did is the buffalo babies are roaming as well. And they're actually kind of cute — unlike the rude one we encountered on the side of the road:
Maybe location did matter and he was undecided and wanted to see what his options are, just like he told the team. Don't you have to know what the factors are in order to weigh them.
And 10 or 20 or $30 million is a lot of money to pass up, no matter how much you already have. It could be the difference in setting up all your siblings for life as well as yourself.
Maybe you could figure out exactly how much money Dolan will be saving because of the trade, and how much money the team really makes?
We really have no idea if 'small market' teams can afford big contracts or not. For all the disastrous player contracts in sports, you don't hear about owners going broke. They usually sell teams for hundreds of millions more than they paid for them.
As a transplanted Ohioan and avid Cleveland sports fan living in Montana, whose life was changed 15 years ago by my first time in Yellowstone, it's been like being in a kind version of the Twilight Zone where I'm reading about my favorite teams and my favorite place all in the same essay.
You know those buffalo you are taking pictures of have had a horrible time of it this past year – over half the herd has died over the previous fall, and more buffalo have been sent to slaughter and killed by Yellowstone National Park and the state of Montana the past year than at any time since the 19th century. Why is an irrational and long story.
In any event, a couple of your essays made it into my "newspaper" on Yellowstone. It really was surreal; half my browser screens are on Yellowstone pages and the other half usually are about the Browns or the Tribe. It perhaps is fitting that buffalo and Indians would have a bad year at the same time.
Thanks again for sharing.
If you listened to C.C. carefully in interviews (even last year), he always said he loved his teammates, who he'd grown up with, but never said he wanted to stay here in Cleveland. Like all the other greedy ballplayers, he's out to stroke his ego with the big payola and a warm-weather town. Frankly, after four seasons of barely-over-.500 records, he knew that last year's luck was his one-and-only chance to cash in. Case in point, he began this season pitching like Fred Beene or Eric Raich, just like he did in the playoffs. So his talent is fickle, fleeting.
C.C. will wind up on the West Coast with a ridiculous contract, then go 13-12 next year, and the owner will regret the day he ever offered such a contract. It's the same scenario repeated over and over with the moron owners and GMs. I only hope the Dodgers offer the deal, so CC can be paired with the truly most-insane-deal-ever: that of the futile Andreuw Jones–a fat outfielder who his .222 last season, and yet hypnotized LA into offering him MEGAmillions! Wow!
I shudder at the word greedy in the context of Sabathia. I get it: He could have accepted less to play here, but this is a standard to which others are rarely held. I'm sure Donald Trump or Bill Gates don't try to get the best deals possible in their business ventures, their love or New York and the Pacific Northwest (respectively) notwithstanding.
I will be surprised if C.C. signs a contract for anything less than six years and anything less than 120 million dollars total. It could be longer and richer. Of course Sabathia is (or should be) financially secure already, but Larry is absolutely correct in noting that the Indians offer is probably worth $10 million -$30 million less than whomever Sabathia plays for next year. That's not even in the same ballpark.
Also, I don't hear anyone talking about the financial steal that Sabathia has been over the course of his career in Cleveland. Were the Indians greedy for not rewarding him commensurate to his performance? Of course not. They were playing the game by the rules in place and paying him accordingly. That's what Sabathia is doing now.
I'm not saying that the Tribe should have re-signed him at those dollars, but I wish we could fondly wave farewell to a quality player and a quality person rather than blowing raspberries and calling names.