Subj : Food for discussion To : Steve Quarrella From : Ed Grinnell Date : Sun Mar 04 2001 02:50 am Steve Quarrella was seen kissing Large Marge and telling us: SQ> I don't like foxes in henhouses. I'd rather see a commissioner police SQ> the league, rather than let the good ol' boys do what they want. SQ> I wouldn't mind it if he were competent. I didn't want to see interleague play ONLY because I knew he was going to use it as a crutch to keep from dealing with other problems. His competitive draft is stupid. All it means is that those guys will leave those teams again in a couple of years. SQ> How much did BILL CASTRO and all kinds of other HOF players get when SQ> Steinbrenner was out buying his team? What a bunch of crap. Steinbrenner HASN'T gone overboard. Mike Mussina is the first free agent in years that he's thrown money at. Most, like Strawberry, were signed to low level contracts that they had to make good on to continue with the Yankees. Most of his other deals were June deals that he took over big contracts and then gave them time to redeem themselves. If they did, like Cone and Clemens, he kept them around and rewarded them and if they didn't, like Neagle, he cut them loose. He's made mistakes but far fewer than most owners and certainly he's NEVER set the standard. SQ> He started it. No, he didn't. He went after competent free agents like Catfish Hunter and Reggie Jackson while his fellow owners were throwing big money after boobs. SQ> Oddly enough, the aformentioned Ty Cobb was a major SQ> player in the movement to get players a fair day's wage for a fair SQ> day's work. I wonder if he had visions of what was to come. The owner only have themselves to blame. The players aren't holding a gun to their heads. One time, the Dodgers called up 6 times in a short time to up their ante to one free agent, even though he never got another offer NOR did he or his agent tell them that they did. I think that players make just about what they should, however; they should distribute more of it from the top-down. --- TrekEd 1.00 * Origin: Striking a blow to purists (1:170/1701) .