Baseball Musings
Baseball Musings
October 24, 2005
Dyeing to Be in Chicago

Jermaine Dye turned down better offers from West Coast teams to play with the White Sox. A big reason was travel:

"There were a couple of teams that had [offered] a better contract,'' he conceded Sunday before the start of Game 2 at U.S. Cellular Field. The Texas Rangers were one, "but me playing in the West [Division] with Oakland, I didn't really want to go back to the West. A lot of things played a factor --traveling, scheduling, the other teams you're going to be facing in our division.

"I just felt that I played in Kansas City before, so I knew the travel in the Midwest was a lot easier than going from the West all the way across to the East. You don't really have off days. You're spending your off days traveling.

I always find these free agent stories interesting. There's a perception that many free agents just go for the biggest pay day, but often location is as important as money.


Posted by David Pinto at 01:05 PM | World Series | TrackBack (0)
Comments

Agreed. I love this kind of stuff.

Posted by: JC at October 24, 2005 01:22 PM

Me too. I'd love to hear more about the true reasons why a player picks a particular team. Of course, some follow the money, but others, like Dye, have definate reasons for NOT following the money. I never really thought about travel being a factor before, but it makes perfect sense when choosing a team to play for.

Posted by: sabernar at October 24, 2005 01:44 PM

THe story I heard when he signed is that he was getting his physical from the White Sox and he got two phone calls from other teams offering him more money. Dye had verbally promised Williams he'd go to the White Sox (nothing written down, no contractual obligation), so he kept his word and stayed with chicago.

also, have you guys heard of that new Fox show, Prison Break?

Posted by: Rob at October 24, 2005 02:31 PM

Uh... you mean the show that was advertised 5 gazillion times during last nights WS game?!?!? :-)

Posted by: Jason at October 24, 2005 02:50 PM

So you've heard of it? What about Bones, ever heard of that show?

Posted by: Rob at October 24, 2005 03:08 PM

prison break? who's that?

bones??????

anyhow about jermaine dye - i think it's cool that he didn't say the usual **** about how he thought the sox had the best chance of winning and he wanted to play for a winner or some other line outta bull durham...

on the other hand, it would be GREAT to hear a ballplayer say, i been waitin for the BIG money and i'm goin to whoever pays me the most. and if it's a lousy team, i'm gonna be a complete **** like pudge and magglio over at the tigers and make things so miserable that they eat some of my contract and trade me to a winner. that way i can be a winner and a whiner all in the same contract...

Posted by: lisa gray at October 24, 2005 04:28 PM

It would be nice if guys said it was about the money more often -- or, as Eric Idle once said about getting John Cleese for something, "He was tricked with a large check."

Of course, a lot of the times the guys with the large checks are the Yankees, or even the Mets -- teams that have a plausible chance of winning. This allows you to take the more fan-friendly line.

Posted by: Chris Marcil at October 24, 2005 05:21 PM

How about the exciting graphics and sound effect coming in and out of their version of K-Zone.

At one point last night this is what transpired.....

Pitch... sound effect.... graphic.... Fox Zone (Wrong location) graphic... sound effect....

Pitch... sound effect.... graphic.... Fox Zone (Correct location) graphic... sound effect....

Pitch... sound effect.... graphic.... Fox Zone (Wrong location) graphic... sound effect....

This was about 30 seconds worth.... A cat with ADD has a longer attention span... I love technology, but this is getting intrusive... and btw I am going to watch Prison Break tonight.

Posted by: Ed Zipper at October 24, 2005 08:23 PM

Dye has been a solid, head-on-shoulders guy since he was a rookie with the Braves. He and Ozzie make it easy to root for White Sox. What this series lacks is somebody to root against, since the Astros are classy.

Posted by: high&tight at October 24, 2005 09:40 PM

Maybe Jermaine did it for the school system....

Posted by: ryan at October 25, 2005 12:13 AM
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