Quote:
Originally Posted by PilotMan
True, but the ghost of Donnie Moore, whose professional failure cost him everything, is still out there. He has to have some sort of conscience. Or maybe he doesn't? I don't know enough about him to say otherwise. I'm sure he could retire, give all the money back and just walk away, if he wanted.
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Depression can hit anybody, of course, whether you're playing well or not. I don't know if Donnie Moore's issues were about baseball or something else. If he was miserable playing baseball and could have done better had he walked away, that decision would have been complicated by the fact that he hadn't made $100 million in his career to that point. In fact, he killed his wife and himself after he was out of baseball for a year, not by his own choice, and with his "big" earnings years long behind him.
The conscience question is interesting. I've had jobs where maybe I had a bad day, wasn't particularly productive. I felt kind of guilty and work harder the next day, maybe put in a little extra time. What is it like to get bi-weekly paychecks for around $2 million each, all season long, when you're providing nothing of value but are in fact hurting the organization with your very presence of the roster. Do you care?
And there was the Jim Palmer situation last season. Chris Davis was telling everyone who would listen that he was working on fixing his hitting all off-season with hitting coach Scott Coolbaugh. Palmer asked Coolbaugh about it, and Coolbaugh said they didn't actually work together at all. Those stories, combined with historic-shiftiness at the plate seem to make it more likely that Davis got paid and then didn't give a shit. We're used to professional athletes remaining ultra-competitive even when they become super-rich. But, you'd think human nature would win out in at least some situations, where a guy couldn't bring it at the same level once he was guaranteed insane wealth. Davis is one of those cases. And I can certainly understand why owners would be reluctant to guarantee this kind of money to anybody but the most special talents.