Contract Wars And The Perez Problem

I can’t begin to understand all the ins and outs of the Perez Problem – I always thought that sports agents gave their clients good advice, but Ollie is stuck with Scott Boras, who gives his clients contracts that over-reach expectations of their ability and knowledge. 

 

I also wonder about the relationship between the Owners, the Agent and The Player when things go bad and hard decisions have to be made.  Right now this  – the Perez Problem – seems to be at a standstill, since there are disagreements among the principals as to what to do with an uncooperative player.

 

What that means is that a disgruntled player, who is not getting his own way is upsetting the mood of the clubhouse, business between himself and his agent and of course the owners. The big catch here is that a player of his record and stature does not have to accept a demotion to the minors and the team cannot send him there unless he agrees.  And, he doesn’t.

 

How did this happen?  I believe greed plays a big part in professional sports – all of them.  Right now, there are three brand new stadiums for the four NY sports teams – Citi Field, Yankee Stadium IV, and the as yet unnamed NFL Stadium in New Jersey.  However, in order to recoup their profits all involved have created PSLs,  and/or raised the costs of the seats in parts of their Stadiums  to four figures per game.  What I’m saying is that dollars rule the sports world these days, not skill, expertise or playing by the rules.

 

But I digress – today’s problem is Oliver Perez – who lives in the culture of sports today – whose motto is “give me the money”.

 

Here’s what Mike Lupica has to say about that:

“Perez is playing by the rules, no one is saying he isn’t. He doesn’t have to go to the minors if he doesn’t want to. But there is always the spirit of the law and the letter of the law. The spirit of the law, even when a player has the hammer, ought to be this:

The best way to honor your contract is by doing what’s best for your team, even if you don’t like it.

This happens to be the best thing for Perez, too. He can’t see that and won’t go to the minors. Somebody needs to explain to him you can’t be a big leaguer acting this small. Same goes for his agent.”