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Hustlers and Catchers Report
Published: 2/10/2011 2:14 PM
Last Modified: 2/10/2011 2:14 PM

We try to like baseball.

We try to buy into stuff like the Yankees buying happiness.

We try to understand HGH freaks.

We try to tolerate starting pitchers conditioned to go six.

We try to overlook aluminum bats in high school and college.

But just when we're almost back in the fold, the game kicks us out.

Look at this.

There's a pitcher named Ross Ohlendorf. He pitches for the Pirates. Last year, he put up a record of 1-11. It is hard to imagine such a performance. You would think at 0-8 or 1-9, the pitcher would have been banished to the bush leagues. If you put up the equivalent of a 1-11 record at your job, you probably wouldn't have that job anymore.

Ohlendorf took his 1-11 record to salary arbitration. And he scored. He won a $2 million contract.

What the game of baseball is saying to hard-working citizens is we're better than you.



Reader Comments 19 Total
Gene M (2 years ago)
Mr. Picker, do they still play baseball?
The Picker (2 years ago)
Gene, that's the rumor. You see Oaklawn has been snowed out most of two weeks!
Thunder196 (2 years ago)
Sometimes it pays to be 'bad'.
The Picker (2 years ago)
Thunder196, if you're talking hoops, what's the team going to do about inside help?

Without easy buckets inside, it's going to be impossible to catch the top teams.

Lakers at Boston tonight!
But What Do I Know? (2 years ago)
Since the '94-'95 strike I've been on strike from baseball.
The ORIGINAL Adman (2 years ago)
Baseball, the game, is and will always be the best of all the sports. But, people have ruined its purity.

"Baseball was made for kids, and grown-ups only screw it up." ~Bob Lemon

"It breaks your heart. It is designed to break your heart. The game begins in spring, when everything else begins again, and it blossoms in the summer, filling the afternoons and evenings, and then as soon as the chill rains come, it stops and leaves you to face the fall alone." ~A. Bartlett Giamatti,
Gato Del Sol (2 years ago)
What is really sad is the Pirates wanted to give Olhendorf $1.4 BEFORE arbitration, up from his $439,000 salary in 2010. Guess that's the going rate for 21 starts, 79 K's and 44 walks, not to mention a 4.07 ERA...
OSUNDN (2 years ago)
Didn't Ohlendorf get beaned by a line drive last season? May or may not have affected his performance for the year, but 2 million a year sounds like chump change for a starting pitcher in the big show. Don't get me wrong, I would love to make that kind of money in a year but, they don't work a whole year, nor do they work everyday during the season. just saying......
The Picker (2 years ago)
1-11 equals $2 mil?
The Picker (2 years ago)
By the way, why hasn't St. Louis given Pujols all he wants, plus $10?

Why doesn't everybody in St. Louis send in $100 and be done with it.

He is the face, and bat, of baseball, pay him.
dcood (2 years ago)
Hey Pick: 1.How many good low post scorers exist in the present day NBA? 5-7 maybe, one is too old and entrenched with the Spurs, one is with Lakers, but who scores consistently from the block for the Heat? The point is, in today's NBA, it is not imperative to have an old school '5' man. Thunder have THE number one scoring duo in the league and Westbrook(who is their best player IMO) gets lots of easy baskets at the rim because no one in the league can check him one on one off the dribble. It would def help to get a better defender in the post but a scoring post man is not a huge need for them and that will make it easier to afford a big man...
Hedged (2 years ago)
Good work if you can get it I suppose.
T Town Ted (2 years ago)
As a student at Princeton, Ohlendorf wrote a 140-page senior thesis titled "Investing in Prospects: A Look at the Financial Successes of Major League Baseball Rule IV Drafts from 1989 to 1993."

Looks like he put his Ivy League education to good use at his arbitration hearing.
Ignatz (2 years ago)
Pro sports' salaries differ from other entertainment scales because of the variant of having billionaire owners engaging in ego contests. Celine Dion makes millions warbling in Vegas and Julia Roberts gets 5 or 6 million a pop to make lousy chick flics. A squeeky voiced child, Justin Bierber, takes home 50 million or so to entertain 10 year olds. Impossible to compare what entertainers make to real people.
wgspost (2 years ago)
Allow me to save you some time and money by recreating the game of baseball through the following simulation:

(Jeez...it's hotter than heck out here...)

"Ball.....one..."

(Oh man, did the pitcher step off the mound again? What's he waiting for...no one's on base...)

"Ball.....two..."

(Christ, at least we can watch the cheerleaders. Wait...where are they? What...no cheerleaders?)

"Ball.....three..."

(What inning is it anyway? I'm dying in this heat?)

"Foul ball...out of play..."

...beginning to get into the spirit of the thing?
amron warrior (2 years ago)
And remember that the baseball team owners take all these players' salaries off their corporate income taxes. Indirectly, you and I are paying these astronomic salaries.
Top Flight (2 years ago)
Getting paid 2 million for one win, I would take that job too. Pretty smart of the guy.
sax5084 (2 years ago)
Look at his record! What a bum! Oh, what's that, the Pirates are AWFUL and he 1-4 with 6 no decisions even when he had quality starts? And two million for a starting pitcher is peanuts compared to other mediocre veterans? Nah, let's not run with that, it would require 2 minutes of research.
The Picker (2 years ago)
This just in, Miami is taking out Boston in the east.
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The Picker began entertaining – and infuriating – sports fans in 1993. Each week during football season, he writes about his picks of college and NFL games in his Thursday Sports column. He's never afraid of sharing his opinions about the game and the personalities who play it. Readers have a chance to go against him each season in the Outpick the Picker contest. He welcomes the competition.

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