Sports, Money, and Morgan Freeman

Sports and money much in the news this past week......

Bryce Harper finally signed a contract this week.  It's with the Phillies for 13 years and a total of $330 million, which comes out to $25 million and change per year.  Harper will NOT be the highest played player in MLB.  That will be the Rockies Nolan Arenado at $32.5 million, and there are several others out there who make north of $25 million, including his new teammate, pitcher Jake Arietta.

There is a report out there that Harper and his agent, Scott Boras, turned down an offer from the Dodgers for four years and $180 million, which would have come out to $45 million per year.  Plus, it would have made Harper a free agent once again at the age of 30, when, assuming his career arc continues as it has over the years, he could have cashed in on yet ANOTHER mind boggling contract.

I guess it was more important to Harper (and Boras) to sign the contract with the largest total payout ($330 M) versus getting the highest single season contract ever ($45 M).  That is a real first world problem.  No wonder it took so long to hammer out a deal.  Plus, Boras gave out this memorable quote:

"It was important to Bryce to sign a contract where he knows he'll be in one place with the same team for a long period of time." (Those may not be the exact works, but that's the gist of it.)

Okay, I realize that this Phillies contract includes no-trade and no-opt-out clauses, but what are the odds that Harper will spend the entire thirteen year length of that contract with the Phillies?  I say that there is not a chance in Hell that that will happen, and I'd bet a hundred bucks to that effect.  Trouble is, that contract expires after the 2031 season, the year in which I will turn eighty, so there is a chance that if he is still with Philly then, I won't be around to see it, or to pay off or collect upon said bet.

Oh, and I can't wait to hear and see how the denizens of Citizens Bank Park are going to react the first time Harper goes into a ten game 5-for-44 slump.

However, I also know this, if the Phillies strike it rich and reach a World Series or two during the first five or six years of that contract with Harper playing a key role in their success, both the team and its fans are going to be really, really happy with the deal, and that is something that we followers of the Bob Nutting Pirates are never going to experience.

And in football, we Steelers fans are being inundated with news coverage and endless talk show bleatings about (a) negotiations of a contract extension for Ben Roethlisberger, (b) the team not "tendering" or "franchising" Le’Veon Bell, and (c), the entire Antonio Brown fiasco.

Here is what The Grandstander thinks.

(a) The QB is the most important position on the team.  They have to do this deal.  Even though Ben turns 37 today (Happy Birthday, Big Ben!), and his skills may not be what they once were.  Just don't make these negotiations turn into yet another media circus.  Fat chance.

(b) Seeya Le'Veon, and don't let the door hit you in the ass on the way out.  I do admit, though, that I am interested to see where he ends up and how much money he gets.  He bet big time on himself by skipping a season last year, and he may never get back that $14.5 million that he didn't get from the Steelers last year, but we'll see.

(c) Brown is perhaps the best receiver in the NFL, maybe the best ever in Steelers history (think  about that if you will), but he is a selfish and narcissistic team killer, who quit on his coaches and teammates last season, and I hope that the door DOES hit him in the ass on his way out.  I don't care about him, and I don't care to read or hear about him anymore.  As far as AB is concerned, I refer you to the great Morgan Freeman (I know you were wondering where he came into this discussion) and this quote from "The Shawshank Redemption":

"I don't give a shit."

"The Shawshank Redemption"

I will admit that I may have been the only person among my circle of acquaintance to have never seen "The Shawshank Redemption".  Not to get Freudian on you, but I blame my mother for this.  She had a lifelong aversion to "prison movies" (in fact, she didn't like any movies where the people in it weren't "clean" or "dressed up"), and I suspect that her oft-stated preferences in this regard may have subliminally contributed to me never seeing this movie.

Be that as it may, at the pressure of many people, especially a Loyal Reader in Hatboro, PA (aka, Big Poppy, aka the Official Broadway Correspondent to The Grandstander), I finally slipped this movie into the DVD player and watched it yesterday.  And what can I say, I was the one missing out by waiting 19 years to finally see this movie.  It was really, really good.  A great story about the Human Spirit.  I will no doubt watch it again in years to come.

This movie was nominated for seven Oscars, including Picture, Director, Screenplay, and Actor (Morgan Freeman), but was shut out on Oscar night.    It lost out to "Forrest Gump" for Best Picture and Freeman lost out to Tom Hanks for Best Actor.  Freeman was terrific, but so was Hanks, although "Forrest Gump" was not as good a movie as this one, and neither was as good as "Quiz Show" which was also nominated for Best Picture that year.

As often happens when you watch an old movie, you see an actor in a minor role who was to go on to bigger things.  There were two such actors in this movie.  Gill Bellows, who played Tommy, went on to appear in several TV shows, including the current series, "Vegas".  The other was David Proval who played one Andy Dufresne's fellow cons.  Proval went on to play Richie Aprile in "The Sopranos".  Fun stuff. 

Thanks to all of you who finally made me watch this movie.