A contract's a contract

Frank Thomas should just shut up and play.

He's missed a handful of preseason workouts, insisting that he's underpaid. "The pay scale is out of whack," the White Sox slugger said. "You can't have A-Rod making $25 million when we're coming in at seven, eight, nine million." Thomas led the White Sox to the AL Central title last year, hitting .328 with 43 homers, and is now demanding more money.

But he wants the fans to know that he's not looking to make $26 million. "What I'm being paid now is way off the pay scale," Thomas said. "I've never been greedy. I've never tried to be the top-paid player in this game when I could have been. The bottom line is, what's fair is fair."

There's only one person who's being unfair right now, and that's Thomas. In 1997, he signed a nine-year contract extension worth $85 million. Many people wondered why. Thomas should have known that when you sign a long-term deal, you're going to be passed time and again. Did he think baseball's salary escalation would stop with him? Signing that contract was his own decision, and nobody wants to let him weasel his way out of it. Thomas isn't getting support from his fellow players, even though they've all got a labor battle coming up after the season. "Nobody puts a gun to your head to sign a long-term deal," slugger Mark McGwire said. "If you sign it, play it out. It's that simple. If you have three or four years left on your contract, there's no complaining." And yet somehow Thomas thinks contractual obligations don't apply to him. Even worse, before his great 2000 season, Thomas had two off years, hitting .265 in 1998 and failing to slug .500 in 1999. You didn't see Thomas refusing his paychecks then, did you? More importantly, you also didn't see the White Sox refusing to pay him. Both team and player sign a contract, and both must honor it. Thankfully, the Big Hurt seems to have realized that; on Tues., Feb. 27, Thomas apologized, promising to return to the field shortly thereafter. Nevertheless, he has turned out to be nothing more than a big pain in the neck.

Out west, you have another superstar who doesn't know what's what: Dodgers left fielder Gary Sheffield. Around two weeks ago, the news broke that Sheffield wanted out. Angered by winter trade rumors and the Dodgers' refusal to sign him to a long-term extension, Sheffield, who hit .325 with 43 homers in 2000—numbers nearly identical to Thomas's—demanded a trade to the Mets, Yankees, or Braves. Dodgers chairman Bob Daly was furious. "The one thing Gary Sheffield will not do—what no player will do—is dictate how we run our team," he said. "No one will put a timetable on when the Los Angeles Dodgers will make a trade. I don't even understand this. None of us understand this." But Sheffield changed his story, insisting that the team, not he, was looking to get him out of town.

According to Baseball Weekly's Bob Nightengale, Sheffield and his agent sought a four-year extension at an average of $18.75 million per year when Sheffield's current contract runs out in 2004. The two sides met. But Daly told Sheffield that the team had lost $25 million last year and that the deal would be too much of a risk. And that's where Sheffield lost it, tearing into organization and teammates alike, ridiculing the contracts the Dodgers have given to other players. "A risk?" Sheffield said. "Come on, they're paying Brownie [Kevin Brown] $15 million a year until he's 41. They just gave [Darren] Dreifort $55 million when he's only won 39 games in his career and had arm surgery...I don't mind seeing other players get big contracts, but here I am, their biggest player, and I'm fifth on the team payroll? I don't want to be portrayed as a greedy athlete, but let's be fair about this...They give out all of these dumb contracts, and when it comes to me—nothing."

Sheffield's case is stronger than Thomas's. But he, too, doesn't understand. His place on the payroll has nothing to do with Brown's or Dreifort's. The pay scale has gone up since Sheffield signed his contract—but he is still bound to the contract he signed. Besides, his logic is flawed. The fact that the Dodgers have given out big contracts before doesn't mean they're obligated to now. If they made mistakes in the past, they're not bound to repeat them.

The owners need to take a stand. The Sox stood firm, and as a result Thomas will be returning to the field under the conditions of his contract, as he should. But if L.A. trades Sheffield for less than full value, they will have wasted an opportunity. The fans are not supporting these two whiners—in Thomas' case, his fellow players have jumped ship, too. Thomas has realized the error of his ways, and Sheffield will follow suit. Fans will forgive a strike out or an error. But they may not forgive this.

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