The 30 Greatest Sports Conspiracy Theories of All-Time - Elliott Kalb [15]
It was reported that he asked the Yankees for a two-year contract worth $850,000 a year. Because he and the Yankees couldn’t come to terms on a new contract by January 8 (the Players Association selected that date as the last a player could negotiate with their old club until May 1st), Guidry was unable to negotiate with the Yankees again until a month after the 1987 season began. It seems unfathomable, but no team showed interested in signing “Louisiana Lightning,” at that time. One more piece of evidence. The Yankees won ninety games in 1986, finishing five games behind the Boston Red Sox. The Sox had a young superstar at the top of their rotation (Roger Clemens), and two other reliable starters (Bruce Hurst and Al Nipper). But the back end of the Red Sox rotation was in shambles, thanks to an injury to Oil Can Boyd. But instead of signing an ace like Guidry, Boston chose to use journeymen like Jeff Sellers (7-8, 5.28 ERA) and Bob Stanley (4-15, 5.01 and a World Series goat) as their fourth and fifth starters in 1987. It seems odd that they wouldn’t therefore make a run at signing Guidry, solidifying the back end of their rotation while taking strength away from their hated rival at the same time. But they didn’t, and this non-move reeks of collusion.
After that same 1986 season, forty-two-year-old Steve Carlton was looking for a new team. He won only nine games in 1985 and, despite his impressive career accomplishments, he couldn’t attract a single offer. The same was true for forty-two-year-old Tom Seaver, who had won seven games. Compare this to the situation of forty-year-old Greg Maddux who, twenty years later, signed a one-year deal for $10 million to pitch for the San Diego Padres in 2007. And that pales in comparison to what Roger Clemens received from the Yankees in 2007, the summer that he turned forty-five.
It’s not just that the owners colluded in the mid-1980s, it’s that they did it so badly. The California Angels relied on thirty-seven-year-old Bob Boone to catch for them in 1986. All he did was catch 144 games, win his fourth Gold Glove (of a career seven) for fielding excellence, and then in seven postseason games, bat .455 with a home run. Despite those numbers, Boone was unable to get a contract offer in the off-season, either from his team or any other. Imagine, Boone didn’t want to take a cut in pay! As it was, in order to play in 1987, he had to accept the same $850,000 that he had made the year before.
The Red Sox couldn’t come to terms with their catcher following the 1986 pennant-winning season, either. Twenty-seven-year-old Rich Gedman had belted sixteen homers and driven in sixty-five runs in 1986, yet he still couldn’t get an offer. Choosing to “wait it out,” Gedman eventually missed both spring training and the first month of the 1987 season.
Maybe teams didn’t want to take a chance on aging pitchers. Maybe teams felt that they could compete without good catchers. But the leading hitter in the National League, Tim Raines, was available, and one of the best leadoff men in history. The twenty-seven-year-old Raines was coming off a season in which he led the National League both in batting average and on-base percentage. He ranked second in OPS (on-base plus slugging average), third in stolen bases, third in triples, and sixth in doubles. He was an electrifying athlete in the prime of his career, certainly among the top talents in the game at the time.
In 1986, Raines had made $1.5 million. He wanted to play for the Dodgers, but would have played for the Padres, who insulted him with an