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Heavy hitter
Mark McGwire speaks his mind
Posted: Thursday March 01, 2001 12:18 AM
Updated: Thursday March 01, 2001 1:47 PM
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The Cardinals' Mark McGwire is one of a few major leaguers without an agent. CNNSI.com |
St. Louis slugger Mark McGwire sat down with CNN/Sports Illustrated's Laura Okmin to discuss what was on his mind heading into the 2001 MLB season and share his opinion on baseball's recent contract signings.
Laura Okmin: If there is a work stoppage, would you really retire?
Mark McGwire: If it's a long one, yes. I would seriously (consider retirement), and there's a really good chance I would because at my age, sitting out six months to a year, trying to come back and rebuild this game of baseball after what we did in '98 -- the whole game of baseball came back in '98 -- and to try to do that (isn't worth it.) First of all, I would be absolutely embarrassed to say that I'm a major league ballplayer if it happens. And I've talked to a lot of other players and they think the same thing.
Okmin: How closely were you following the whole Alex Rodriguez-Derek Jeter contract negotiations?
McGwire: It's mind-boggling. I've talked to a lot of veteran players and all their mouths have dropped. It set the bar very, very high. What Alex has done in the first six years, he's going to have to do so much more to justify getting paid $20-$25 million. And I wish him nothing but the best. But just going out there and playing is not good enough. That's not going to justify making $20 million. People are going to want to see more. And I hope he understand and realizes that's what he's going to have to do.
| Money isn't Everything |
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Mark McGwire thinks greed is putting baseball in jeopardy once again. Start |
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Okmin: You don't even have an agent?
McGwire: I think agents are starting to take over the game. They're starting to have more power than they should. And I've always told my friends that play major league baseball that you have to understand that the agent works for you, you don't work for the agent. You, the player, make the calls, they don't make the calls for you. And I hope more players do that. That it's not about playing for every cent that you can get.
Okmin: Help us understand that then because I know that you've said that you do make enough money for umpteen lifetimes to come.
McGwire: Right.
Okmin: And you hear a guy like Frank Thomas or Gary Sheffield talk about $10 million a year isn't enough. And I just assume you can get by on $10 million a year.
McGwire: Well, yeah, if you're not, then you have some bad financial people taking care of your money. Nobody wants to hear somebody making $10 million complaining. I mean, there's somebody out there making $40,000 busting their ass. I mean, they don't appreciate that. And I don't think anybody that plays the game of baseball appreciates that. I just wish these guys would really sit down and look in the mirror and understand that their statements aren't the greatest statements in the world that they're making. And a lot of baseball players don't appreciate that because those one, two, three guys that are saying this stuff affects everybody. And I don't know of anybody that I'm around right now in our clubhouse that liked what those guys were saying.
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