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WHY BOO DREW?
By CHARLES JAY, Editor/Publisher, TotalAction.com
August 11, 1999

So the Philadelphia Phillies fans are mad at J.D. Drew.

Why?

Because he and his agent, upon the Phillies' selection of Drew as the top pick in last year's amateur draft, decided to treat the game of baseball the same way 30 owners and 750 players are treating it these days.

Like a business.

And in a business, you try to get the greatest reward for the least amount of risk. In this case, the "least risk" meant that Drew wanted to be paid what he thought he could get away with commanding without playing a professional baseball game. I see it every year with NFL draft choices, NBA draft choices.

And you know what? J.D. Drew got away with it.

Is that what Phillies fans are so pissed about? Never mind that the $6.7 million signing bonus he turned down in 1998 seemed more than adequate; more than generous. he got EIGHT MILLION from the Cardinals the next year. That's BUSINESS.

Instead the Philadelphia fans turned it into something personal, probably because there always seems to have to be something or someone for them to get personal about. Hey, remember, this was the same city where the problem of drunken, rowdy fans was so bad at Veterans Stadium that a municipal court was actually installed underneath the stands. And fans at the Vet once again showed their unique brand of class on Tuesday night, as they hurled batteries and other debris at Drew to such a degree that there existed the real possibility of a forfeit.

What, in essence, did Drew do? He got an offer from a major league team, stood his ground, sat out a year, risking damage to his market value, and in the end wound up selling his services for a figure much more favorable to him.

In short, he beat the system.

He wasn't shunning the Phillies' franchise. He wasn't thumbing his nose at the city of Philadelphia or its fans. He was simply exercising his right to negotiate, a process which is by its very nature adversarial. He was playing within the rules established by the system, and he beat it.

Major league baseball players have been doing that for years, ever since Marvin Miller opened their eyes to the possibilities that were available to them. And at every turn, they have taken advantage of the opportunity to advance another step. Is this fundamentally any different? I mean, I don't think I have seen anyone yet turn in the face of the big bucks and eschew an offer on the basis that they hadn't proven enough. Hell, you could probably get thrown out of the union for doing something like that.

Yeah, I know the argument - the guy hadn't proven anything on a professional level, blah, blah, blah. That doesn't seem to discourage top picks in football and basketball from making demands that would put them at the top of the pay scale with their prospective teams. The times, they are a-changing, and in this era when real prospects are getting to the majors quicker, for this posture to gravitate to baseball is only the natural, inevitable course of events.

Of course, a lot of the animosity, assuming any of it is really justified, should probably be directed toward his agent, Scott Boras, an operator who has nothing less than a nasty reputation among baseball executives. Realistically, one can see a negotiating problem with a prospect a mile away when he's represented by Boras, which is why most executives would tell you off the record that they consciously avoid his clients.

Apparently, this didn't matter much to the Phillies, who figured they could sign Drew anyway. If the Phillies couldn't see the "caveat emptor" sign staring them in the face, how was to blame?

It's like that old story - a man sees a snake cut, bleeding, and lying on a river bank. He picks up the snake, mends its wounds, and carries it to safety. When they get to the other side of the river, the snake bits viciously in the man's arm. The man screams, "Why did you do that? I just saved your life?" The snake replies, "You knew I was a snake when you picked me up, didn't you?" And the man had learned a lesson.

When you deal with Scott Boras, expect the expected.

So the Phillies fans felt compelled to boo, hiss, throw things, and generally make life uncomfortable for Boras' client both at bat and in the Veteran Stadium outfield Tuesday night. They tried their best to scare, intimidate, and unnerve.

And how did J.D. Drew answer such antagonism?

With a single. And a triple. And a walk. And an RBI. And two runs scored. Drew did so well he might bring two designated Phillies hecklers with him wherever he goes from this point on.

It's not personal, Sonny. It's just BUSINESS.