But it's baseball that is the real loser in this absurd deal

Here's who should throw out the first pitch at Safeco Field next April: any Seattle Mariners hero worshiper who can retrieve from his closet replica jerseys of Randy Johnson, Ken Griffey Jr. and Alex Rodriguez.

In other words, a three-time loser.

What did I miss here? When the Legislature got busy in 1997 and rammed through that 11th-hour bit of corporate welfare, I could have sworn it was for a ballpark and not a leprosarium.

Just when did Safeco Field turn into Culion Island?

In the space of 28 months, the three genuine superstars the Mariners have ever produced - please, Edgarphiles, save your breath - have demanded to be turned loose from Shangri-La on the Sound. In Rodriguez's case, at least, the demanding was done in the most polite tones.

Think Eddie Haskell swaddled in Armani.

That's a wonderful franchise you have here, Mr. Nintendo. But I'll be taking that vault of cash from Mr. Hicks down in Texas, if it's all the same to you.

The 12 Days of A-Rod came to a stunning - inevitable, but still stunning - close Monday when the 25-year-old shortstop accepted a 10- year, $252-million offer from the Texas Rangers.

That sum is $2 million more than Tom Hicks paid Almost President Dubya and his puppeteers a few years back for the club, the Ballpark at Arlington and an old video of Lenny Randle suckerpunching Frank Lucchesi, which to this point has been the franchise highlight.

All for a guy who choked when Roger Clemens threw at his head.

OK, Rodriguez is a good deal more than that - a terrific ballplayer with speed, power, presence, a good glove and good manners, plus a long career still ahead. And if he doesn't get into the Hall of Fame on his numbers, he can apply based on his avarice.

This was the guy who, on his personal website last week, implored the Mariners to move in the fences at Safeco "in the best interests of baseball."

Then he signs a contract in excess of the estimated value of 18 of the 30 major league franchises.

Yeah, that's good for the game, A-Rod.

By the way, there is no truth to the rumor that a clause in his new contract calls for him to be called The Rod instead of A-Rod.

There is some pain to picking on Rodriguez simply because he has - in almost everything except selecting an agent - conducted himself as a gentleman in ways Junior and Johnson would know nothing about. There is also some regret in ripping on the Mariners, whose management is in so much better hands than it was during the Plague of Woody.

Then along came this episode.

First the M's: What were they thinking?

Unable to get Rodriguez to sign a contract extension last year, the club agrees not to trade him during the season so they can join agent Scott Boras' grand sweepstakes this fall. They gamble on getting nothing in return, apparently deluded that winning the A.L. West and reaching the ALCS will make their young heartthrob want to fall back in their arms.

Yet when Boras opens the bidding - making it clear that his client is expecting something in the range of 10-years-at-$20million-per - they offer five years at $94 million. And when Rodriguez is being wooed by the richest men in baseball, the M's CEO and president take a powder to Hawaii.

This is like figuring to win the World Series of Poker standing pat on a pair of threes.

If they had no intention of getting serious, why didn't they just deal Rodriguez a year ago, when they could have asked for the moon?

Well, possibly because they figured that with all of baseball bemoaning the game's increasing fiscal insanity, no owner would actually belly up to Boras' bar - leaving them to win back Rodriguez by default. This feeling was no doubt bolstered when the Big Apple of A-Rod's eye, the Mets, quickly backed out before it ever got started, accusing the oily Boras of demanding perks like helicopters and office space and separate marketing staffs.

But Boras knows it only takes one. A year ago, he had the Dodgers bidding only against themselves for pitcher Kevin Brown. This time, Boras had Hicks falling head-over-leveraged-acquisition for A-Rod - a race horse this rich guy just had to have, at any price.

"Alex made an owner decision," Boras huffed, an obvious jab at the Mariners. "This was someone he could communicate with, someone who could put him in position to achieve his goals as a baseball player."

Primary among which is to earn $500,000 a week.

This business about playing on a winner that he claimed as his raison de free agency certainly seems to be a lie. As potent as the Rangers lineup becomes with him and fellow frees Andres Gallarraga and Ken Caminiti, they still lost 91 games a year ago and return the worst pitching staff in the big leagues.

Perhaps they can trade A-Rod back to the M's for a few live arms.

The Mariners are in their own pickle, having just left Martinez virtually unprotected in the middle of the lineup and with the free- agent cupboard now pretty much bare. Yes, they have pitching to trade, but how willing are they to do so?

As for baseball, well, it's back to hand-wringing over the ever- widening chasm between the gotrocks and franchises like Minnesota and Milwaukee, where the entire payrolls don't add up to a year of A- Rod's salary. Pretty hard for commissioner Bud Selig to make a case for mercy with the players, when his fellow owners are whispering sweet everythings in their ears.

Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa supposedly saved the game two years ago, and now make less combined than Rodriguez. Contracts like his figure to kill the game.

At this rate, let's hope so.

This sidebar appeared with the story:

THE PAYOFF

What it's worth

What Alex Rodriguez's $252 million contract would buy:

One 25-year-old All-Star shortstop with a career batting average of .309 for 10 years.

Two Ken Griffey Jrs. for nine years, with $19 million to spare.

Three team payrolls of the New York Yankees and Atlanta Braves (the top two in the majors), plus the Chicago White Sox. About $8 million would be left over.

11 times more than the gross domestic product ($22 million) of North Korea.

3,134 2000 Porsche 911 Carrera Cabriolet 4 at $80,400 per.

6,174 households he could support for a year at the U.S. median income of $40,816.

720,000 rounds of golf at Pebble Beach at $350 per round.

84,280,936 McDonald's Happy Meals at $2.99.

Source: Associated Press

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