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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Wednesday, May 22, 2002

Rangers owner a foolish spender

By Ferd Lewis
Advertiser Columnist

So, who wants to be the first one to tell Tom Hicks, "we told you so?"

Hicks, you might recall, is the guy who 17 months ago showered Alex Rodriguez with money — $252 million over 10 years — to get the shortstop to leave the Seattle Mariners for Hicks' Texas Rangers.

While Hicks giddily predicted an immediate American League West title and a run at the world championship, everybody else scratched their heads wondering what in the name of Alan Greenspan the guy thought he was doing.

Some other owners called him a "fool" — and for a few million good reasons. Hicks was paying more for Rodriguez than he had paid George W. Bush, the previous owner, for the entire Rangers' franchise just three years earlier. He was paying a lifetime .309 hitter, but still a shortstop of all people, as much as it would have cost him to buy a couple teams.

So this week, when Hicks bemoaned $31 million in losses last season and the prospect of dropping another $40 million or so this year, there were plenty of dry eyes but hardly a tsunami of sympathy rolling his way. Bewilderment about why he should be surprised, maybe, but not much understanding for his plight.

"I'm not doing it (losing money) any more. This is my last year of doing it," Hicks said after his Rangers, they of the $105 million payroll, were swept by the Detroit Tigers, a $55 million operation. "We're going to play within our means from now on, or at least break even."

With a team that finished 43 games behind in its division last year back in last place and operating under .500 this year, not too many outside the metroplex shared his pain.

Hicks' fiscal foolishness in paying one player a fifth of the overall payroll is one glaring reason — though by no means the only one — why baseball is careening toward another lost season.

Three days before Hicks rolled out the armored car fleet for Rodriguez, the Colorado Rockies gave pitcher Mike Hampton a $121 million contract that was, until A-Rod signed on the dotted line, the richest in baseball.

Rodriguez, who has hit .318 with 64 home runs since going to Texas, has at least improved his stats — though it was curious to ever expect him to carry the club. Hampton is 16-18 for the Rockies.

Meanwhile, the Mariners kept their sanity and their cash. With the money they saved, they invested in middle and lower market free agents with whom they have enjoyed both winning ways and soaring profits — nearly $10 million last year.

Hicks said he wanted the Rodriguez deal to make a statement about the Rangers, a deal that would allow them to stand apart. And, they have.

Now Hicks and the Rangers are Exhibit "A" in how baseball is headed to a strike or lockout.