Traitors or victims?
Ingrates or sympathetic figures?
There was a time when you would have needed a monster truck to remove John Smoltz from his Braves uniform. A backhoe to dig Trevor Hoffman from his beloved Southern California sand.
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| John Smoltz had an offer from Atlanta, he just didn't think it was enough. (AP) |
The odds of the duo that well could share the same Hall of Fame podium six years after abandoning its mothership(s) on the same day were once about the same as those of Thursday night's Florida-Oklahoma title game going, oh, 10 or 12 overtimes.
Now, you won't even need Photoshop to put Smoltz's beard in a Boston uniform, or to include Hoffman in the same picture with Bernie Brewer in Milwaukee.
Franchise icons, clubhouse fixtures and models in the community, the departures of Smoltz and Hoffman are like removing Coca-Cola Company from Atlanta, or the zoo from San Diego.
But the circumstances are vastly different.
For one thing, Hoffman had no other choice but to leave -- the Padres yanked their offer to him two months ago.
Smoltz had an offer from Atlanta. He just didn't think it paid enough.
Hoffman, 42, is a healthy -- albeit aging -- closer who was tossed overboard by an increasingly desperate and ungrateful absentee owner and his point man, club president Sandy Alderson, who doesn't understand the depth of Hoffman's meaning to the community.
Smoltz, 41, is a starter recovering from shoulder surgery who probably can't pitch before May -- and maybe longer. Yet he grew impatient when the Braves didn't trip over themselves rushing to him with more guaranteed dollars than deep-pocketed Boston.
In Hoffman's case, the actions of John Moores' Padres were shameful. Without rehashing every detail, the bottom line is this: It got ugly when Hoffman asked to meet with Moores and Alderson said no.
Given Hoffman's contributions and loyalty for 15 seasons, and especially given what he means to both the franchise and to the area, Moores should have met with baseball's all-time saves leader even if he had to walk all the way from his native Texas to San Diego to do it.
This doesn't mean he should have paid whatever it took to keep Hoffman. His message could have been very simple: "Look, Trevor, I'm sorry, but I have to cut payroll and that's just the way it is." Or: "Thanks for everything, but we're going with younger players, and you're just not the same closer you once were."
Whatever. Hoffman didn't have to like the message but, bottom line is, he deserved a meeting with Moores. Period. We're not talking about a utility shortstop or a third-string catcher here. Hoffman ranks with Tony Gwynn as the two most important players ever to play for the franchise, and the guy has done everything the Padres have asked -- including off-the-field appearances in the community -- with grace and class.
But Moores, in the midst of a contentious divorce, checked out as owner long ago. And he is quickly undoing whatever good he did in his early years. It isn't outrageous to argue that Hoffman is nearly as responsible as Moores for Petco Park's existence because, had he not helped bring professionalism and winning to the club following its embarrassing 1993-1994 fire sale, there would be no new ballpark.
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| Trevor Hoffman couldn't even get a word with San Diego's owner. (AP) |
"John is a great guy," Braves Chairman and CEO Terry McGuirk told Dave O'Brien of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution on Thursday. "He follows his own head, and I just don't know what's going on with him right now. We've offered less of a guarantee (than Boston), but we've offered a substantial guarantee."
Au contraire, Smoltzy said.
The Red Sox guaranteed Smoltz $5.5 million -- with incentives that could boost the package to $10 million. Atlanta reportedly offered him a guaranteed $2 million to $2.5 million, with incentives that might have bumped that up to $7 million.
Either way, it was going to be a cut from the $14 million he earned last year. And unless some things are still hidden, $2 million or $3 million sure seems an awfully paltry price for which to cash in 21 years and icon status in Atlanta for one partial season in Boston.
So while the Braves, in the midst of a miserable offseason, turned their attention Thursday to free-agent pitcher Derek Lowe, an angry Smoltz issued a statement through his agents Thursday to "clear up any misconceptions and inaccuracies about the contract negotiations between myself and the Atlanta Braves."
Smoltz's statement continued: "There were large discrepancies between the offer from the Braves and offers from other teams."
It's not as if Boston offered money way beyond the offer of the Braves. And don't forget that his longtime teammate, Tom Glavine, left Atlanta for more money in New York and never was completely happy.
When Smoltz does come back from his latest shoulder surgery -- and given his competitiveness, the strong expectation is that he will -- he would still be a hero in Atlanta even if he's only a shell of his former self.
In Boston? If he looks old and tired and doesn't win, he'll be a bum. His previous 21 years of glory will mean nothing if he doesn't beat the Yankees and Tampa Bay.
Business is business, and they all say you can't take it personally. And they don't -- until it happens to them.
Two icons unsettled, on one unsettling day.
Hoffman, the beach boy who essentially this winter was told to pound sand by the Padres, emerges a sympathetic figure.
And Smoltz, whose pride appears to have obscured his reason, looks like a mercenary.
