Newspaper Article

IS COLLUSION THE NAME OF THE GAME?

Spitz, Bob, Bob Spitz is the author of a forthcoming biography of Bob Dylan

1987

Overview

[RICH GEDMAN] was insulted by the offer. ''Sure, $2.65 million is a lot of money to turn down,'' he says, ''but in baseball you get paid according to what your peers make. I felt I should be somewhere in the category of Tony Pena of the Cardinals.'' [Lou Gorman], however, compared Gedman to the catchers [Bob Boone], Ernie Whitt and Rick Dempsey, implying they were better defensively than Gedman. ''I felt like we were in a car dealership, discussing automobile parts,'' Gedman says of the negotiations. ''That's when I decided it might be better to shop around.'' ''Bill Lajoie, the Tigers' general manager, told me they had no interest in Rich,'' [Jack Sands] says, ''even though I pointed out to him that we were asking for less money than they had on the table for [Lance Parrish].'' He got an identical response from the Yankees. [George Steinbrenner] told him, ''We think Joel Skinner is going to be our catcher of the future.'' (Skinner was recently demoted to the minor leagues.) The former Yankee pitcher Bob Shirley was incredulous when New York passed on Gedman. ''In the past you could always count on George going out and signing the players we really needed,'' Shirley says. ''Gedman seemed like a sure bet. I can't believe we didn't need a left-handed hitting catcher in Yankee Stadium - especially since Steinbrenner wants an all-star in every position. But word had it it was 'hands-off' in Gedman's case.'' A month later, Steinbrenner, having demoted his ''catcher of the future'' to the minor leagues, lamented what might have been a prudent, but hasty, decision on his part. ''If I knew Skinner would hit .140,'' he said from his box in Yankee Stadium, ''I would have gone after Rich Gedman.'' (Ironically, Gedman has been suffering through a similar slump, hitting below .200 since he's come back.) Gedman laughs coolly at his plight. ''For Rich Gedman,'' he says, ''it's been a case of bad timing.''

• Publisher: New York Times Company
• Subject: Baseball / Collusion / Contracts / Dawson, Andre / FREE AGENTS (SPORTS) / GEDMAN, RICH / Gibson, Kirk / MAJOR LEAGUES / MORRIS, JACK (BASEBALL PLAYER) / Raines, Tim / Spitz, Bob