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Home My WebLink AboutClinton News-Record, 1987-03-04, Page 14Page 14—CLINTON NEWS -RECORD, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 4, 1987 Sports W Too much money While reading through the daily papers during all of the baseball arbitration talks which were taking place recently a big question kept popping into my head. I couldn't help but wonder whether anyone is really worth $1,975,000 a year. It was this huge amount of money, which New York Yankee Don Mattingly will be making for playing baseball this year, that lead me to research baseball salaries a lit- tle further: I found it a bit ridiculous that Mattingly even went to arbitration. But, of course, the Yankees were only offering him the paltry sum of $1.7 million for the year, and who can live on that kind of money. The sums of money offered to these ball players is just phenomenal. If someone of- fered me just $100,000 to play my favorite sport full time, I don't think I'd turn down their offer. However, that sum of money doesn't seem to be in the ball players' vocabulary. Here is another example of a person that is going to get filthy rich through playing this sport. New York Mets' pitcher Ron Darl- ing went to arbitration because he was on- ly being offered $800,000, and ended up with a $1,050,000 a year contract. Of course, there are those players that aren't quite so financially minded and make their deals without going to arbitra- tion. Another Yankee, Ron Kittle, avoided arbitration when he accepted an offer of $400,000, down $50,000 from the amount he really wanted. After reading in the London Free Press that the average baseball salary has risen from $29,300 in 1970 to approximately $410,000 these days, I thought it might be interesting to compare this increase to other fields of work. First off, this increase is one of approx- imately 1,399 per cent over 17 years. Not too bad, considering the average increase in other jobs I checked out over this aniount of time is approximately 375 per cent. With a great amount of help from Sharon Cox at the Huron County Public Library in Goderich I was able to gather some figures to compare with baseball salaries. From a few Statistics Canada books I found that the average yearly earnings in 1970 for someone working in the mining in- dustry was $8,564.40. While this amount in- creased by approximately 436 per cent, to $37,352.12 in October or 1980, if this salary were to follow the baseball route, a mining worker would now be making $119,843.36 a year. On the other end of the increase scale, those in the construction industry have had wage increases of only 299 per cent since 1970. This brought them from around $8,691.80 to $26,023.40. Again, if workers in this industry were to get the same increase as ball players, construction workers would be taking home $121,626.10 a year. For a final example, those working under the heading of finance, insurance and real estate were making $6,267.04 a year in 1970. With a 377.35 per cent in- crease over the years, this amount now stands at approximately $23,648.56, but it could well be $87,695.94 if the average worker's wages had risen at the same rate as those of baseball players. Without picking apart specific ball players, I have to again state that I don't think anyone is worth almost $2 -million a year. This is specially rue when people are getting payed for playing a sport. Some might argue that it's more than just playing the sport when training and exer- cise are all included, but as far as I'm con- cerned, they are still just playing a game. Perhaps there are some players that deserve more than they are offered, but in this case it would only be to bring them up to a par with their teammates. Tom Henke might be an example of this. Although I thought it was a bit ridiculous when this Toronto Blue Jay walked out of camp because he wasn't getting what he wanted, and felt he was being lied to, I now sympathize with him a bit. Henke wants to be paid the average salary of a profes- sional player, around $410,000, and this might be fair, considering the fact that more than a few other Blue Jays are mak- ing money well over this amount. However, the $291,000 he is being offered is certainly better than a kick in the head, so it's hard to say who's right. The absurdity of the amounts of money these people are payed was demonstrated in a statement from Dennis (Oil Can) Boyd. He requested a salary from the Boston Red Sox in the amount of $695,000. He lost his arbitration case; and will receive $555,000 instead. After his hearing Boyd cracked, "It's hard to be upset with a half -million dollars." Yes, I guess it would be. 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R.R. 4 Walton Phone 345-2734 or 482-7971 FOR FREE PLANNING AND ESTIMATES D81 DGLASS Located in Vonastra 482-7869 BY APPOINTMENT Free parking on premises BAILEY MILL STREET, H@NSAII 262.2020 Specialists in Pulse Combustion Heating Lennox Pulse Furnaces Hydro Pulse Boilers Lennox Central Air Conditioning Country Pictures •Valeo Taping • Framing • Photography Bookings for Weddings, etc. RALPH SMITH Photographer R.R. 1 Bayfield 482-7295 McKILLOP MUTUAL INSURANCE COMPANY 91 Main Si. South, 5eaforh Office 527-0400 FARM, HOME, COMMERCIAL, AUTO COVERAGE — AGENTS — E.F. "Bill" Bunt 527-1455 Bob McNaughton 527-1571 887-9381 Graeme Craig .Bawler 6 MacEwen Insurance Brokers Ltd. 524-8376 The Vanastra Curling Club hosted a successful event on February 28 in the form of a Gay Lea Better Butter Bonspiel. Sixteen rinks took part in the day's activities. Vanastra rink busy with bonspiel VANASTRA - It was a busy time at the Vanastra Curling Club on February 28 as 16 rinks participated in the Gay Lea Better Butter Bonspiel. John Campbell, chairman of the Gay Leak. Board, Ed Miller director and Rob Tanner of public relations representative, express- ed their great delight with the enthusiasm shown, the great hospitality and the hopes that the spiel would return again next year. An added feature was a visit from the "Great Curl -Mac" who entertained the curlers with his delightful humour. Capturing first in the 9 a.m. draw was Mark Cantelin's rink with Mother 'Doris' vicing, Father "George" playing second and friend Lou Colquhoun leading. In second place was the rink of Brian Triebner with Audrey Triebner, Lloyd Hayward and Mary Hayward. Gary MacKay's rink placed third. An elimination draw was won by Mary Hayward. The winner of the 50/50 draw was Bert Vandendool. Congratulations to Bob Allan's rink of Trudy Hill, Tim Beard and Sue Beard for winning the 11 a.m. draw as well as being the overall winners and capturing the Gay Lea Trophy. John Campbell, chairman of the Gay Lea Board presented the trophies. ' The second place winner was Bob Hayter's rink with Sandi Hayter. Ross McBeath and Janet McBeath. Murray Adam's rink placed third. An elimination draw was won by Janet McBeath. The 50/50 draw winner was Ann Adams. Every participating curler returned home with many Gay Lea products thanks to the overwhelming generosity of the sponsors, Gay Lea. Extended thanks to organizers of this most successful bonspiel goes to Audrey and Brian Triebner, Sandi and Bob Hayter, Mary and Lloyd Hayward, and Judy and Brian Hall. A terrific time was had by all and- a big thank you to Gay Lea. Bert Barker's rink of Joe Koene, Harry Jansen and Jeff Hietcamp travelled to Fergus in February 23. They won two games, but lost their last game in the last end. A great try group. Three Vanastra teams curled in Exeter on February 26 in the Kongskilde Bonspiel. Alex Townsend's rink of Bob Hayter, Don Taylor, and Stu Wilson captured a first place. Ken Rogerson's team of Clair Cox, Matt Haney and Laird Finlayson captured a second. Ross McBeath's rink with Barry Taylor skipping, Allan Hayter vicing, Ross McBeath second and Bob Norman leading' picked up a third. Atoms win in exhibition play At Clinton on February 24 the Clinton Atoms defeated Goderich 6-0 in an exhibi- tion contest. Goalie, Dave Nahrgang, posted his tenth shutout of the season. In the first period Mark Livermore's eightieth goal of the season gave Clinton the only goal they needed at the 43 second mark as he neatly tucked in a pass out from, the corner from Danny Wildfong. Shane Mac- Donald also assisted on the play, In the second period Clinton scored four more goals to open up a 5-0 lead. At the 39 se- cond mark Nathan Burns scored an unassisted marker. At 2:05 Danny Wildfong's seventy-ninth goal of the season gave Clinton a 3-0 cushion. Scott Wright's blast from the point gave Wildfong the chance for the rebound goal. At 5:02 Mark Livermore scored his second of the game as linemates Chris Kennedy and Danny Wildfong, helped set it up. Before the period ended Chris Kennedy's sixty-seventh goal of the year with the assists from Wilding and Livermore gave Clinton a 5-0 advantage after two periods. In the third Nathan Burn's thirty-sixth tal- ly of the season rounded out the scoring. Shane MacDonald and Jeff Oesch assisted on the Burn's goal. Clinton 10 - Ripley 2 At Ripley on March 2 the Clinton Atoms completely dominated play as they out - skated and outpassed Ripley winning 10-2, Pacing the Atom attack with hat tricks were Craig McAsh, Shane MacDonald and Danny Wildfong. Mark Livermore added the other Clinton goal. Livermore also col- lected five assists in the contest to run his amazing season assist total to 101. To go along with his 82 goals Mark has now pro- duced 183 scoring points. With Chris Kennedy missing from the Atom high scoring line of Livermore, Ken- nedy and Wildfong, coach Bob Livermore insisted smooth -skating defenceman Shane MacDonald on the right side of Livermore and Wildfong. MacDonald made his forward debut a huge success as he contributed three goals and two assists. With Wildfong scoring the three goals and two assists he now has 81 goals and 85 assists for the season. Craig McAsh now shows 31 goals for the season after achieving his hat trick. Minor hockey update Last Week's Scores February 24.; Atom A 6 - Goderich 0. February 28: Pee Wee Punkers 4 - Zurich 3. March 1: Bantam Classics 6 - Burford 1. March 2: Novice A 0 - Seaforth - 5 (best 2 out of 3) ; Midgets 6 - Mitchell 3 (best 2 out of 3) . Upcoming Games JOHN WISE INSURANCE BROKERS LTD. 482-3401 March 5: 6:50 p.m., Pee Wees A vs Milver- ton (playoffs). 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