Free Agency Can Be Funny

Time was that a pro athlete played for one team, essentially throughout his career. Players were grossly underpaid compared to the amount of money they made for their leagues and franchises, but due to baseball's reserve system (and similar systems implemented by other major leagues), they were essentially indentured servants to whichever franchise initially signed them. The only way a player could change teams was if he were traded, like property, or cut--meaning it wasn't super likely another team would jump at the opportunity to sign him. Even as salaries rose slowly through the 1960s and 70s, players' ability to actually exert any leverage in contract negotiations continued to be severely limited by the reserve system. As Curt Flood famously put it, "a well paid slave is a slave nonetheless." (or something like that)

I'm not here to defend that system. It was terrible, exploitative, and from a labor and fairness perspective the current system of free agency and frequent player movement is much better. Pro sports now strike a balance--long-term contracts and initial waiting periods prior to free agency eligibility mean teams aren't in constant, chaotic flux despite the fact that every player who lasts long enough does eventually have the right to test the market waters. The one thing the old world had going for it, though, was from the perspective of fans. Imagine if Yankee fans had to sit on pins and needles wondering whether Mantle would choose to come back to them in the prime of his career. As notoriously cheap as the franchise was back then, the likelihood is that Mantle would've finished his career elsewhere. His entire legacy would be different. (He also would have been paid more fairly, but that's not the point for now). Albert Pujols, on the other hand, turned down a ridiculously huge offer in 2011 to finish his career in St. Louis in order to accept a way more ridiculously huge offer to play for the Angels. We Cards fans had to watch the face of the team walk away from us.

That's life in today's pro sports. It's a business, and as much as we would like the players to care about the teams as much as we do, we know deep down that they just can't. Don't get me wrong--I think they want to win more than we want them to win. It's just that they want to win because winning is cool and losing sucks; in most cases they don't want to win "for St. Louis" or "for New Orleans." They want to win for the sake of winning, no matter what their jerseys say. I'm sure the guys on the 2004 Red Sox thought it was cool to be the team that broke the Curse, and I'm sure the 2187 Cubs will feel the same way. But in general I think the point holds.

However, there is one entertaining, maybe even funny, unintended result of free player movement in pro sports: when guys who are connected by a single play when they opposed each other on a big stage end up sharing a locker room. This past offseason happens to have brought together two different pairs of dudes who were part of two of my favorite plays in sports history. Let's start with football.

Peyton Manning and Tracy Porter are now teammates. The interesting thing about this is that they now play for a team that was not involved in the Play That Connects Them:

As quarterback for the Indianapolis Colts, driving to try and tie the Super Bowl in the fourth quarter, Peyton Manning threw a quick slant to a cutting Reggie Wayne. Except Reggie Wayne didn't cut, Tracy Porter picked it off, and Hell froze over (i.e. the Saints won the Super Bowl). It. Was. Amazing. Like most Saints fans, I can't think of Porter or Manning without reliving this glorious moment in my head.

Now they're both in Denver, both of their own accord through free agent signings. How did that first day as teammates go? How will every day as teammates go? As mentioned above, while these guys probably lack the passion of fans, clearly they are competitive as all get-out. How is Peyton going to enjoy being reminded of the biggest interception of his career every time he looks up from his locker and sees Porter putting on the same uniform? How much crap is it ok for porter to give him about that play? Locker rooms are notorious for their pranks--will Porter force a rookie to play the above YouTube clip on the locker room flat screen every time Manning walks into the room? Wear his Super Bowl t-shirt to work every day? The possibilities are endless.

A similar phenomenon has taken place in baseball. My beloved Cardinals picked up Carlos Beltran in the offseason. I couldn't find good video of it, but his new teammate Adam Wainwright--after years of being an ace starter--is still The Guy Who Struck Out Beltran. In Game 7 of the 2006 NLCS, with Wainwright in the closer's role, Beltran came to the plate in the bottom of the 9th with a chance to extend the game or even win it for the Mets. This was the same guy who, in a Houston uniform, had destroyed the Cardinals two years earlier. But Wainwright made Beltran's knees buckle with an absolutely sick curveball. Now they're both wearing Cardinal Red.

I DID find this video from 2012 spring training:

I really, really hope Wainy threw a 12-to-6 dropper to start the practice session. And then winked. And then elaborately took off his 2006 World Series ring before continuing to pitch.

A guy can hope.