I wanted to talk about Mariano Rivera and his career and I hopefully will get a chance later on. But something has over shadowed his retirement a tiny bit, and that something possibly involves way too much money. I’m talking about the Robinson Cano rumor of course, that involves him wanting a ten-year deal worth up to $305 million dollars! Wait, what? Has he gone Dr Evil on us, or is he being serious?

What a ridiculous amount of money for anyone to ask for; seriously, who the hell does he think he is? According to Buster Olney, “The $305 million total is exactly the amount Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriguez would earn over the duration of his current deal, were he to hit all his built-in incentives.” So what, Cano thinks he’s A-Rod now? I hated when the Yankees gave A-Rod his deal way back when, but at least he had the numbers to back it up! I mean seriously, Robinson Cano has never once in his career lead in any offensive category. A-Rod on the other hand has. Yes he had some PED usage, but with or without it, Cano does not have A-Rod numbers.

Many people believe that at the age of 31, Cano has even peaked in his career and that his numbers will being going down now, not up. How can you justify him deserving this kind of money at his age? It’s unbelievable, and it also represents the disgusting side of sports. Everyone is entitled to earn what they want, but it’s hard to justify such a bloated pocketbook.

The very idea of a 305 million dollar contract is putrid – though I really doubt the Yankees would give him that deal, nor do I don’t expect the FA market to pay him that either. I just can’t see the richest teams like the Dodgers, Angels, Phillies, Giants and even the Red Sox pay him that kind of money, I would be blown away if that happened.

Think about it this way, that amount of money is so over-the-top stupid that the overall amount could pay for a large portion of a downtown stadium in Montreal or any other city looking to upgrade their grounds. You can also dissect the money into a yearly rate where he’d make about $30.5 million a season – for you fans of numbers, that is more than the Houston Astros current payroll and about 6 million or so less than the Miami Marlins. After those two teams, his salary would pay half the payroll of about 9-10 teams.

Throwing that kind of money around is disgusting (have I mentioned that yet?). To me it can ruin a sport, because to the fans it only looks like it’s about the money and not the beauty of the game. Not a lot of people can get on board and think this is a “good deal” its just way too much and frankly its starting to anger a lot of people, not just myself.

To be honest though, I’m not fond of many contracts being thrown around in sports. I think in most major leagues players are overpaid. The biggest contracts can be found in the NBA, MLB, NFL and of course European Soccer, but of course that’s another topic for another day. A big issue I have with this contract is that it could set precedent in the league saying that players with decent numbers, not Hall Of Fame numbers, but decent numbers, can cash-in on hundreds of millions of dollars.

Now some people including host of ESPNs Sport Show Olbermann, Keith Olbermann, believe that both sides could have leaked this rumor on purpose. It is believed that Jay-Z, who is Cano’s representation has purposely let this news out to “scare” the Yankees into giving him a top dollar deal. However, there is also the belief that the Yankees did it on purpose so they could vilify Cano if he didn’t re-sign in New York and went somewhere else.

If this is actually the case, shame on whoever started it all – shame on Cano and Jay-Z for asking such a ludicrous amount of money and trying to force the Yankees hand. If the Yankees are at fault, well shame on them for trying to vilify someone who has played as hard as he could for the organization. What I hate most is that it is taking some of the spotlight away from the retirement of one of the greatest closers ever – Mariano Rivera.

I am so sick and tired of the amounts of money being thrown around and I hope that this is the deal that breaks the camels back, because as I said before no one, and I mean no one, deserves that kind of money; not A-Rod, not Cano, not the best athlete in the world. Money can sometimes ruin some of the greatest things in life and it could one day ruin sports for everyone. That is my last word.

Feel Free to leave comments below. You can follow me on twitter @NVincelli, and follow the baseball department on twitter @tonytalkssports, and @lastwordmark. While you are at it you can follow the site @lastwordonsport.

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Feel Free to leave comments below. You can follow me on twitter @NVincelli, and follow the baseball department on twitter @tonytalkssports, and @lastwordmark. While you are at it you can follow the site @lastwordonsport.

Interested in writing for LastWordOnSports? Find more info at our “Join Our Team” page.

Main photo credit: Keith Allison via photopin cc