Why Manny Went to Pods

Well, you can’t say we didn’t warn you…

If this were about winning, Manny would have gone with the Yanks or Phils, but it’s not about winning. It’s about how and where he’s living.

First, the obvious: Manny showed no competitive spirit–no desire to go for a title this year or even next–with this decision. The Padres have Eric Hosmer and a fantastic farm system, which is nice and all, but they won’t be making playoff runs anytime soon.

Here, it’s probably important to remember that Manny is the guy who couldn’t be bothered to run out a ground ball in the World Series a few months ago.

We never should have expected him to care about winning. And, if we’re being honest, it probably doesn’t matter much to us either.

Most of us make employment decisions based on where we want to live, not how good the employer is or even how high the pay is. We move (or stay) for family or for love or because we want to live in a place.

It’s hard to beat San Diego if you’re enormous wealthy and absurdly famous.

Many years ago, the Chargers were playing the Steelers in the AFC Championship game. I was in Pittsburgh, and I called a friend in San Diego (back then, people used phones to make calls). I wanted to know if the folks in San Diego were as excited as the folks in Pittsburgh about the game.

“No,” he said. “They don’t care about sports. They’ll go and all, if you give them a ticket, but there’s plenty of other stuff to do: good weather, the beach, the food…”

There’s a reason that team isn’t in San Diego anymore.

There’s also a reason Phillip Rivers commutes to LA instead of moving there. He’s rich and famous and sure as hell ain’t leaving San Diego!

There are few places on earth so beautiful, and that’s why the property values are vertigo-inducing (Manny may need every cent of that $300 mil).

And since the weather is so sweet that the people don’t care about sports, it’s one of the few places famous faces can wander around with being bombarded 24-7.

Don’t get me wrong. The Padres get something out of the deal. They now have Hosmer and Machado and that fantastic farm system. If it works out in four or five years, they’ll be happy. But if not, they’ll still have Hos and Manny.

They’ll still have just enough star power and wins to not have to worry about becoming the Los Angeles Padres or the Oklahoma City Padres or, heaven forbid, the San Padre Padres.

Machado gets something, too. He gets $300M and an amazing work environment–one where the fans and coaches are way too laid back to worry about him running out a routine ground ball.