Wanna re-think that, O-dog?

by Phil Wood

Pardon me, Orlando, but I think you've missed the point.

Twins second baseman Orlando Hudson believes the reason that Jermaine Dye and Gary Sheffield are still unemployed due to, well, you know...

The R word. The word that equates to bigotry, prejudice, really bad stuff. You know. Racism.

It's really all about the A word that equates to chronology...Gary and Jermaine aren't kids anymore.

Dye, in particular, has options. The Nats, for instance, offered him a one-year deal that was reportedly worth as little as a million dollars or as much as $3 million.

It wasn't enough, says he, to uproot his family from Arizona and spend the summer in Washington. The implication was if it was a better ballclub, it might have swayed his decision the other way. Dye's agent says Jermaine has been focused on Seattle, but the Mariners haven't reciprocated.

Too bad.

If Dye and Sheffield - and Hudson - had been keeping up with the news (we used to say if they'd been reading the paper, but some people don't recognize that expression anymore), they'd know that aging outfielders with suspect defensive skills aren't getting the eight-figure deals anymore. They're getting a million or two, and that's it.

Jermaine Dye is a big league hitter, but a long way from being a Gold Glover, an award he won once upon a time (2000) with Kansas City. I have no doubt he'd be an asset to the Nationals' offense - once he was ready to play. But he's apparently waiting for something much bigger and better.

Racism is a very real thing, and it still exists in the game, though not nearly as rampant as it did years ago. On the cusp of the 63rd anniversary of Jackie Robinson's debut, I doubt even Jackie would reach that conclusion in the cases of Dye and Sheffield.

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