Jun 1, 2006

$7000 apiece...

Ok, I'm as big a sports fan as the next person (unless the next person is my husband during UK basketball season), but this is pretty surreal. Or maybe my saying that just reveals my naivete. Anyway, the big sports news story this week is that uber-pitcher Roger Clemens is coming back from retirement, in honor of his late mother and his son, etc etc.

What struck me is the deal he made -- a reported $22 million for the rest of the season. Now, after doing the math (how many games left in the season, how many starts) and making an assumption of 100 pitches per game, Clemens will be earning approximately $7000 per pitch. Strikes, and balls, and wild pitches; homers and aces. Whether he gives up a grand slam or makes the batter look stupid, he still gets that $7000. Granted, he's worked really hard to become a virtuoso, but that's still pretty good compensation.

Now, as I consider my life and the faithful lives of my friends and family, I begin to wonder what else should be valued at $7000 per occurrence. Here a few things that come to mind:

  • making my little girl laugh
  • rocking my little girl back to sleep when she wakes up scared and lonely
  • feeding someone who is really hungry -- Miranda, Billy, John, a stranger, the gold finches in the yard, or even myself
  • John vacuuming our house for 30 minutes "because Miranda plays on the floor"
  • someone letting you have the last grocery cart when your little girl is crying
  • planting something in the ground and doing what you can to help it grow
  • getting barbeque sauce in your eyebrows because it's just that good
  • Miranda standing up by herself
  • someone taking the time to chat with someone who is lonely
  • my family driving and bringing diapers, wipes, tub and booster seat, etc to a vacation instead of flying so that Billy and I can travel easier
  • someone letting you into traffic
  • my family calling to check on how Miranda is doing and singing to her over the phone
  • taking the time to read a really good book, and really reflecting on it
  • telling someone you love "I really love you"
$7000? $70,000? $7,000,000?

6 comments:

Lazymom said...

Things that really matter cannot be attached to a price tag.....i think that is the point.

Anyway...noone pays money to see me whip up a really good meal or do a load of laundry...or even rock my hubbys world......

so i guess economically speaking those things arent worth much.

maria said...

I guess we could pay money to see you rock your hubby's world, but that would be a different post entirely! And I'm not even going there on a price... ;-)

Lazymom said...

Clemens will be pitching at 3 Legends games before he returns to the big league. I guess that is HIS price.

Julie Danielle said...

I wish I got money for every load of laundry I did...that would be nice :)

billy said...

Maybe if UK started paying each of their players $7,000.00 dollars per shot they could get back to a high level of play......ha........ha......anyhow,thanks for reminding us of what it is really important......not all of us can make the bank spending time with our kids, but we do have the pleasure of watching John vacuum the floor for aeons and remain perpetually happy....maybe we could turn him into a motivational speaker?

jkoch said...

i was excited to show ryan the big daddy clemens was on your blog...then i kept reading. you know what's worth 7,000 big ones-seeing ryan in his black chonies with glittering red hearts. seriously, 7,000 a pitch! what is this world coming too? actually, this has probably been happening for a while. it just pisses me off every time i hear about it.