Great Play: MLB Pitcher Tosses Back His Salary

I am not a fan of baseball or basketball, though I love football. One reason I like football better is the lack of guaranteed contracts. In baseball and basketball you can miss time, even an entire season, and still get paid. But one player, Royals Pitcher Gil Meche, decided that was not right to himself and gave back $12 million in salary since he is missing the entire season from an injury.

Meche has a contract for $12 million on 2011. In baseball, as with basketball, whether you are injured, are suspended, if you underperform, or miss time for any reason you are guaranteed your salary - only in rare cases of non-sports related injuries or gross misconduct can the team get out of paying it. But Meche realized that he would get the salary though he will miss the entire season from injury. Meche said:

“When I signed my contract, my main goal was to earn it,” Meche said this week by phone from Lafayette, La. “Once I started to realize I wasn’t earning my money, I felt bad. I was making a crazy amount of money for not even pitching. Honestly, I didn’t feel like I deserved it. I didn’t want to have those feelings again.”

His actions are extremely rare and to be commended. It takes a big man to give away that much money out of a sense of honor and what is right.

Well-Met Mr. Meche.

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