All’s Quiet in Las Vegas

By Allan Simpson

LAS VEGAS, Nev.—For years, the powers that be in baseball never gave a passing thought to holding the game’s annual Winter Meetings in Las Vegas. They just never wanted to associate the public sanctity of baseball in any way with gambling and its negative overtones, especially after the 1919 Black Sox Scandal rocked the game.

But all bets are off now as the 107th edition of Baseball’s Winter Meetings has come to Nevada for the first time. And yet ironically, for all the wheeling and dealing that Las Vegas and the Winter Meetings are famous for, there has been little activity on the baseball trade front here this week.

About the only news of any consequence has involved pitchers—notably some of the game’s pitching greats, and some of today’s headliners.

First, Greg Maddux, a Las Vegas icon and the winningest pitcher produced in the 44-year history of the baseball draft, announced his retirement. Then Nolan Ryan, the game’s all-time strikeout leader who is attending his first Winter Meetings as president of the Texas Rangers, swung what to date has been the most significant trade of the meetings, sending catcher Gerald Laird to Detroit for two minor league pitchers.

Righthander Francisco Rodriguez, who set a single-season record this year by saving 62 games for the Los Angeles Angels, was Tuesday’s headliner as he signed a three-year, $37 million deal as a free agent with the New York Mets. There were strong indications, though, that free agent lefthander C.C. Sabathia was about to sign the largest contract ever for a pitcher—a $160-million, seven-year deal with the New York Yankees.

So far, that’s about it as baseball’s first foray into the glitz and glamour capital of the world has been much ado about nothing—although there were indications early Wednesday that a number of free-agent deals were imminent, especially with Sabathia now apparently in the fold.