Last week, 28-year old, CC Sabathia signed a seven-year, $161 million contract with the New York Yankees as their starting pitcher. Get this though…he will get $9.5 million before his first pitch is ever thrown. Prior to the Yankees opening game at Baltimore on April 6, 2009, Sabathia will receive $6 million of his $9 million signing bonus plus $3.5 million of next year’s salary.


Here’s a few tidbits about his deal…



— The signing bonus is payable in three equal installments by Dec. 31 and by March 1 and July 31 next year.



— He will get a $14 million salary in 2009 and $23 million in each of the final six seasons of the deal, the largest contract ever for a pitcher both in total dollars and average salary.



— While most players are paid semimonthly during the six months of the regular season, Sabathia’s salary will be paid in semimonthly installments over all 12 months of the year.


With the professional sports teams shelling out money like this, it really makes you wonder how and why the rest of the world is in a recession. Sabathia himself was even a bit surprised. “With the economy being the way it is … the huge amount of money, it was, you know, pretty crazy, but that’s our game, I guess,” he said.



Not to add insult to injury, but the Yankees also finalized pitcher A.J. Burnett’s $82.5 million, six-year contract last week and have committed about $159 million to 14 other players for next year.



SMH!!!