Read the opposing arguments from Bleacher Fan and Loyal Homer.
Carl Pavano is a bum! He disappointed, swindled, and lied to the New York Yankees and their fans. This guy deserves the type of reception Mets fans reserved for John Rocker. Each and every time he returns to the Bronx he should most definitely wear a cup, regardless of whether the trip has anything to do with baseball or not!
Normally stars elicit boos, jeers, and cold receptions in general from their former teams only when they leave town chasing a bigger contract or shooting their mouths off about their team. But Carl Pavano did neither of these things. His case is unique. The ire that Pavano provokes amongst Yankees fans is based mainly on all the things he didn’t do.
He didn’t lead the Yankees to their elusive 27th world championship (Editor’s Note: Okay, Babe, we get it. The Yanks win a lot.). He didn’t put up All-Star numbers, or even end of the rotation journey man numbers. For the most part, he didn’t even pitch! What he did do was spend hundreds of days on the DL and laugh all the way to the bank.
After rising to prominence with the Florida Marlins during a dominant 2003 postseason, he set career highs in 2004 posting an 18-8 record, a 3.00 ERA, and a 1.17 WHIP. That performance earned him his one and only nod to the All-Star team and put him in position to be the most coveted free agent of the 2004 offseason. Having previously settled for a handful of small one year contracts, Pavano was ready to cash in on a big pay day – and cash in he did! Although he entertained several suitors, the Yankees eventually won the bidding and landed the right-hander to the tune of a four year, $39.95M contract with a fifth year $13 million dollar club option for 2009. There was an excited buzz when Pavano joined a stable of talented hurlers, including Randy Johnson, Mike Mussina, and Kevin Brown. But the anticipation of what Pavano could do for the Yanks in 2005 is where the magic ended because when he took the mound, and things took a turn for the worse.
The super talented ace-caliber pitcher the Yankees thought they paid for in Pavano was nowhere to be found. Instead what was forced upon the team was an oft injured bust.
Pavano’s first season with New York ended with a 4-6 record with a 4.77 ERA, not exactly the All-Star stat line he posted just one season earlier. Yankees’ fans were able to overlook this deplorable start as an anomaly, and set their hopes on the next season… except there wasn’t really a next season for Pavano. He sat out the entire 2006 season. That’s right, he failed to pitch in the majors throughout the entire second year of his contract, citing shoulder and elbow injuries. At one point it seemed as though he was actually going to make it back to the majors from his rehab stints, but things went from bad to worse when a few broken ribs and a lot of deception knocked him out for the whole season. With everyone’s patience running thin, and Pavano’s injured act growing tiresome, he did away with any pretense that he was a team player New York fans could rally behind and made the jump into full fledged villainy by lying to the team about an injury. Pavano hit the disabled list yet again, but this time it wasn’t because of a baseball action, but a car accident. An accident which he kept secret from the team until his broken ribs could not be kept under wraps any longer. The next season was better, but not by much. In 2007 Pavano was almost as nonexistent as he was in 2006, logging only 11 innings of work. Seriously, just 11 innings of work! And what did he get for 11 innings of work? $10M. For you math whizzes, that means he made more than $900,000 for every inning of work. During his final season with the Yankees in 2008 Pavano had a 4-2 record over seven starts, leaving the Yankees frustrated, disappointed, and downright embarrassed by the whole Pavano drama.
I am well aware that it is hard for anyone to have pity for the New York Yankees, but when it comes to Carl Pavano, the saga is exactly that – pitiful. Everyone knows that New York fans set huge expectations for players, but few have ever disappointed the way Carl Pavano did. He is truly despised in New York, and definitely gets a noteworthy negative reaction whenever he returns to the Bronx (in fact, it was subtitled for Yankees fans on one occasion). While the Bronx Bombers usually play the role of bully, it was Carl Pavano who has left a lasting legacy as the bad guy. So when he takes the field, and the fans rise to boo and throw things, it’s music and justice to many fan’s ears.
