There is a scene in Field of Dreams where Ray Kinsella and Terrance Mann pick up a hitchhiker on their drive back to Iowa. The hitchhiker was not Rutger Hauer – luckily – but a young man named Archibald “Moonlight” Graham.
Graham was a ballplayer in the 1920s who somehow landed in the 1980s. He tells the two that he hears there are teams all across the midwest that will find day jobs for players so they can play baseball at night.
Things have changed. Thanks to sleazy agents like the one profiled in this Deadspin story and billionaire owners, players now make money on the side because they can, not because they have to.
Some make money on the side by doing commercials or endorsements. And some make wine because, hey, why wouldn’t you drink wine from a baseball player?
Such is the case with New York Mets pitcher Johan Santana, who — as I discovered today — puts his name and image on wine, which is called “Santana’s Select.” It turns out the proceeds of the wine actually go to his youth foundation charity, but it’s not like Santana wouldn’t have enough money to do that on his own; he is in the middle of a $137.5 million contract.
Johan Santana shows his four-seam fastball grip on the cover of his wine.
I saw Santana’s wine on the shelves of the Madison Avenue Wine today. My first reaction was, “It’s from Longball Cellars?! He’s a pitcher! Why would he want to give up a longball?!”
More questions:
- Why isn’t he holding a grape instead of a baseball? Wouldn’t that be more clever?
- Is he holding a baseball so people don’t confuse him with Carlos Santana?
- Wouldn’t you rather buy a wine made by Carlos Santana?
- Wouldn’t you rather buy a wine made by Jon Lester?
- Wait, Jon Lester is one of those guys who drank beer during games in the Red Sox clubhouse, right? Should he still want his name attached to alcohol at this point?
- Is there anywhere where I can still buy “Manny Being Merlot”?
- Will all wine from baseball players need steroids in a few years to avoid a decline as it ages?