By Roldo Bartimole

New York Times columnist Murray Chass started a heated debate recently when he wrote a column about former Cleveland Indian Manny Ramirez’s failure to financially help his former New York City high school.

“Now that Manny Ramirez is the most valuable player in the World Series, he can become a hero, too. But he would have to pay instead of play,” Chass began.

He went on, “Unfortunately, Ramirez has shown no inclination to do what would make him a hero to the young baseball players at George Washington High School in the Washington Heights section of Manhattan.” Chass wrote Ramirez has never given financial aid to the school.

How about other players’ charitable acts, including the Cleveland Indians?

Chass reasons that Ramirez owes his old school, where he played baseball, now that he’s a big star with plenty of money. Ramirez made about $21 million this year with bonuses. Since 1993, Ramirez has been paid more than $80 million, not counting bonuses since 1993, in the major leagues.

The column suggests that Ramirez has been stiffing the school, possibly because of some conflict between him and the coach who remains from the Red Sox star’s days there. Ramirez denies this.

It brings up the question of what do ballplayers who earn big salaries owe to fans and others. Their earnings are derived from revenue from heavily publicly financed, often tax abated stadiums and revenue from advertising and pay TV using the public airwaves.

Ramirez has a foundation, the MR Foundation. It states: “Manny’s official foundation is amid the process of being established. Nevertheless, he has already begun to participate in charity events and has made donations in Florida, and once his foundation is up and running he has pledged to start helping organizations in New York City, as well as in Boston.”

Manny’s former agent told Chass that Ramirez committed to donating $1 million over the lifetime of his 8-year contract to Latino groups in the Boston area, particularly for children.

The column drew criticism from letter writers to the Times, including one that challenged Chass to write similar critiques about Derek Jeter and Alex Rodriguez.

In truth, the Times with its staffing capacity should look into the charities of all the big earning players and the owners who also derived such incredible benefits from the use of public facilities and public assets. What do they return to the community?

Here in Cleveland, the tax returns of the Cleveland Indians show that some ballplayers, though a small number, do directly support the team’s charity. The Plain Dealer, too, has the capacity to examine this issue. The paper further has the responsibility because of its editorial promotion of the teams and of the taxing of area residents to fund the facilities.

The latest Indians Charities’ IRS finding, easily available on the internet via the Guidestar site (identification number 34-1618536), reveals that some players have been generous, some not, and some absent.

Further, the team, which derives favorable publicity from the charity, seems to use it more as a promotional vehicle than a true charity.

Jim Thome and Ellis Burks could afford to be generous and were in 2002. Thome gave $110,026 to Cleveland Indians Charities in 2002, according to 2002 figures.

Thome, who slipped away from Cleveland to Philadelphia where he’s making some $11 million a year, earned $8 million in 2002 in Cleveland. So it was hardly a hardship to give $110,000.

Burks, who had an 18-year career, gave $105,000 to the charity. He was making $6.6 million in 2002.

Their contributions were the highest among Cleveland Indians' players or management.

A couple of other ballplayers were generally generous. Bob Wickman, who made $2.6 million, gave $51,425. C. C. Sabathia, who made only $700,000, gave $26,500. Charles Nagy, who made $6 million, gave $25,026. Omar Vizquel, who made $4.5 million, gave $18,000. Travis Fryman, who made $5.8 million, gave $10,000. Paul Shuey, who made $3.25 million with the Indians (he also played with LA in 2002), gave $10,000.

A few others gave $5,000 contributions, including Dave Burba, Einar Diaz, Eddie Murray and Jaret Wright.

Unfortunately, neither owner Larry Dolan nor any of his multi-millionaire family is listed as giving anything to the baseball charity.

What’s more disturbing is a continuation, as I’ve reported before, of the use of the charity to finance promotions of the team owners.

Example: The Plain Dealer this year ran a column: “Indians Charities stressing teamwork in fund-raising efforts.”

The article states: “The April 14 luncheon allows fans a chance to dine with their favorite baseball player and collect autographs in a post-luncheon session. Ticket prices are $100 each or $1,000 per table and the event is popular among fans because the chance to get that close to a player is rare.” In 2002, the latest figures available, the luncheon COST the Indians Charities $55,910. The income listed by the charity for “luncheon events” was $67,550. That doesn’t really leave much left over for the charity, does it?

Don’t those who cough up $100 believe that at least most of that is going for a good cause?

The charity did make $494,806 in contributions. It had income of slightly more than $1 million. The charity charged off $79,597 in employee salaries and wages. from ''Cool Cleveland contributor Roldo Bartimole
Roldo@Adelphia.net

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