Rick Sutcliffe: I'd donate my ESPN salary to aid MLB restart
Former Cy Young Award winner and current ESPN broadcaster Rick Sutcliffe is ready to empty his wallet in order to bring baseball back.
The onetime Chicago Cubs ace once put $100,000 of his own money on the table to help his team sign star free agent Andre Dawson in 1987. On Wednesday, Sutcliffe told Gordon Wittenmyer of NBC Sports Chicago that he would "do the same" with his 2020 salary at ESPN if it can help get Major League Baseball back onto the field this season.
"I've talked with a lot of people, players, the association, owners, presidents, and GMs," Sutcliffe said. "It's a great opportunity for everybody to just open their arms and do whatever it takes. If I'm a player and I've got to give up half my salary, I'll do it."
Major League Baseball, like most sports leagues, remains in an indefinite holding pattern due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. A wide variety of ideas, including having all 30 teams play out the season in the Phoenix area, have been discussed, but nothing is close to being implemented.
U.S. President Donald Trump spoke with various commissioners this week to seek advice for restarting sports. On Wednesday, Dr. Anthony Fauci, a member of Trump's coronavirus task force and leading expert during the pandemic, said he believes sports can return in 2020 but without fans in attendance.
Sutcliffe, who won 171 games during his 18-year major-league career with the Cubs and four other teams, cited MLB's strike-shortened 1981 campaign - which he played through - as a precedent for how the league can operate using a strange, one-off format in 2020. In his mind, baseball is in the perfect spot to step up and fill the sporting void as soon as possible.
"I guess I'm maybe more hopeful than most people," the 63-year-old said. "Once we get the OK that the players will be safe, the equipment guys, the trainers - it's not just people staying apart on the field - but once we make that happen, don't let a salary or a contract get in the way.
"I think it's a great opportunity for any sport to show again how much the fans mean to them by doing anything you can just to put some live event on TV."