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Can you believe this madness? Yesterday, the Texas Rangers signed famed shortstop Alex Rodriguez (a.k.a. A-Rod) to a 10-year contract worth $252 million. $252 MILLION. In the Los Angeles Times newspaper today, there was a list in the sports section that showed how many Major League Baseball teams that A-Rod was worth more than. Needless to say, there was a lot.

Chicago Cubs...$242 million
San Francisco Giants...$237 million
St. Louis Cardinals...$219 million
Detroit Tigers...$200 million
San Diego Padres...$197 million
Anaheim Angels...$195 million
and so on and so forth...
Now, the big question is... does this guy really deserve to get that much money? He is arguably baseball's best player, but what does he have to show for it to get that much cash? I mean, sure, Shaq is gonna earn more than $200 million in the coming years after you count the amount of money that the Lakers gave to him in his extension this past summer...but at least he won a championship to earn it. Heck, the Boston Red Sox got outfielder Manny Ramirez for $160 million. What's up with that? You pay all that cash...only to face a very big prospect of still getting your butt whupped by the New York Yankees in the World Series. Like what Jim Rome said today in his radio talk show, The Jungle: the Yankees are still the team to beat...despite the improvements made by the rest of the MLB.

I dunno. The guy who owns the Rangers, Tom Hicks, is a billionaire--so it's all good how the guy spends his dough. But $252 million?? Good lawd...