The Bev Oda’s of baseball: three players who need to pay back part of their salaries

McGILLIGAN: Canadian International Development Minister Bev Oda recently came under fire for her lavish spending of taxpayer money on a trip to London.

The expenses included a $16 glass of orange juice, upgrading to a swanky hotel preferred by royalty and a $1,000 per day on limousines, according to media reports. The conference she was attending was to discuss vaccines and immunization for children in developing countries. For the cost of her orange juice, Oda could have immunized a couple of those children, but I guess she needs her Vitamin C.

In response to some criticism of Oda’s spending of the public coffers, the government said the Minister reimbursed taxpayers for a fraction of the spending. I’m thinking we need more back from Oda. Put it this way, until this story came up, I had forgotten she was part of government. The last time I thought of Oda was during the whole document scandal last year.

The only time I think of her is when she’s part of a scandal or spending taxpayer money on lavish orange juice, swanky London hotels and limo’s with drivers named Geeves.  I want my money back Bev, all of it, not a fraction.

With Oda on my mind – this sounds like the worst Willie Nelson song ever –  I began to think: Who are the Bev Oda’s of baseball? Players who should have to give back a portion of the salaries they’re clearly not earning.

Jason Bay

$42,750,000 in salary paid by the New York Mets (including this season’s number). As if getting caught in the Madoff scandal wasn’t bad enough, the team has had to endure three frustrating season from Bay since his big free agency signing. Injuries have plagued the Canadian since he arrived in the Big Apple, but he hasn’t come close to delivering on his deal.

Barry Zito

$80 million is what the San Francisco Giants have shelled out for five seasons of Zito. He’s due to make another $19 million this year bringing his total to $99 million. So how many wins has he produced in five seasons with the Giants – 43. That works out to $1,860,465.11 per victory.

Alex Rodriguez

$98 million is how much A-Rod raked in from the New York Yankees from 2009-11. He was paid $33M (2009), $33M (2010) and the bargain basement $32M (2011) during that span. What did he produce? A-Rod batted .277 with 76 homeruns and 287 RBI. Basically he averaged .277 with 25 home runs and 96 RBI a season. Not bad numbers until you consider his salary and Texas Rangers infielder Michael Young averaged .313 with 18 homers and 88 RBI in that time frame for about $55 million less.

Congrats A-Rod, you’re the MLB equivalent of an old lady drinking OJ Bill Gates can’t afford while riding in a limo to a hotel where royalty stays all under the guise of helping the poor.