By Kim J. Harmon

I

 don’t know nothin’ no more. I mean, when one baseball player asks for $25 million a year (as well as his own stadium offices and marketing staff) and another player refuses $17 million a year, it is clear that I have plum gone insane.

Or maybe it’s just the sports world that has gone insane.

Come on, Manny Ramirez didn’t really turn down $17 million, did he? Okay, take away his agent’s fee ($1.7 million or so), his business manager’s fee ($850,000 or so), his financial consultant’s fee ($170,000 or so) and his federal taxes (around $7 million or so), all he is left with is a measly $8 million and who the heck can live on that, huh?

Of course, he could drop that $8 million into a savings account and earn 3% interest for a year and all he would get is a lousy $240,000 . . . which wouldn’t be enough to tip his barber or manicurist or whomever.

This can’t be true, can it?

No, I really think I’ve gone insane.

Like the other day, when I went to see the University of Connecticut play Quinnipiac College at the Hartford Civic Center. During one break I was listening to the UConn band play and I had to convince myself that I wasn’t listening to it play We’re Not Gonna Take It Anymore by Twisted Sister.

I mean, come on!

The insanity continues, too, when I attempt to consider these other items:

4Several weeks ago, the New York Yankees attempted to value their television rights at $1.3 billion over 10 years (or $130 million per year) and MSG (their current home) went ballistic. Then Trans World International agreed to pay the Yankees $50 million for one year of broadcast rights (MSG had the right to match the offer). With that kind of juice, does George Steinbrenner need anyone to show up at the ballpark?

4According to Team Marketing Report, if you want to take your family to see one New York Knicks game (even against the Los Angeles Clippers, for god’s sake) it can cost $469.59 for just the four of you. That includes four average-price tickets, four small soft drinks, two small beers, four hot dogs, parking, two game programs, and two adult-sized caps. First off, who is going to drink only two small beers in one game and how the heck are you going to keep the kids satisfied on just two hot dogs without pretzels and nachos and Cracker Jacks. Think closer to $500 for seeing a bunch of guys who, if it weren’t for the NBA, would probably be in jail right now.

4I just love how people got all crazy with these dot.com stocks and started throwing their money around thinking they were going to become one of those 23-year-old overnight multi-millionaires. Imagine if you were one of those poor suckers who bought Sportsline.com at $83.25 a share only to see it collapse to just $9.50 a share. Imagine if you were one of those poor suckers who bought Fogdog.com at $22 a share only to see it collapse to just 66 cents a share. Even the Boston Celtics were recently down 11% - but the way they are going, that probably is not a surprise.

4As if amateur golfers needed another technological advancement to help them duck-hook a ball into the water, here comes the On-Course Global Positioning System introduced by Shortgrass Technologies of Clearwater, Florida. A golf course (or, more likely, a swank country club) can pay $70,000 a year to install computers in their carts to help golfers determine exactly where they are on the course, how far it is to the pin, and how to best play a shot. More and more golfer’s every year are learning they can buy a better game and even with the illegal golf balls, titanium-shafted over-sized Big Bertha, the over-sized grips and the OCGPS, they will still be able to dribble a ball off the tee.

4If Americans don’t think anyone cares about soccer (and in this country, few people do), check out the deal Manchester United in England just signed. Manchester U already is the richest soccer club in the world and it just got richer after signing a $432.3 million sponsorship deal with Nike. That means over the course of the next 13 years, the soccer club will receive about $33 million just to wear Nike stuff. Hey, I’ll wear a Nike shirt for $20.

4It’s God versus the NFL. Officials for St. John the Evangelist Catholic Church in Indianapolis have petitioned the Colts and the National Football League to change the time of the Colts’ game with Minnesota on Christmas Eve. Kick off is slated for 4:15, which will conflict with a 5:30 pm mass at the church – located just across the street from the RCA Dome. It’s all about traffic concerns and parking. Who do you think would win – God or the NFL?

4Talk about chutzpah. Jeff Bouchy, the CFO of the Orlando Predators of the Arena Football League, has it in spades. Seems the Predators wore a Game Touch logo on their uniforms all season, but when it came time for the Arena Bowl – in which the Predators played – Mr Bouchy allegedly called Game Tough and demanded another $10,000 to keep the logos on. Game Tough said no, and so the logos came off. Burger King got to put its logo on the uniforms and market analysts say the exposure was worth about $600,000 to the hamburger chain. This issue, obviously, has gone to court.

No, none of this stuff can be happening. I must be delusional, strapped to a bed somewhere, lost in a hellish world where ballplayers keep repeating, over and over like it’s some sort of mantra, “It’s not about the money it’s not about the money it’s not about the money it’s not about . . . “