8601020254
DETROIT FREE PRESS
860110
Friday, January 10, 1986
METRO FINAL
1D
Photo
MITCH ALBOM
Copyright (c) 1986, Detroit Free Press
'THE TAKING OF GIBSON': THE DAY FREE AGENCY DIED
We could make it a movie. It might work. Call it "The Natural II: The Kirk
Gibson Story." Redford plays the lead. Or maybe Don Johnson -- he's already
got the whiskers. We open with flashbacks. Gibson as a child. Hitting a
Wiffle ball. Breaking a window. Kissing a pretty girl. Gibson at college.
Smacking home runs. Running with a football. Kissing a pretty girl. Gibson as
a Detroit Tiger. Swinging a mean bat. Stealing bases. Leading the club to the
1984 World Series, where -- we need slow motion for this -- he hits a dramatic
home run in the final game and leaps for joy. Music swells. Something by the
guy who did "Chariots of Fire." Everything seems wonderful. . . .
Cut to a darkened boardroom, filled with baseball owners. They look grim.
They are losing money. They blame each other for the high salaries of their
players. Actually, they should blame themselves. But they do not. That is why
they are owners. Up stands their dashing young commissioner, Peter Ueberroth,
played by Michael Douglass. "I don't want to put ideas in your head, but . .
. " The owners lean forward.
OK? Roll the titles. And the opening theme song. Courtesy of the Rolling
Stones.
"You Can't Always Get What You Want."
'It's a rotten conspiracy'
Back in Detroit. The 1985 season. Camera finds Gibson stealing bases.
Hitting more home runs. Kissing a pretty girl -- and deciding to marry her.
We need violins here. Romantic violins.
Next we see them leafing through travel bro- chures. Honeymoon plans. But
how much can they spend? Enter Gibson's agent. He punches up numbers on his
calculator. "You're a free agent," he says. "Sky's the limit." Big contract
coming, he says. Five-year deal, he says. One club outbidding the other, he
says. Gibson books the deluxe accommodations and goes shopping for a
Maserati.
Cut to a close-up of the owners' faces. They are grinning. Cigar smoke
fills the screen.
Intermission.
We come back to a giant calendar. Big X's appear, covering one day at a
time. The months fall off. There goes November. There goes December. Jan. 1,
2, 3 . . .
Close-up on Gibson frowning. He is sitting next to his new wife in a
hotel room in Australia, talking on the phone. His agent gives him the bad
news. Not a single offer from another team. "It's a rotten conspiracy," the
agent says.
Trumpets blast here. For added effect.
Gibson asks about the Tigers. Same offer, the agent says. Three years,
$3.9 million. How will Kirk live on that? Flashback to a TV interview where
Gibson says if he had to accept that offer and shake hands with Tigers execs,
he would "vomit."
No happy endings
Now, the dramatic high point. The final day. We have a clock going in
the background. Tick, tick, tick. We need some mood shots here. Like fans
sewing black patches on their Tigers jackets. A raspy-voiced TV announcer
declaring Gibson is gone. The sound of weeping from teen-age girls everywhere.
Only minutes until midnight. Gibson's agent hears the news from around
the country. The other free agents are frantically signing back with their
clubs before the deadline. No one wants to challenge the owners' apparent
"hands-off" policy. Tick, tick, tick. What will happen? A Detroit newspaper
sets the headline: "Gibson Takes a Walk." The presses start rolling.
Cut to Gibson in New Zealand. Phone to his ear. He closes his eyes.
Swallows. Nods slowly.
Cymbals crash. And maybe a kettle drum. Crescendo!
The radio breaks the news: He signed! Three-year deal. The fans cheer.
The newspaper people run out to the street, screaming for their trucks to come
back.
From a faraway boardroom we hear evil laughter. Get Vincent Price. He's
perfect.
Gibson returns to Detroit. He signs his contract. He goes to shake hands
with the Tigers execs. Everyone takes a small step backward, just in case.
The owners have broken the back of free agency. The players' union tries
to retaliate with a major lawsuit. The players charge collusion.
Conspiracy. Bad manners. It drags on for months. But they can't prove
anything. The owners grin. Tap their cigars. The commissioner quits and runs
for president.
The cameras pull back. The audience is unsympathetic because it knows
both Gibson and the owners are rich enough to buy several small nations. Happy
endings? Not in this movie.
Roll the credits. Roll the closing song. Cyndi Lauper doing "Money
Changes Everything."
Fade to black.
CUTLINE
Don Johnson looks the part
COLUMN