If you attended a high school basketball game during the recently completed season, you most likely would have heard student cheering sections erupt with the phrase ‘you can’t do that’ when an opposing player violated the playing rules. Nothing malicious, it was just a fun-loving jab letting an opponent know he/she messed up.

Sports, whether they are played at the youth, high school, college, or professional level, are supposed to be fun. For almost all the athletes who play them, their introduction to the game began because it was something they found fun to do. However, as skilled athletes progress through the process from amateurs to the professional ranks, the dollar-sign most often replaces ‘fun’ as the chief motivation for what they are doing.

Once-upon-a-time, professional athletes played their respective sport and when the off-season came they would find some kind of a job to give them extra income. Personally, I recall while working at Little League Baseball Headquarters Danny Cater, a Williamsport native who enjoyed a 12-year MLB career with the Phillies, White Sox, Athletics, Yankees, Red Sox, and Cardinals, spent several winter off-seasons working in the shipping department of the South Williamsport office.

That is now pretty much ancient history. Major League players have a much better life. They spend February and March enjoying sunny Florida or Arizona, then get paid big bucks for the next six months playing a game they enjoyed for free as youngsters. You won’t find many working in shipping departments — for the most part, they do what they want during the off-season.

Well, almost what they want.

With the large salaries being paid to today’s players, MLB contracts contain special clauses prohibiting the players from participating in certain activities. Specifically, paragraph 5(b) states, “the player agrees not to participate in certain other sports (that) may impair or destroy the player’s extraordinary baseball skill.” Should the player be injured participating in any of these activities, the team would have a basis for voiding the remainder of the contract or converting the salary from guaranteed to nonguaranteed.

Included in the paragraph restriction are two absolute prohibitions; professional boxing and wrestling. It also lists activities the player is prohibited from doing without written authorization from the team. Skiing, sky diving, auto racing, and motorcycle racing are among them. ‘Any game or exhibition’ of basketball, soccer, ice hockey, and football are also specifically listed. The restriction also contains a catch-all pertaining to other sports that could involve a substantial risk of injury.

I would guess that many MLB players enjoy their off-seasons, doing what they like to do for fun. But fun and the provisions of contract paragraph 5(b) gathered some headlines in the Arizona Diamondbacks spring training camp a few weeks ago when it was discovered recently acquired 5-year, $85-million free-agent pitcher Madison Bumgarner had participated and won $26,560 in a team-roping event last December in Wickenburg, Arizona.

Bumgarner has been one of baseball’s best pitchers during his 11-year career with the San Francisco Giants before becoming a free agent. He has won 119 games, led the Giants to three World Series championships, and was named the Most Valuable Player of the 2014 World Series.

While his pitching exploits earned him the nickname ‘Madbum,’ he used another moniker while roping cattle. Those activities came under the handle “Mason Saunders,” a combination of his shortened first name and his wife’s maiden name.

“No matter what hobbies I have, I take them seriously,” he told the media. “That’s just my personality. I don’t do anything just for fun, per se. I wish I did.”

It was the same Bumgarner, who, while pitching for the Giants in 2017, rode a dirt bike in the Colorado mountains, slipped and fell, spraining the AC joint in his pitching shoulder. He then missed nearly three months of the season and made just 17 pitching starts the rest of the year. The Giants scolded their World Series hero — but didn’t fine him — and picked up his $12-million option in each of the last two seasons.

Arizona general manager Mike Hazen declined to get into any contract-language conversations. He did say he doesn’t think Bumgarner has participated in steer roping since signing his contract with the Diamondbacks, but if he should resume those activities, it will be at his own risk.

“You can’t do that” activities have often been violated by MLB players. Current New York Yankee manager Aaron Boone tore his left ACL playing basketball in 2004 while a Yankee player. The Yankees waived him and paid him less than $1 million of his $5.75-million deal. The Atlanta Braves released outfielder Ron Gant in 1994 after he broke his leg on a dirt bike. Two months ago, the New York Mets slashed the 2020 salary of outfielder Yoenis Cespedes, from $29.5 million to $6 million, after he broke his ankle being chased by a wild boar last year.

Perhaps understanding life’s realities, Hazen added, “Madison is a grown man. Look, these guys are professional athletes, and they’re grown, adults. They have lives outside of baseball.”

All true, but I don’t believe cattle ropers get paid $17 million a year for exhibiting their skill. Perhaps high school students shouldn’t be the only ones chanting
‘you can’t do that!’