Re: The union...
Originally posted by Larry Gude
...told A Rod what he could and couldn't take in a contract!!!
That tells us all we need to know about baseball.
He should be a Red Sox right now and I hate them.
The Red Sox or Baseball?
There were a few stories circulating about the A-rod non-trade to Boston and the one to the Yankees: Peter Gammons was saying that Boston wouldn't fork over a few more million dollars over the lifespan of the contract/trade years, and it cost them.
There was also talk about either Garciaparra or Ramirez going to the Rangers as part of the deal, and apparently A-rod wanted some special "perks" included in the trade contract, too much for Boston to accept, but bottom line, it didn't get done.
Any one, or a combination of these, plus maybe some more that weren't leaked to the public could have doomed the trade.
One thing is for sure; G. Steinbrenner wants to field a winning team. He craves it like it's an obsession. Of course, having the $$$ to go out and get a player of A-rod's caliber, when he'd lost his starting third-baseman, helps too.
And don't think he didn't take special delight in rubbing the nose of Boston's GM in horsemanure, when he went to the news media crying "foul" on the trade for A-rod to the Yankees.
Part of me feels Steinbrenner is a nasty bastage, with whom I wouldn't want to know, and the other says he's crafty as hell, and is further reveling in perpetuating the myth of the Beantown Curse, loving the heated rivalry between the two clubs, and milking it for all it's worth.