Lip Man 1
10-21-2004, 12:12 PM
As Mickster and I were discussing in another threat the White Sox situation in regards to Alex Rodriguez during the off season after 2000 may have some similarities to the talk about the Sox showing interest in Carlos Beltran.
Both for example have the same agent, both are going to want very high salaried / long term deals. And Jerry Reinsdorf is still the Sox owner. So with that in mind here is 'some' material on those negotiations from almost four years ago.
This is NOT a complete documentation. I'm still attempting to go through the Sun Times archives which is where I remember reading about the Reinsdorf request to meet with Rodriguez without Scott Boras present. I also heard the story on what was then One On One Sports Radio (now The Sporting News Radio Network)
I will attempt to keep updating as I get more material.
Let me thank Sox fan/author and friend to WSI Bob Vanderberg of the Tribune for his help in getting this material! This material reprinted with permission.
Chicago Tribune Copyright 2000 Chicago Tribune
Date: Tuesday, December 12, 2000 Edition: Chicago Sports Final Section: Sports Page: 1 Zone: N Source: Rick Morrissey.
SOX DIDN'T NEED SHORTSTOP ANYWAY --NOW A PITCHER?
This is how it must feel when the last child leaves for college.
It just seems so empty without Alex Rodriguez around here anymore. We lived, we laughed, we loved, and now he's gone from us, just like that.
I'll remember the little things, the everyday acts of kindness that went unnoticed. I'll remember how he tilted his head in a way that made you feel as if you were the only person who mattered. I'll remember how he quietly rescued dogs from the pound (while reminding the staff about the importance of spaying). I'll remember A-Rod rushing into the press conference for the Bears stadium deal, which he brokered, saying, "I've done some doodling and this is how we can solve the upper-deck conundrum at Comiskey!"
I'll cherish these four weeks forever.
A fantasy. A flimsy fantasy is all it was. The most we ever were going to get out of the Rodriguez tease was a month-long diversion to help us through the Bulls-Bears-Blackhawks trifecta of doom. You knew it, I knew it and if the White Sox didn't know it, then they have been hitting the anti-inflammatories a little too hard. Rodriguez was going to sign with the Sox the day Jerry Reinsdorf renounced all worldly goods to join a farm cooperative and become Comrade Jerry.
Rodriguez signed a 10-year, $252 million deal with the Texas Rangers on Monday and it involved such a big pile of cash that to climb it was to risk altitude sickness. What, the Sox thought they were going to schmooze him into taking $60 million less in exchange for a team with a better farm system and a town with a better quality of life?
Hey, at $25 million a year, the guy can fund the Human Genome Project to see if he will be predisposed toward clinical depression in Arlington, Texas. If he is, then he can buy another $250,000 Ferrari to throw on the fire and warm his heart.
"I thought [the decision] would go to the character of the man," Sox General Manager Ken Williams said. "I thought he would be desirous of being in the best situation."
Don't fall for that tripe. Everyone knew the reality of what this was going to be. Agent of darkness Scott Boras was in charge and this was going to be a bidding war. To try to tug at Rodriguez's heartstrings while offering less money was not only foolhardy but arrogant.
Boras, almost as smart as he is detestable, wouldn't let the Sox get close to Rodriguez--not even a meeting with a thick sheet of Plexiglas to separate the sides, two telephones for communication and a warden watching over the proceedings.
The White Sox are standing still with the same nice team that won 95 games last year while the world champion Yankees improved by signing pitcher Mike Mussina. The worst thing about this is not the Sox's failure to sign Rodriguez and the rest of his Hall of Fame career but the failure to recognize that the franchise needs a No. 1 starter. If that's shortsighted, then fit me with some glasses.
With all the pitchers renting their arms to the highest bidder, the Sox tiptoed after a shortstop who wouldn't take their calls. Mussina, Mike Hampton and Denny Neagle either weren't good enough for the Sox or didn't come cheaply enough (guess which). Kevin Appier, 15-11 last season for Oakland, signed a four-year contract with the Mets for $42 million Monday. He couldn't have helped? Or Darren Dreifort, who re-signed with the Dodgers?
Reinsdorf's philosophy is well known: Why give long-term contracts to pitchers when the human arm is prone to work stoppages? Better to build through the farm system and hope for the best. Not exactly "Spahn and Sain and pray for rain."
What Reinsdorf can't comprehend is that baseball has become one big gamble, with teams betting that free agents will deliver. True, the money isn't funny, it's real. But if you believe the Sox are one starting pitcher away from greatness, then money isn't the problem. It's the answer.
It was the answer, past tense. It's over now. The Sox are running in place. Reinsdorf's answer is that, coming off a division title, he'll settle for life on a treadmill. Just don't expect to gain on the Yankees that way, Jerry.
The Sox did give a one-year contract to first-half hero Cal Eldred, who has enough hardware in his surgically repaired elbow for a ratchet starter set. This is the type of off-season roster move fans have come to expect on the South Side.
A-Rod? We hardly knew him. J-dorf? We know him too well.
Both for example have the same agent, both are going to want very high salaried / long term deals. And Jerry Reinsdorf is still the Sox owner. So with that in mind here is 'some' material on those negotiations from almost four years ago.
This is NOT a complete documentation. I'm still attempting to go through the Sun Times archives which is where I remember reading about the Reinsdorf request to meet with Rodriguez without Scott Boras present. I also heard the story on what was then One On One Sports Radio (now The Sporting News Radio Network)
I will attempt to keep updating as I get more material.
Let me thank Sox fan/author and friend to WSI Bob Vanderberg of the Tribune for his help in getting this material! This material reprinted with permission.
Chicago Tribune Copyright 2000 Chicago Tribune
Date: Tuesday, December 12, 2000 Edition: Chicago Sports Final Section: Sports Page: 1 Zone: N Source: Rick Morrissey.
SOX DIDN'T NEED SHORTSTOP ANYWAY --NOW A PITCHER?
This is how it must feel when the last child leaves for college.
It just seems so empty without Alex Rodriguez around here anymore. We lived, we laughed, we loved, and now he's gone from us, just like that.
I'll remember the little things, the everyday acts of kindness that went unnoticed. I'll remember how he tilted his head in a way that made you feel as if you were the only person who mattered. I'll remember how he quietly rescued dogs from the pound (while reminding the staff about the importance of spaying). I'll remember A-Rod rushing into the press conference for the Bears stadium deal, which he brokered, saying, "I've done some doodling and this is how we can solve the upper-deck conundrum at Comiskey!"
I'll cherish these four weeks forever.
A fantasy. A flimsy fantasy is all it was. The most we ever were going to get out of the Rodriguez tease was a month-long diversion to help us through the Bulls-Bears-Blackhawks trifecta of doom. You knew it, I knew it and if the White Sox didn't know it, then they have been hitting the anti-inflammatories a little too hard. Rodriguez was going to sign with the Sox the day Jerry Reinsdorf renounced all worldly goods to join a farm cooperative and become Comrade Jerry.
Rodriguez signed a 10-year, $252 million deal with the Texas Rangers on Monday and it involved such a big pile of cash that to climb it was to risk altitude sickness. What, the Sox thought they were going to schmooze him into taking $60 million less in exchange for a team with a better farm system and a town with a better quality of life?
Hey, at $25 million a year, the guy can fund the Human Genome Project to see if he will be predisposed toward clinical depression in Arlington, Texas. If he is, then he can buy another $250,000 Ferrari to throw on the fire and warm his heart.
"I thought [the decision] would go to the character of the man," Sox General Manager Ken Williams said. "I thought he would be desirous of being in the best situation."
Don't fall for that tripe. Everyone knew the reality of what this was going to be. Agent of darkness Scott Boras was in charge and this was going to be a bidding war. To try to tug at Rodriguez's heartstrings while offering less money was not only foolhardy but arrogant.
Boras, almost as smart as he is detestable, wouldn't let the Sox get close to Rodriguez--not even a meeting with a thick sheet of Plexiglas to separate the sides, two telephones for communication and a warden watching over the proceedings.
The White Sox are standing still with the same nice team that won 95 games last year while the world champion Yankees improved by signing pitcher Mike Mussina. The worst thing about this is not the Sox's failure to sign Rodriguez and the rest of his Hall of Fame career but the failure to recognize that the franchise needs a No. 1 starter. If that's shortsighted, then fit me with some glasses.
With all the pitchers renting their arms to the highest bidder, the Sox tiptoed after a shortstop who wouldn't take their calls. Mussina, Mike Hampton and Denny Neagle either weren't good enough for the Sox or didn't come cheaply enough (guess which). Kevin Appier, 15-11 last season for Oakland, signed a four-year contract with the Mets for $42 million Monday. He couldn't have helped? Or Darren Dreifort, who re-signed with the Dodgers?
Reinsdorf's philosophy is well known: Why give long-term contracts to pitchers when the human arm is prone to work stoppages? Better to build through the farm system and hope for the best. Not exactly "Spahn and Sain and pray for rain."
What Reinsdorf can't comprehend is that baseball has become one big gamble, with teams betting that free agents will deliver. True, the money isn't funny, it's real. But if you believe the Sox are one starting pitcher away from greatness, then money isn't the problem. It's the answer.
It was the answer, past tense. It's over now. The Sox are running in place. Reinsdorf's answer is that, coming off a division title, he'll settle for life on a treadmill. Just don't expect to gain on the Yankees that way, Jerry.
The Sox did give a one-year contract to first-half hero Cal Eldred, who has enough hardware in his surgically repaired elbow for a ratchet starter set. This is the type of off-season roster move fans have come to expect on the South Side.
A-Rod? We hardly knew him. J-dorf? We know him too well.