A little baseball wrap up

First of all... congrats to the Boston Red Sox. They won the big enchilada, and they deserved it. Given the choice in this year's World Series I rooted for Boston mainly because I am from the East Coast (though I currently live in California). But neither team had any real emotional pull for me. Boston snapped its dry spell back in '04 and that was when my sympathy cheer expired. Boston is now the new baseball dynasty team replacing the fragmenting Yankees. Speaking of which...

Alex Rodriguez (aka Pay-Rod) opted out of his $252 million contract tonight. He did not wait for the Yankees to present their offer. I confess to a certain amount of surprise in this move. I kinda expected him to opt out. But I figured he and his agent Scott Boras would wait until close to the end of the deadline to do it. The timing here is a clue to motives. It kinda says to me that Alex was not really happy in pinstripes. In which case his moving on is probably a win win situation. (It certainly is a huge win for the Texas Rangers who are now relieved of their obligation for $21 million they would have had to pay the Yankees had the Bronx Bombers kept him.) My reason for suspecting this is that he is unlikely to get a much better offer from any other clubs. The Angels and the Giants would be strapped to come up with his money without gutting the rest of their payroll. The Mets don't want him. The left side of our infield is set thank you very much. I think realistically we are left with Boston and the Cubs. Since the Cubs were for sale last I heard that could make negotiating with them for a hefty contract problematic. Boston may or may not be interested in him. They can certainly afford him. But do they really need him? And do they need the baggage that would come with him?

If this was done for money, I think it will be recorded as a really bad business decision. If on the other hand it was because he is not happy in NY and wants a change in scenery even at the expense of a modest pay cut, then I am happy for him and wish him the best. My guess is that this is the real story. Alex already has more money than the Federal Reserve Bank. Whatever faults he may have, he never struck me as being all about the money. If he liked playing in New York I think he would have waited to at least give the Yankee's offer a show of consideration. He had nothing to loose from that. This basically is Alex shaking the dust of the Bronx from his sandals.

Oh well, five months and four days til opening day. :-)