Wednesday, December 24, 2008

LET'S JUST TALK TAXEIRA AND HIS EXTRA $1.5 MILLION A YEAR

I had a feeling it could happen, but didn't know it would happen so quickly. Yankees snatched up the Red Sox's top prospect, Mark Teixeira. Here's Brian Cashman with his new acquisition.

The Sox offer was reportedly $168 million over eight years. When Boras went public by claiming he had higher offers for his agent, the Angels bailed out, the Orioles bailed and the Sox claimed they had been outbid and were "not going to be a factor" in the signing of Teixeira. The Sox response was merely to call the bluff on the higher deal. Turns out there was a higher deal and it was from the Yankees. That higher deal was for $180 million over eight years. Now, when you're talking that kinda cash, what's $12 million more? Apparently, the world was in those $12 million and Teixeira has been exposed as a player that, one, wants to take the HOV lane to the championship and, two, money is the most important element of the game. The Yankees knew both of these to be true and customized a contract that would cater to him and assure them in signing him.

Some guy on TV just said that more people die each year from dog bites than from shark bites. That's completely insignificant. How many people have been chased down the alley by a shark? People are morons.

So here we go. After the Devil Rays clowned both the Sox and Yanks by winning the AL East with a quarter of the Yankees' payroll and with the entire world's economy in the toilet, they go out and shell out almost a half billion dollars for three free agents. And that was on top of already having the two highest players in the league on their roster already. And do you think they care that they're basically buying championships again? No way. Shameless. They could care less. And the players don't care either. I don't think the fans care. Not sure. And if you want to pin it on the Sox and they're spending, Sox finished fourth last year in spending and the Yankees spent 50% more than the Sox. Oh yeah, they missed the playoffs last year. Think that has anything to do with it?

I hope they go out and sign Manny. I hope they sign every other free agent on the market. Lock up everyone. If they win a championship, it'll be scrutinized for years. If they don't, they'll once again show themselves to be the biggest failure in the league. Cash rules everything around me. It rules Taxeira. It rules C-note Sabathia. It rules Payrod. It rules baseball.

It'll make watching them lose (even if it's only 30 times) so much sweeter and the Sox finally fall off the Most Hated team. There's still some good bats on the market. It's bats we'll need. Remaining free agents include Ken Griffey, Jr. (eh), Adam Dunn (maybe), Bobby Abreu (maybe) and others. We'll see.

And, if anyone wants to throw the Celtics into the argument for going out and acquiring KG and Ray Allen and winning a championship last year, I'd just add that the Celtics were outspent in 2008 by four other teams this year and last year. And, yes, they're off to the best start in NBA history with a 27-2 start. Domination. We got the Fakers on Christmas Day. It don't mean nothing unless you win in June. Still, it's freaking impressive.

Enough sports talk. Merry Christmas, everyone. Be safe. Love your neighbor.

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