Supposedly, the SF Giants sought Eric Chavez before the
trade deadline and waved a decent package at us, but we Cliff Lee’ed the deal.
It might have saved money next winter when the cheap-obsessed ownership tanks
the budget with its Calvin Coolidgesque scheme to cut costs, until Yankee children everywhere
are eating oatmeal burgers and cobbling shoes from discarded tires.
Thank God, we said no.
For starters, Eric Chavez last winter signed with the New
York Yankees because he wanted to play for the New York Yankees. I’ll take that
any day. He made it clear that it would be the Yankees or a retirement scooter
in some gated suburb. If we had traded him for the moon – Cliff Lee and Doc
Halladay, plus cash – it still would have been a crapola betrayal of trust. If a guy
goes the extra mile, you need to meet him there.
It’s a cutthroat business, baseball. And in our worst hours –
when we trade a guy and then badmouth him (Melky, AJ, Jesus, et al) – the Yankees
are as bad as almost anyone. Well, no. We're never as bad as Boston. In fact, we’re still not in their league. The
Redsocks never traded a player who wasn’t a) deadwood, b) done or c) a
clubhouse cancer. I wish Joe Paterno had been a Redsock. I'd like to see what they would have done to his statue.
We kept Eric Chavez because he is clearly a class act. Let the record show, at least on this one, we were, too.
What a ridiculous article. Keeping a guy just because he wants to be here is a foolish way to run a club. By those standards we'd still have Damon and Matsui, and have added Guerrero too. It's bad enough we're saddled with A-Fraud until the cows come home, and Ibanez and Jones, now we should be glad to have Chavez? This team needs to get younger and cheaper, and those spots could have been used to find out who is ready, not wasted on players who will not be around next year.
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