Monday, October 29, 2007

Caveat Emptor

Buster Olney on why anyone entering the A-Rod sweepstakes should beware:

The way this played out could not have been more apropos, because A-Rod needs to be bigger than the game; he needs to be more important than the Red Sox or the Rockies or any other team, or any other player. He is one of the greatest players in history at compiling statistics, the greatest ever at compiling wealth, and his next employer will have to buy into that. The World Series can't matter as much as A-Rod . . .

. . . Somebody will buy into A-Rod, of course. He's an extraordinary player. The cost will be hundreds of millions, and the heart and soul, of his next franchise.

Call it a hunch, but I think Olney is annoyed that he had come up with a few hundred words between the hours of 11pm and 5am on a topic he didn't expect to have to write about until next week.

Don't get me wrong. I agree that the timing was terrible -- no one ever accused Boras of having class or tact -- and I agree that any team that signs A-Rod had better understand that this isn't just any old free agent, but to actually come out and say that Rodriguez's next employer is literally selling its soul to sign him seems to me to be way the hell over the top.

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