The new pin-striped villain
HELL HATH no fury like a Red Sox fan spurned. For the past week, loud moans and other exclamations of disgust can be heard whenever the news comes on. In some households, people are tossing pillows and sneakers at their new flat-screen TVs.
The intense emotional reaction has nothing to do with the still-raging debate over gay marriage in Massachusetts. No, this is a response to a coupling that arouses even more passion, heat, and angst than the prospect of same-sex matrimony in the Bay State: the marriage between American League MVP Alex Rodriguez and the New York Yankees.
The Boston Red Sox courted but failed to win this genuine baseball superstar. Now Sox fans have a new reason to feel sorry for themselves. A-Rod will be playing third base for the Yankees, with Derek Jeter at shortstop. With spring training looming, the Sox must deal with their shortstop, the newly empowered Nomar Garciaparra, and settle for the sluggish Manny Ramirez in left field. (Disclosure: The New York Times, which owns the Globe, also owns part of the Red Sox.)
How does the average Sox fan respond to the Yankees' newest acquisition? With absolute, pure anger. Fans are mad at Sox ownership for not closing the A-Rod deal, mad at Yankees owner George Steinbrenner for accomplishing what the Sox could not and really mad at Rodriguez for agreeing to wear pinstripes. Red Sox Nation is like a teenage boy who gets turned down by the girl of his dreams. Once rejected, lust turns to disgust, love turns to hate. The player Sox fans so coveted is now the enemy.
Anger makes Sox fans feel good and inspires passion for their team. But is anger a good longterm management strategy for winning a world championship? Sox owner John Henry and Yankees owner Steinbrenner continued waging an angry war of words via e-mail.
Fans loved it a year ago when Sox CEO Larry Lucchino taunted Steinbrenner and the Yankees with references to the "Evil Empire." In return, the ever-mature Steinbrenner called Lucchino a "sick person" and a "chameleon." Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig stepped in to tell the boys to knock off the name-calling. "If you're a Red Sox fan, it doesn't get any better than this," gushed Globe columnist Dan Shaughnessy about the increasingly bitter and personal Sox-Yankees rivalry.
But wave a red flag in front of a bull and eventually the bull charges. After the Sox failed to land Rodriguez, Steinbrenner charged and then some. As a result, Rodriguez is now playing for the Bronx Bombers.
In the aftermath, Lucchino contends the Yankees deal for A-Rod is all about money. "Money talks," he told the Globe. "They reached into their treasury and made it happen." Money does talk, but attitude talks too. As reported last December by Globe writer Gordon Edes, temperament and hubris, specifically Lucchino's temperament and hubris, had something to do with the Sox failed negotiations with the Texas Rangers. Lucchino ripped the head of the players' union when he rejected a Sox proposal for Rodriguez; Lucchino also angered Ranger's owner Tom Hicks, who ultimately refused to talk with him. Perhaps the Sox could have benefited from a little less macho swagger?
Peter Gammons, the ultimate baseball expert, writes this week for ESPN.com that "Boston felt it had to get money back from Rodgriguez, the Yankees did not." The Sox stuck to its initial business calculation, so, indeed, money talked. But an unnamed New York official also told Gammons that what the Yankees learned from the Sox-Rodriguez negotiations was "how not to handle them." So, attitude mattered, too, along with luck. Aaron Boone's off-season injury opened a spot for Rodriguez.
Let Red Sox fans seethe with anger. It is useless to suggest they will be happier, healthier fans if they take a less tortured approach to the game. However, when it comes to doing the business of baseball, anger is nonproductive. Sox management should swear now to never again let the other side see them sweat.
As everyone in Boston knows, revenge is best served cold.
Joan Vennochi's e-mail address is vennochi @globe.com.
