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Thirteen days before Christmas, Mark Teixeira, the Yankees' $180 million man, was having dinner with his wife, Leigh, when he pleaded with her for insight about the future. If everything was equal among Teixeira's suitors, he said, where would she rather see him play? Leigh admitted to preferring the Yankees. Once Leigh chose the Yankees, Teixeira instructed Scott Boras, his agent, to try to make the deal happen. Eleven days later, after a strained meeting, in which the Boston Red Sox walked out on Teixeira, he agreed to an eight-year contract with the Yankees. As sweet as Teixeira's reliance on his wife may seem to some, the Red Sox surely do not think it was cute. John Henry, the owner of the Red Sox; Larry Lucchino, their president; and general manager Theo Epstein trekked to Texas to meet with Teixeira on Dec. 18, six days after Leigh revealed a preference for the Yankees. The Red Sox would not have sent three executives to Teixeira's home unless they were confident about signing him. Leigh's feelings regarding the Yankees had not been publicized until Tuesday, and the Red Sox may wonder if they had a serious chance to sign Teixeira. Boras dismissed the notion that the Red Sox were misled and said part of the free-agent process included teams sometimes charging that they were "strung along." "As far as Boston goes, I think Boston knows they got good-faith proposals and they were given proposals, which means, if accepted, the player would have signed the proposal," Boras said. "If teams reject them, they cannot in any way say they were strung along." Teixeira noted how he would not have taken "half as much" to play in New York, his first choice. But, once the Yankees increased their offer to $22.5 million a year from $20 million, he called it an easy decision. The improved offer came less than a week after Boston's unsuccessful meeting with Teixeira. "I wasn't stringing teams along," Teixeira said. Henry said the Red Sox were unaware of Leigh's preference for the Yankees, but "felt all along that the Yankees were going to get the last call" from Boras. Since the Red Sox had proposed an eight-year deal for about $170 million, Henry said he found it curious they were told "that we were the low bidders and Boston wasn't high" on Teixeira's list. "At one point, I asked Scott, given their feelings, why we shouldn't pull out," Henry said in an e-mail message. "His answer was, `Maybe you should.' And we did." By leaving the negotiations, it seemed as if the Red Sox were calling Boras' bluff and were trying to get him to prove that he had a better offer from the Los Angeles Angels, Baltimore or Washington. As Henry had expected, Boras still had the Yankees on speed dial, too. While Boras acknowledged that Leigh's opinion about the Yankees "was the deciding factor" for Teixeira, he said her most definitive remarks were offered at the end of the process. Up until the day Teixeira agreed to terms with the Yankees, Brian Cashman, their general manager, said he was unsure if they would sign him. Boras, the maestro of a negotiator, sat at one end of the dais when the Yankees introduced Teixeira at Yankee Stadium on Tuesday. He was mostly in the background, a place Boras rarely inhabits while he is negotiating. Every time Boras negotiates with a team, he said, he thinks like the GM. With Teixeira on the Yankees, Boras is trying to find a home for Manny Ramirez, another client. Boras declined to think like Cashman in saying whether Ramirez would be a snug fit in the Bronx. But Boras did not simply ignore the topic. "I can say this: Anybody who really wants to win, they should take a run at Manny," he said. CommentsLeave a comment |
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She'll probably end up divorced in a few years like A-Rod's wife, too....
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Oh man... I can see it already. Leigh Texeria is going to be the subject of many a sign or shouted comment. She is going to get KILLED by the Boston fans. I'm sure somebody is already printing up t-shirts, and Tex will get railed as a man with no pants who must look to his wife before he can make a decision...
This is going to be fun, in a sick sort of way.
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My GOD what a SKANK!
Typical Georgia Tech coed.
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Just goes to show you making millions and millions of dollars doesn't have any correlation with taste or sense.
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I would love to give it to her---hard and dirty........
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RamblinWreck77 said it best.
The worst thing a Georgia Tech man can do to his life is to marry a Georgia Tech woman.
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You guys are all on cheap drugs!!!!!..like you wouldnt want her in bed everynight.. God, I would, in a new york minute...yummy..
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You guys are all on cheap drugs!!!!!..like you wouldnt want her in bed everynight.. God, I would, in a new york minute...yummy..
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Henry and the Red Sox knew that ExTeara didn't ever want to sign with the Red Sox and also wanted revenge against the Red Sox for what Dan Doucette and the old Red Sox regime did to him after he graduated from high school ten years ago. So they baited BoreAss to get the YANKees to spend way too much money on ExTeara and then not be able to sign more pitching, which is what the YANKees really need. They had enough hitting from last year when they were only six games out of the wild card with very little pitching. So they sign one great pitcher in CC and one broken down pitcher in Burnit and think that this is suddenly going to make them the World Series Champs. Having been beaten by a payroll 1/5 of their own payroll in the 2003 World Series, they should have learned by now that pitching and defense win the World Series, not big payrolls. Once again, they have been outsmarted - when will they ever learn???
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