My favorite quote this week . . .
From ESPN:
"It was more of a commitment from this team than it was money, actually,'' Martinez said. "I gave Boston every opportunity to actually get me.''
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Are you F)&%$($*# kidding me?
Martinez turned down a $40.5 million, three-year offer from the Red Sox
The complete details of this negotiation may never become clear. But this is how this deal went down, from what we know now:
On Saturday night, the Red Sox were just about 100 percent sure he was coming back. He had asked them to guarantee three years. So grudgingly, they guaranteed three years and $38 million.
He had asked them for perks and planes and privileges that Bronson Arroyo will never even envision, let alone ask for. But grudgingly, the Red Sox gave him virtually all that, too.
That was supposed to be that. Instead, Pedro did nothing more but use that astounding offer to squeeze more out of the Mets.
His agent, Fernando Cuza, met with the Mets on Sunday. He laid out what the Red Sox had promised Martinez. He asked the Mets if they were willing to guarantee a fourth year.
Mets GM Omar Minaya mulled it over for a while. Then, on a Sunday night that changed everything, Minaya agreed to guarantee four years, about $50 million.
Incredibly, Pedro still didn't say yes.
Standard negotiating practice these days, according to two longtime baseball negotiators, is never to offer a deal-sealer like that fourth year without explicitly saying, "I'm only offering this if it means this deal is done."
But it appears Minaya didn't attach that stipulation -- because after that, according to sources who had spoken with the Red Sox, Cuza went back to the Boston delegation one more time.
He said Pedro was hurt and angry. Why would one team be willing to give him four years but the Red Sox wouldn't? Why wouldn't the Red Sox show him the respect he had earned after all these years?
The Red Sox delegation didn't need to listen long. They had heard enough. They had done enough. They had done all they were going to do. So if Pedro could get all that from the Mets, he should probably go get it before the Mets changed their mind.
And that was how it ended.
"They're going to have their chances to get me back in that uniform. If they don't get me, it's probably because they didn't try hard enough."
-- Pedro Martinez, after his final game with the Red Sox
Oh, they tried. The Red Sox tried harder to "get" Pedro Martinez than many people in their
organization wanted to try. They tried harder than Pedro will ever acknowledge they tried.
The Red Sox, and us fans, may miss Pedro but…. we won't miss the countless days he showed up late, the obligations he dodged, and the special treatment he demanded.