The Evil Empire is on top again, shaking the hopes of fans across the New England area. The New York-Boston rivalry, considered by some to be the best in sports, has created sparks between the cities once again, with the usual city coming out on top.
Last month, the New York Yankees agreed to a four year, $32 million contract with Cuban pitching star Jose Contreras. The Red Sox, who have been searching desperately for another ace starting pitcher, lost out to the Yankees yet again. Despite the fact that the Sox set out for Contreras as their top priority, and that they reportedly tried to buy out the area hotel rooms in Nicaragua in an attempt to freeze out the Yanks, another player slipped through their hands and into those of George ‘Evil Emperor’ Steinbrenner. Shortly after the deal, Red Sox President Larry Lucchino called the Yankees an ‘evil empire.’ At the time, the deal had given the Yankees eight starting pitchers for a five-man rotation. As the Yankees dish out the cash and pile on the superstars, the Red Sox simply cannot handle the frustration of always being second-rate to the team from the Bronx.
As a flood of questions poured into Yankee offices, team president Randy Levine felt the need to respond to the comment, speaking out in a story on the official Major League Baseball website, mlb.com.
‘Terms like ‘gluttony’ that are being used, the typical whining that’s going on, all of that needs to stop now. We are playing by the rules as we always have. We pay tens of millions of dollars in revenue sharing, and if other teams choose not to spend on players and to use it for whatever means they decide to, that’s their problem. The Yankees are about winning.’ Levine added, ‘Mr. Steinbrenner has always insisted upon giving the fans of New York City and the metropolitan area, those fans who spend their hard-earned money watching the Yankees, the best product there is.’
As the idea of a strike was on the minds of owners, players and fans last season, the end result was the new CBA or Collective Bargaining Agreement. The agreement was designed so that large market teams, such as the Yankees, would have to pay taxes that would be distributed among small market teams, supposedly leveling the playing field for everyone. The agreement also came as many small and large market teams targeted the Yankees as a monster, with its seemingly limitless funds. New York’s payroll was approximately $140 million last year, $23 million over the threshold for a luxury tax. In respect to the CBA, Levine also told the website, ‘All those discussions that we heard all last year about how much money the Yankees spend or other teams don’t spend, it’s over. There’s a new agreement, we’re playing by the rules of that agreement.’
At a recent Sporting News reception where Steinbrenner was named the ‘Most Powerful Man in Sports,’ ‘The Boss’ was calm in adding comments of his own. In regards to Boston, Steinbrenner told mlb.com, ‘They’ve been using those words ever since Babe Ruth. That was just a poor comment. I love Boston; it’s a great town with great fans and great people. Lucchino just came there, so I’ll be patient and give him time. But I was upset when they called New York an evil empire. It was just a bad choice of words.’
While New York and Boston has always been noted for its heated rivalry, MLB Commissioner Bud Selig stepped in and told the two teams to cool it. He wanted to prevent the mudslinging from really getting deep and for the teams to keep respectable relations with each other.
After Contreras was lost, the Red Sox had high hopes in trading for star pitcher Bartolo Colon, despite the Montreal Expos’ high asking price that included Shea Hillenbrand and Casey Fossum. Colon is the type of pitcher who could’ve given the Red Sox realistic title hopes. A seemingly unstoppable playoff triple-threat of Martinez, Lowe and Colon would have been created, similar to the Diamondbacks’ duo of Schilling and Johnson. But alas, the Sox were outdone once again by the Yanks, who did not receive Colon, but were an important part in getting the three-team deal done, sending Colon to the White Sox.
This winter has been a rough season for Lucchino. He has failed to draw Athletics general manager Billy Beane, third baseman Edgardo Alfonzo and second baseman Jeff Kent, in addition to Colon and Contreras. The team has been working hard, but was only able to acquire second rate players such as Ramiro Mendoza, Mike Timlin, Jeremy Giambi, Todd Walker and Bill Mueller, who pale in comparison to Yankee’s Contreras and Japanese star Hideki Matsui. New Sox GM Theo Epstein, the ‘Boy Wonder’ who is supposedly going to shape the Boston ball club into a championship caliber team, has not convinced critics that he can be a professional, mature official. As the New York Daily News reported, Epstein smashed a chair when he lost Alfonzo, and trashed a door and window when he lost Contreras. It was actions like these that caused them to lose Colon.
As spring training nears and the Red Sox hope to erase the curse left by the sale of Babe Ruth, the Evil Empire seems poised to win the division for the sixth straight year, leaving their rivals with their annual feeling of resentment.