So, the players union has sabotaged the trade that would have sent Alex Rodriguez to Boston -- perhaps the biggest cut off your nose to spite your face decision in the history of the game since the 1994 baseball strike. I'm not a Red Sox fan, and never will be, but this trade would have been great for baseball, and the union, in its pursuit of ever escalating player salaries, ought to be ashamed of itself.
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Gah. I’m generally in favor of the players’ union, but they really screwed the pooch on this one. How hard would it have been to say, “due to the special circumstances of this particular case and the wishes of all parties involved, including the Commissioner, we choose to waive the clause in the CBA that would prevent this trade from occurring.”
I don’t think this would have happened if Marvin Miller were still running the union.
I’m a Yankee fan, so I probably shouldn’t be smirking too much at another apparent example of Boston bad luck. However, I will say that this situation does suggest that hubris and greed will often come back to bite the ass of the hubristic and greedy. As a supporter of the baseball union, I agree that they messed up by not allowing the trade to go through (couldn’t they imagine how much more money A-Rod would be getting in commercial endorsements in Boston). However, the union wouldn’t be in this awkward position if the contract that Hicks gave Rodriguez wasn’t so huge and cumbersome that it made renegotiation near-impossible! So, Hicks is to blame for the 252M contract, A-Rod is to blame for going just for the obscene money and now being “stuck” with it; the union is to blame as Mr. Jones says for cutting its nose to spite its face. Now, they all have to live with their foolish decisions….
Oh, and the Bosox have a ticked-off Nomar to deal with…
the Sox might have to deal Nomar anyway at this point – as I’ve been reading that the A-Rod deal is dead – at least to Boston, but that Nomar ain’t happy – what a surprise.