Thursday, February 19, 2004
Sportsbook Lines: "
22-Feb NASCAR - SUBWAY 400
#To Win the TournamentOdds
1 BOBBY LABONTE +1500
2 BRENDAN GAUGHAN +6000
3 BRIAN VICKERS +4000
4 CASEY MEARS +10000
5 DALE EARNHARDT +1000
6 DALE JARRETT +1400
7 DAVE BLANEY +10000
8 ELLIOTT SADLER +1800
9 FIELD ( ANY OTHER) +2500
10 GREG BIFFLE +2000
11 JAMIE MCMURRAY +2000
12 JEFF BURTON +1600
13 JEFF GORDON +800
14 JEFF GREEN +10000
15 JEREMY MAYFIELD +4000
16 JIMMIE JOHNSON +900
17 JIMMY SPENCER +10000
18 JOE NEMECHEK +6000
19 JOHNNY SAUTER +7500
20 KASEY KAHNE +6000
21 KEN SCHRADER +15000
22 KEVIN HARVICK +1100
23 KURT BUSCH +1000
24 KYLE PETTY +15000
25 MARK MARTIN +2500
26 MATT KENSETH +1100
27 MICHAEL WALTRIP +4000
28 RICKY CRAVEN +2500
29 RICKY RUDD +4000
30 ROBBY GORDON +3500
31 RUSTY WALLACE +2400
32 RYAN NEWMAN +900
33 SCOTT RIGGS +10000
34 SCOTT WIMMER +5000
35 STERLING MARLIN +2200
36 TERRY LABONTE +3000
37 TONY STEWART +800
38 WARD BURTON +5000
22-Feb NASCAR - SUBWAY 400
#To Win the TournamentOdds
1 BOBBY LABONTE +1500
2 BRENDAN GAUGHAN +6000
3 BRIAN VICKERS +4000
4 CASEY MEARS +10000
5 DALE EARNHARDT +1000
6 DALE JARRETT +1400
7 DAVE BLANEY +10000
8 ELLIOTT SADLER +1800
9 FIELD ( ANY OTHER) +2500
10 GREG BIFFLE +2000
11 JAMIE MCMURRAY +2000
12 JEFF BURTON +1600
13 JEFF GORDON +800
14 JEFF GREEN +10000
15 JEREMY MAYFIELD +4000
16 JIMMIE JOHNSON +900
17 JIMMY SPENCER +10000
18 JOE NEMECHEK +6000
19 JOHNNY SAUTER +7500
20 KASEY KAHNE +6000
21 KEN SCHRADER +15000
22 KEVIN HARVICK +1100
23 KURT BUSCH +1000
24 KYLE PETTY +15000
25 MARK MARTIN +2500
26 MATT KENSETH +1100
27 MICHAEL WALTRIP +4000
28 RICKY CRAVEN +2500
29 RICKY RUDD +4000
30 ROBBY GORDON +3500
31 RUSTY WALLACE +2400
32 RYAN NEWMAN +900
33 SCOTT RIGGS +10000
34 SCOTT WIMMER +5000
35 STERLING MARLIN +2200
36 TERRY LABONTE +3000
37 TONY STEWART +800
38 WARD BURTON +5000
Newsday.com - Deal Makes Hicks the Texas Panhandler
February 18, 2004
The greatest surprise in this deal of the century is that a mega-superstar such as Alex Rodriguez so easily surrendered his coveted shortstop position.
The biggest mystery, no doubt, is how a boob such as Rangers owner Tom Hicks - the Lone Star Stooge - ever got his hands on this kind of money in the first place.
A-Rod has spent one day in the Bronx since the lopsided deal, and the verdict already is in: This blockbuster is a signed, sealed and delivered Grade-A ripoff of the Rangers, who've transitioned seamlessly from a playoff patsy to negotiating pawn in the Yankees' grand game. This isn't all about a team's wherewithal. It's about their wits, too.
Cashman is exactly the right name for a Yankees general manager, and Hicks the perfect monicker for this mega-millionaire hayseed.
Yankees people understandably have been crowing for two days, with breaks only for sleep. At yesterday's love-in/news conference, attended by 300, Yankees executives kept praising Rodriguez's agent, Scott Boras, and that's presumably because it was Boras who introduced them to Rodriguez, and to Hicks.
When the day was done, Brian Cashman and Boras hugged. They looked closer than A-Rod and Jeter ever did.
Earlier, when the deal was done, Cynthia Rodriguez remarked to Derek Jeter, "I'm glad this whole thing is over."
And, according to her husband, Jeter responded, "The party has just begun."
Jeter didn't look as if he was in a party mood yesterday, and the only real question that remains is about whether this infield - and this town - is big enough for both of them. It's possible that when Jeter looks at A-Rod, he doesn't see a friend so much as a threat. That's the only issue here.
Rodriguez said he's "done, done, done" with shortstop. But everyone who's witnessed this trade develop knows that sometimes the done becomes undone. ESPN analyst and former major-leaguer Harold Reynolds, who knows both players well, said: "In maybe a year Alex could say, 'I want to play shortstop.' He ain't 38. He's 28. He could say, 'You know what, guys, it's been great, but I want to play shortstop."
But in the meantime, everything's cool in Yankeeland. Cashman and president Randy Levine have done the impossible by making George Steinbrenner smile two straight days. Rodriguez is the absolute perfect player for the Yankees, a man with talent, charisma, affability and his own Web site.
A-Rod was once almost a Met and once almost a Red Sox, and now he is a euphoric Yankee. The first word out of his mouth was "Wow." Ours, too.
The reaction is the same when you look closely at this deal, as onesided as the teams that agreed to it. Hicks was too desperate to think straight. Yankees people are calling the swap financially "neutral."
This deal actually is not neutral. If anything, it's a neutron bomb. Texas people say it's going to help them in the long run when it really just gives them a crummy lineup to go with crummy pitching.
Some stat freak pointed out on TV yesterday that Alfonso Soriano actually hit two more road home runs than Rodriguez in 2003, and anyone who thinks these two players are comparable has to get out more. Soriano is well short of A-Rod in these three ways: personality, poise and power.
This trade of A-Rod plus $67 million for Soriano is the silliest thing Hicks has done since signing A-Rod to that $252-million deal in the first place. Levine called the whole deal a "win-win situation," and he must mean for A-Rod and the Yankees, a pairing made in baseball heaven.
The player loves the spotlight almost as much as it loves him. Rodriguez was born in Washington Heights but is Manhattan all the way. When he was warming up to be a Met three years ago, he scouted out apartments on Fifth Avenue, overlooking Central Park. Rodriguez hardly could believe his good fortune to escape dusty Arlington, Texas, their deplorable roster and no-hope future. "I keep pinching myself," he said.
Yankees people did the deal "quickly and quietly," and that must be because they wanted to ensure Hicks wouldn't have time to come to his senses. With the loot Hick is forking over to George Steinbrenner, the Yankees will be paying Rodriguez $16 million a year, or about what the insurance company and the Mets have to pay Mo Vaughn to sit on his ample rump this year.
They'll make it up in no time, anyway. A Yankees person said 22,000 tickets were sold Monday, the day Bud Selig reluctantly signed off on the deal that made the great that much greater.
February 18, 2004
The greatest surprise in this deal of the century is that a mega-superstar such as Alex Rodriguez so easily surrendered his coveted shortstop position.
The biggest mystery, no doubt, is how a boob such as Rangers owner Tom Hicks - the Lone Star Stooge - ever got his hands on this kind of money in the first place.
A-Rod has spent one day in the Bronx since the lopsided deal, and the verdict already is in: This blockbuster is a signed, sealed and delivered Grade-A ripoff of the Rangers, who've transitioned seamlessly from a playoff patsy to negotiating pawn in the Yankees' grand game. This isn't all about a team's wherewithal. It's about their wits, too.
Cashman is exactly the right name for a Yankees general manager, and Hicks the perfect monicker for this mega-millionaire hayseed.
Yankees people understandably have been crowing for two days, with breaks only for sleep. At yesterday's love-in/news conference, attended by 300, Yankees executives kept praising Rodriguez's agent, Scott Boras, and that's presumably because it was Boras who introduced them to Rodriguez, and to Hicks.
When the day was done, Brian Cashman and Boras hugged. They looked closer than A-Rod and Jeter ever did.
Earlier, when the deal was done, Cynthia Rodriguez remarked to Derek Jeter, "I'm glad this whole thing is over."
And, according to her husband, Jeter responded, "The party has just begun."
Jeter didn't look as if he was in a party mood yesterday, and the only real question that remains is about whether this infield - and this town - is big enough for both of them. It's possible that when Jeter looks at A-Rod, he doesn't see a friend so much as a threat. That's the only issue here.
Rodriguez said he's "done, done, done" with shortstop. But everyone who's witnessed this trade develop knows that sometimes the done becomes undone. ESPN analyst and former major-leaguer Harold Reynolds, who knows both players well, said: "In maybe a year Alex could say, 'I want to play shortstop.' He ain't 38. He's 28. He could say, 'You know what, guys, it's been great, but I want to play shortstop."
But in the meantime, everything's cool in Yankeeland. Cashman and president Randy Levine have done the impossible by making George Steinbrenner smile two straight days. Rodriguez is the absolute perfect player for the Yankees, a man with talent, charisma, affability and his own Web site.
A-Rod was once almost a Met and once almost a Red Sox, and now he is a euphoric Yankee. The first word out of his mouth was "Wow." Ours, too.
The reaction is the same when you look closely at this deal, as onesided as the teams that agreed to it. Hicks was too desperate to think straight. Yankees people are calling the swap financially "neutral."
This deal actually is not neutral. If anything, it's a neutron bomb. Texas people say it's going to help them in the long run when it really just gives them a crummy lineup to go with crummy pitching.
Some stat freak pointed out on TV yesterday that Alfonso Soriano actually hit two more road home runs than Rodriguez in 2003, and anyone who thinks these two players are comparable has to get out more. Soriano is well short of A-Rod in these three ways: personality, poise and power.
This trade of A-Rod plus $67 million for Soriano is the silliest thing Hicks has done since signing A-Rod to that $252-million deal in the first place. Levine called the whole deal a "win-win situation," and he must mean for A-Rod and the Yankees, a pairing made in baseball heaven.
The player loves the spotlight almost as much as it loves him. Rodriguez was born in Washington Heights but is Manhattan all the way. When he was warming up to be a Met three years ago, he scouted out apartments on Fifth Avenue, overlooking Central Park. Rodriguez hardly could believe his good fortune to escape dusty Arlington, Texas, their deplorable roster and no-hope future. "I keep pinching myself," he said.
Yankees people did the deal "quickly and quietly," and that must be because they wanted to ensure Hicks wouldn't have time to come to his senses. With the loot Hick is forking over to George Steinbrenner, the Yankees will be paying Rodriguez $16 million a year, or about what the insurance company and the Mets have to pay Mo Vaughn to sit on his ample rump this year.
They'll make it up in no time, anyway. A Yankees person said 22,000 tickets were sold Monday, the day Bud Selig reluctantly signed off on the deal that made the great that much greater.
