推 mrkey:他老兄要閃快閃吧, 據說他想去 CHC or TB 03/03 07:28
Just days after the whole process began at Shonda's fundraiser (right), talks
with the Red Sox truly heated up.
The first day of negotiations saw an exchange of offers, with Larry Lucchino
not real excited about my stance at $13 million and me making it clear to
them that number was pretty much concrete. They discussed quite a bit but the
most emphatic point made was their desire to spend quite a bit this winter on
different players, mentioning their pursuit of Keith Foulke at that time, as
well as their pending extension for B.K. Kim. They wanted money available to
do that, and that was the reason behind needing my AAV (annual average value)
to be where they wanted it.
My response was pretty simple. I understood their desire to keep my AAV down,
and at the same time recognized that it made no sense for me to ask for money
they didn't have. I didn't want to sign with a team and have my contract
hamstring the team in continuing to get better. I also knew that the money
was nowhere near as big a concern as it was being made out. This is a
business. As nice as I'd love to think these teams are, they are trying to
sign you for the lowest possible dollar figure. When you confront that
situation with an agent who wants to get the most
possible dollars, deals are broken. I didn't want the most possible dollars,
far from it. I knew what we were asking for was well within the parameters of
reason.
The day went by and offers went back and forth, lots of small talk. We talked
about the personnel on this team, they told us quite a bit about their intent
to change not only the perception of the franchise and the "25 cabs for 25
players" perception but the culture in the clubhouse as well. They were one
game from a World Series in 2003, and they felt they were putting together a
roster that could make up that game.
The first day ended with us pretty much as far apart as we started. I think
the more crucial piece was that Theo and I worked on many of the 'side' or
little details in the contract while the bigger piece, the salary and years,
plodded along. There were small perks I wanted to ask for--the room on the
road, tickets for my family, potential charitable involvement with the local
ALS chapter by the team, as well as discussions around the Jimmy Fund and my
involvement.
I was trying to remember when I made this next statement and I have to
believe it was on Tuesday since I remember Larry being in the room. My 2001
World Series Trophy was on the mantle in the room where we were sitting.
(Contrary to press clippings and popular belief this wasn't a prop, it was
sitting in the same place it had always been.) We were at a point in
discussions talking about the merits of my proposal versus what they were
looking for.
I said, "Look, let's be clear. You are bringing me to Boston, or wanting to,
to win one of those," and I pointed to the trophy. "I've proven I can get
outs in October, I've proven I can beat the Yankees in October, you guys
haven't, I get that. This contract, all of it, is centered on one event,
beating the Yankees and winning the World Series, period. I am telling you
that if you make this happen, I'll hold up my end, my word on that."
How much that mattered I don't know, but I believed it.
The first day ended and we agreed we start again on Day 2 at some point late
in the morning, but it would be Jed and Theo alone, as Larry was returning
home for Thanksgiving.
Shonda and I spoke that first night and I think we both felt cautiously
optimistic. We both were over initial pieces that we thought would stop us.
This was an organization that was not up to speed with the Diamondbacks in
taking care of the really meaningful parts, the players'
families and many of the 'little things' that were becoming more prevalent in
the game. But they recognized this and were putting immense time, money and
effort into those very things as we were speaking. That mattered a lot to us.
But when looking at all things on the table, we still saw a large gap in the
salary and length, and were both thinking that we might not be able to close
the gap in time to get a deal.
Weird Event No. 2, The Sons of Sam Horn arrive!: At some time early that
evening I was checking my email. Ed Hayes (my lawyer) and I were exchanging
thoughts and data over the phone and email and I received an email and for
the life of me I cannot remember who it was from. The email pointed me to a
Web site called "The Sons of Sam Horn." I dropped by and, well, the rest is
history. I am not sure how far back their archive goes but I became an
official member there on the 30th of November, which was a few days after
these events had concluded. I logged into the site and started to read this
long thread centered around the possible trade to bring me there. It was
pretty powerful stuff.
These were obviously fans with intense interest and passion for the hometown
nine. Very different than Arizona and Philadelphia. Arizona is a great place
to play and the fans were awesome in 2001 but the team wasn't the focal point
of the sports scene. In Philly, when I left in 2000, there was so much
bitterness and disgust from the fans at the team's ownership it just wasn't a
good situation.
Boston? Well it appeared to me that in addition to being some of the funniest
forum posts I'd ever read, they ate, slept, breathed, lived and died for the
Sox. There was absolutely appeal to that for me. The bigger piece, though,
was openly acknowledging that evening something I hadn't
thought of.
The Yankees presented me with a very serious chance at winning another ring,
if not more than one. Philly offered a ton of familiarity and comfort and a
fan base I loved to pitch for. Boston, on the other hand, offered me a chance
to be part of something no other team could lay claim to:
Making history. Eighty-six years of futility. The 'Curse' (still hilarious to
think someone made a career off of something that wasn't true, isn't it?) and
just an all-around sense that nothing was going to matter, they couldn't get
over the hump. Being a part of a team that got over that hump was potentially
a pretty cool thing.
Anyway, I read the posts, and they had a significant effect. I told Shonda to
read some of them and she was laughing like I was. The tipping point for me
here, however, was a post by someone talking about their Thanksgiving dinner.
They were going to say a prayer that this worked out.
Look, I'm human, as human as they come and I have all the warts and faults
everyone else has. But the thought of someone--or more than one
someone--praying that Curt Schilling gets traded to their hometown team at a
Thanksgiving dinner was mind boggling. We were blown away at that concept.
I honestly can't remember if it was this night or the next, but I got the OK
from Eric, the site's owner, to log into the chat room. This was honestly a
laugh-a-minute experience. The first 10 or so minutes was spent undergoing a
CIA-like interrogation to prove who I was, and after a few minutes I was
like, "Hey, it's me, if you don't believe it that's cool, I'm done saying it."
I spent like an hour or two that night just talking baseball with these
people. For the most part there was little 'idolizing' going on, which made
it a lot more enjoyable. They were asking serious and intelligent questions
about the current situation. I didn't give too much insight other than to say
Boston was a serious player in our minds, and that the team had come fully
prepared and we were incredibly impressed with everything up to this point.
Day 2, This isn't going to happen: Theo and Jed arrived on Wednesday and we
started talking pretty quickly. The talks went on throughout the day and it
became very clear that there
was not going to be a lot of movement on their end. As the day wore on this
became more and more clear. The evening ended with us pretty much laying out
our final positions. Shonda and I added one more piece around this time.
The team did not want to go four years, we did. I told her that if they were
being true to their word, and that winning the World Series was the key piece
in all of this--and if we were being true to ours and promising them if they
made this deal I'd help be a part of delivering that--if those two things
were believed on both ends, why not make the fourth year an option keyed by
that actually taking place? If I come to Boston, and we win a World Series
during this contract, the fourth year would be guaranteed at $13 million. I
think they took it in the manner it was intended.
The other major, and I mean major, piece in play at this point was the
no-trade clause. Boston didn't do no-trades and I didn't do a contract
without them. I had a total no-trade clause in my contract from 1997 through
2003. It was, and continued to be, a vital piece to any deal I had made. The
issue here was that Manny Ramirez had a 'best-case' no-trade. That meant that
Manny did not have a no-trade, but rather would get the best no-trade clause
of anyone else on the team.
There was pretty much no room for them to maneuver, and that was a bad thing.
I was going to have some sort of insurance that if I was signing a deal that
made me very tradeable in that market, at that price, I needed some assurance
that I would not be traded. How did we resolve that? Well the 'clause' ended
up being a handshake. I asked for Larry Lucchino's word, and he gave it to
me, that I would not be traded during this deal. To seal that I asked him to
shake on it, and Shonda took a picture. I took his word, and they remained
true to their word, I might add. That was my no-trade clause in Boston.
All things aside, the overall picture really didn't change. We had pretty
much every single detail ironed out, and agreed to, but we still remained too
far apart. Theo said they had gone as far as they could, I said the same. The
issue now became timing.
The next day was Thanksgiving and we felt we needed to talk more, but Theo
and Jed were adamant about not wanting to intrude. Shonda and I insisted on
them coming to our home. The thought of anyone spending Thanksgiving alone
was not something we felt good about so we pushed until they agreed. This was
the first Thanksgiving Shonda would be cooking all on her own, no pressure ...
Weird event 2.5: The other thing I had forgotten until Shonda reminded me. I
think it was the morning of Day 2 we awoke to a frenzy of traffic in front of
the house. About 15 minutes later this was the scene: R.J. (Randy Johnson)
comes riding by about three minutes in, leans out his truck window and shouts
something undecipherable, with an F-bomb in it I think.
Thanksgiving Day: Day 3 arrives, the final day to iron out a deal. We spent
most of the early part of the day watching football. I seemed to remember the
Dolphins being on. They pounded Dallas and Detroit squeaked by Green Bay
(which may have been the Lions' last win). Things
were going badly as far as the deal was concerned. I really felt good about
Theo, Jed, the Sox and almost everything else, but length and total contract
were just not going to move it appeared. Late in the day was the first time I
seriously expected the deal to not get done.
Weird Event No. 3: I received phone call No. 3 from the team waiting in the
wings. At this
point I was pretty honest in replying I didn't think it was going to happen.
I was once again told that was OK, there would be a team and a deal waiting
the following day. I'm not going to lie here, I was uncomfortable about this.
It wasn't right, but at the same time I had unknown leverage with the Red Sox
that I could use, if I wanted to do so. Having said that, I didn't say
anything to anyone other than Shonda and Ed, and I wasn't sure what to do. So
you could say, rightly so, I didn't do anything. Looking back now I still
wonder if I did the right thing.
We parted ways after a long day and my first action after they had left was
to call the GM of the Diamondbacks, Joe Garagiola Jr. I was nervous about the
call because I felt like I was going to be upsetting him. I basically called
and told him I didn't believe a deal would be done in time and that the trade
would not happen. He responded with what amounted to exactly what I never
expected.
He said, "Hey, that's OK by me. If we don't get this done then we go into
next season with Schilling and a healthy Johnson again, I can live with
that."
I was breathing much easier after this call, as Joe had always been a class
act and what he said was incredibly comforting given what I felt was going to
happen.
We had until midnight that evening, but about 30 minutes before the deadline
I was informed that the deadline had been extended by MLB. We went from the
disappointment of this not happening and thinking through the next steps to
realizing the only reason this deadline would have
been asked for by Boston was that the ownership had changed their stance.
I ended up back on SOSH that night for what seemed like an all-nighter. Lots
of banter back and forth and some pretty memorable quotes were thrown around.
One more day?: Friday was, well, fast. Everything happened in a flash. Larry
was back in the mix and Theo and Jed arrived early. It didn't take long to
iron out the changes they'd offered, which were very much in line with our
initial asks, and we fleshed out a few more details and then shook hands. I
was officially a Boston Red Sox. Wow.
A press conference was set for that evening, and a few minutes after the
handshake I was talking to Mr. Werner and Mr. Henry on the phone. I felt they
were honestly excited about this event and that made us feel even better.
The day ended with a press conference in which we all took some photos and
not long after Sports Illustrated did a story (with accompanying photo,
right).
So ya, long winded as always, but what an incredible privilege to have been a
part of that. I did this interview the day after the deal, I think, and
looking back on it and hearing what I said makes me feel pretty good about
the four years I spent here. I was a part of something truly remarkable and,
much like 2001, both 2004 and 2007 were incredible for their own reasons. The
accomplishments in '01 and '04 are both moments in time I'll be forever
thankful for being a part of.
My fondest memories in uniform here are varied. The one-hitter in Oakland,
not because I lost a no-hitter with 2 outs in the ninth, but because we had
lost four straight, desperately needed a win, and our bullpen was spent. The
complete game against KC, well, because CG's were always what is, first and
foremost, what we're supposed to do. Tek's glove to face plant on A-Rod for
no other reason than that was an igniter for us and a catalyst for so many
other things. The 200th win in Fenway. Watching Jon Lester battle back from
cancer to not only pitch, but become a No. 1. D-Lowe stepping up and helping
carry us through the postseason. Foulkie being the no-doubt MVP of the '04
postseason, authoring what I thought was the best October in history for a
reliever. He doesn't do that, we don't win. Billy Mueller--man, what a class
act. Papi getting a game-winning hit every single night in October of '04, or
so it seemed. Watching Tito get lambasted by fans and media 'experts' in '04
for being a pushover, then having those same mediots wax poetic about how
great he is after '07 and into '08. Seeing the SHADE Foundation take hold in
Boston. Watching the Boston ALS Chapter become a force. So much more, and all
of it unforgettable.
The only crime for me would have been not being able to experience this place
at the end of my career. Every player should be able to experience what it is
that Boston has, at least once in their careers, because after 23 years of
professional baseball and a life spent being a huge sports fan,
I can say with some clarity and perspective there is absolutely nothing like
it.
To the fans of Sox Nation I say God Bless each and every one of you, and
thank you. I owe far more than I ever received here. The city treated my
family and me with respect and we'll be forever grateful. Have a happy and
safe holiday season. God Bless.
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