Yanks Grab Headlines, Hurt Baseball with Clemens Trade

At 8:55 Thursday morning, as usual, my radio alarm clock turned on "Imus in the Morning" to rouse me for a new day. The first words my semi-conscious mind processed were the I-man's rambling: "The big news of the day is the Yankees have acquired Roger Clemens."

I thought I was still dreaming, but not even my subconscious would have entertained such news.

Soon enough, my confusion turned to stunned disbelief as Mike Breen, the witty Imus sportscaster, confirmed the news, "Susyn Waldman of WFAN is reporting this morning that the Toronto Blue Jays have traded Roger Clemens to the Yankees for David Wells, Graeme Lloyd and Homer Bush."

No more doubt remained--Waldman is the well-connected Yankee beat reporter for the best sports talk station in the nation--and that left only one emotion:

It's just not fair.

There simply was no need for the Yankees to acquire the best pitcher this generation for a loveable left-handed fat man and spare parts. The 1998 Yankees won 125 games, and the 1999 version has even more talent.

Most of the league had privately already conceded the title to the Yankees, barring catastrophic injury. Toronto tipped that off by breaking a cardinal rule of trading a superstar within its own division.

Why then would the Yankees need to send one of their most beloved ballplayers in Wells to the Jaybirds? Sure, the deal makes excellent baseball sense, and Clemens is a special player, but with the Yankees everything means so much more.

With the Yankees, it's all about the headlines.

Much like Harvard squash, George Steingrabber discovered that quiet and expected dominance doesn't always make big news.

A look at the parade of names on the back page of the New York Post and Daily News reveals it all:

Mike Piazza, Robin Ventura, Ricky Henderson, Latrell Sprewell.

The tabloids grew tired of Derek and Mariano and only gazed towards the South Bronx when the Champs nearly lost Bernie.

No more, now the buzz is around one man only--The Rocket.

Piazza's first full season as a Met? Not important.

How about the mucking up of what is potentially Wayne Gretzky's last season? Fuhgedaboutit.

Nope, all eyes are trained on one man soft tossing at Legends Field. The man who owns a record five Cy Young awards. The man who prepares for each season by jamming his arm through a barrel of rice.

It's just not fair.

This trade reeks of all that is wrong with baseball. A star player, under contract, demands a trade to a contending team. Never mind that his team won 88 games last season--four short of a post-season berth.

Stuck with this contract demand, Blue Jays General Manager Gord Ash shopped Clemens around to the handful of teams that can offer fair trade value and afford his salary. The latter was far more prohibitive--just ask Astros General Manager Gerry Hunsicker.

After a while, the market dissipated for all except for one team--the Yankees. Steinbrenner has the money and the moxie to sit tight and wait for the opportunity to throw around his bucks.

Lo and behold, Ash made Yanks General Manager Brian Cashman an offer that Cashman said "made my knees buckle."

Cashman did not deliver any of his prized prospects in Columbus for this deal. But rest assured, if an act of God has the Yankees needing players mid-season, the checkbook will come out again.

It's a luxury few can afford to do. Sure, give Stick Michael and Cashman credit for assembling the roster, but it's cold hard cash that keeps the players there. It keeps a contending team intact.

Baseball has a burgeoning disaster on its hands as fewer and fewer teams can afford to assemble a contending team. Each year a couple more teams get defined as "small market." A couple more teams become fodder for the Bronx Bombers.

I even heard some dim wits on WEEI, Boston's wanna-be WFAN, refer to the Red Sox, with the fifth-highest payroll in baseball last year, in such terms.

As the list grows, more teams will have a difficult time offering their fans a good reason to come to the park.

Back in the Golden Era of the 1950s, when New York teams won every year as well, the national pastime at least offered innocence and a wholesome atmosphere parents could afford to take their kids to often.

"I finally got you," Steinbrenner reportedly told Clemens upon the consumation of the deal.

He got him because he always gets what he wants. He got him because one headline is more important than the viability of five lesser franchises.

It's just not fair, and when the collective bargaining agreement comes up for renewal, something needs to be done. This utter greed has to end.

Just so you know, I've written this column wearing a cap with an interlocking "NY" on the front--except mine is in orange.

Those players George bumped from the back pages were my boys. He rendered the formation of what may be the best infield in baseball--Olerud, Alfonso, Ordonez, Ventura, Piazza--passe.

Instead, he reminded the world that our best starting pitcher acquisition was Alan Watson.

It's not fair.

Of course, since my cap has that precious NY, isn't it about time for Mets GM Steve Phillips to give Ash a call? I hear Ash just picked up a beer-guzzling, Metallica-thrashing, southpaw who went 18-4 last season and really can't afford.