Aaron Boone was running late. So he did not have time for the cardio portion of his standard workout with his trainer on Friday, Jan. 16, 2004.
It only changed baseball history.
Boone’s brother-in-law, Race Brown, happened to be visiting Boone at his Newport Beach, Calif., home. Brown talked of a pickup basketball game in Costa Mesa. Great, Boone thought. A chance to get in that cardio, after all.
It was just a few minutes into the first game, when an opponent attempted to save a ball beneath the hoop by flipping it toward the free-throw line extended. Boone, on defense, was there. He saw the chance to leap, snatch the ball and spin to begin a fast break the other way. He thought go up “like a wide receiver.” And then a guy Boone recalls now simply as “Johnny Hustle” flew in to try to intercede. Boone never saw him, got wiped out.
Exactly three months to the day earlier — Oct. 16, 2003 — Boone had hit the first pitch of the bottom of the 11th into the left field seats off Tim Wakefield to win the pennant for the Yankees; become a Yankees legend by deciding Game 7 against the Yanks’ most hated foe — Boston.
Now he was crying as he called his dad and wife from the car. He had torn his ACL once before and this pain was so bad. The next day MRI exams confirmed the worst, it was torn again. Boone would not be able to play in 2004. His agent, Tom Reich, called Yankees team president Randy Levine with news that would soon reach the ears of then Red Sox general manager Theo Epstein.
Epstein, even now remembers his first thoughts: “Oh, no, if Alex [Rodriguez] is willing to play third base, he is going to be a Yankee.”
“It was like Lucy pulling the football away from Charlie Brown, the same horrible thing was happening to us again,” Epstein said. “Everything works out for the big, bad Yankees, and we were doomed.”
With a decade of knowledge, we see how wrong Epstein was. But in the winter of 2003-04, Rodriguez was 28. As Jed Hoyer, then Boston’s assistant GM says, “He was not only the best player in the game, but the best player by a huge, huge margin.”
At that moment, there might have been a whisper or two about Rodriguez’s ego, but he was mostly baggage-free.
At arguably the hottest moment in the history of The Rivalry, the Red Sox nearly obtained him in mid-December, Boone injured himself in mid-January and in mid-February Rodriguez was a Yankee. It was Babe Ruth II. A-Rod was going to keep the historic order — Yankees over Red Sox — in place for years to come. The Curse lived.
Ten years ago today, commissioner Bud Selig approved the financial parameters and finalized the trade of Rodriguez from Texas to New York. Ten important figures from the two months that changed the arc of the modern game — Boone, Epstein, Hoyer, Levine, Scott Boras, Brian Cashman, John Hart, Larry Lucchino, Gene Orza and Buck Showalter — shared their memories of that time with The Post. Rodriguez did not reply to email requests to participate.
After the 2000 season, Texas owner Tom Hicks had signed Rodriguez to a 10-year, $252 million contract — not only the largest pact ever for a team athlete, but double the previous mark of $126 million by Kevin Garnett of the NBA’s Timberwolves and $2 million more than Hicks’ purchase price when bought the franchise for from a group that included former President George W. Bush. Sandy Alderson, then a lieutenant to Selig, publicly criticized the deal, calling it “stupefying.”
Hicks thought A-Rod could bring him championships and make the team so popular that the 270 acres he owned around The Ballpark in Arlington would become hot property.
But Texas finished last in each of Rodriguez’s three seasons while Hicks’ personal finances went into free fall. Hart, who had become Texas’ GM in 2002, and Showalter, who had become the manager in 2003, recognized the Rangers never could be a consistent contender with Rodriguez eating up what now was a diminishing payroll, even if A-Rod was performing at MVP levels. He still was owed $179 million for seven more years.
There also was concern about Rodriguez — that he was not really a leader, that he had a direct pipeline to Hicks, that he did his thing no matter what. For example, there were times he was calling pitches from shortstop.
Yet, Showalter contends, “Getting rid of the money was the biggest deal. We couldn’t put a competitive team on the field with Alex eating up one-third of the payroll, no matter how good he was — and he was real good.”
Hicks, Hart and Showalter met with A-Rod, told him the plan now was to go young (inexpensive). Rodriguez said he did not sign up for that. He had watched the ALCS, won by Boone, and thrilled at the seven games, hungered to be part of that. He told the men he would be interested in joining the Yankees or Red Sox. Hart called Cashman soon after the season. The Yankee GM then and now said no thanks. He had a shortstop, Derek Jeter, and he had a postseason hero, Boone, at third.
But Lucchino, then and now Boston’s president, said they got a call directly from Rodriguez.
“My strongest memory of the whole thing was how much Alex wanted to be a Red Sox,” Hoyer said. “I know everyone crushes Alex now, but in that moment in time he really wanted to win. He wanted out of Texas. I am not an Alex apologist, but he was willing to give up a substantial amount of money because he knew the contract was a burden.”
Ah, yes, the money.
Epstein and Hoyer flew from the Winter Meetings in New Orleans to New York late at night, hoping to avoid detection and to meet at the Four Seasons with Rodriguez.
“We were disgusting,” Epstein said. “We were tired and needed a shower.”
But they went directly to Rodriguez’s room at 3 a.m. upon his request for what they figured would be a hello and to set up a meeting the next day. Rodriguez answered the door in full GQ mode — three-piece suit, tie knotted, not a hair out of place.
The three men negotiated throughout the night. Boston was going to send Manny Ramirez and Jon Lester to Texas.
“You ask me what I remember,” Lucchino says, “It was how could we be so cavalier to include Jon Lester in anything?”
The Red Sox were also going to vacate shortstop for A-Rod by trading Nomar Garciaparra to the White Sox for Magglio Ordonez and Brandon McCarthy. They already had addressed their weakness, pitching, that offseason by landing ace Curt Schilling and closer Keith Foulke, and now there was a chance to form a 3-4-5 of Rodriguez, David Ortiz and Ordonez.
But there was a catch. Boston said to do the deal it needed him to give up $28 million-$30 million. Rodriguez — working behind the back of his powerful agent, Boras — agreed and even signed a document to that extent that Hoyer still possesses.
But the document was meaningless without the approval of the Players Association. The Basic Agreement stated that a player could not reduce his contract without material benefits deemed equal in value in return — in essence, the union didn’t want precedent set that teams could lower the value of a guaranteed contract.
Nevertheless, Orza — then the No. 2 man at the union and in charge of cases such as these — said he wanted to find a way to get this trade done. Even now, Orza professes deep affection for Rodriguez, and back then he knew the player wanted out of Texas badly and into Boston more badly.
“Alex and his wife Cynthia were in my office, and Theo came over to try to convince the PA that giving A-Rod an opt-out after six years rather than seven was worth $30 million,” Orza said. “It was a valiant effort on Theo’s part, but preposterous.”
Orza said he liberally valued items such as the changed buyout, suites on the road, extra tickets for home games and giving A-Rod marketing rights to his image to try to bridge the gap. But it never got close. Orza and
Lucchino both disputed a widely held belief that a strong dislike for each other influenced the killing of the trade more than the financial impediments.
With the opt out being discussed, Orza kept thinking over and over about something Rodriguez had told him upon signing the contract with Texas. He had put the opt-out in after seven years, he told Orza, for a specific reason.
“He had his eyes on the Mets,” Orza said. “He was going to opt out depending on the situation if he could get to the Mets. I worked in New York and he kept telling me keep an opening there for me.”
Well, he would be coming to New York. But not to the team he rooted for growing up.
On Dec. 23, Hicks announced the deal with the Red Sox was “dead.” To try to make peace with A-Rod, Hicks decided to name him captain. The official announcement came at the Jan. 25 Baseball Writers Association of America dinner at which Rodriguez would get his MVP trophy.
But that night A-Rod was sandwiched on the dais by Cashman and Levine, who enjoyed the long chat. The Yanks needed a third baseman, since Boone had gone down 10 days earlier. Cashman and Levine left the event wondering about Rodriguez. And Hart hadn’t given up, he was desperate to move the contract. He called Cashman without Hicks’ knowledge. If the Yanks had interest, he would attempt to talk Hicks into it. Cashman got the go-ahead from George Steinbrenner.
Hart convinced Hicks to give the Yanks $67 million to complete the deal, which meant the Rangers paid A-Rod $140 million for three years of employment. Still, Hart felt it essential to save what they could, move on. Plus, the Rangers would get back Alfonso Soriano and a prospect from a list of five — pitcher Ramon Ramirez, outfielders Rudy Guillen and Bronson Sardinha, shortstop Joaquin Arias and a second baseman named Robinson Cano. They took Arias.
“I look back on it, but I don’t’ second-guess it,” Hart said. “The reports I had on Cano were that he was talented, but moody, and we were not sure what he was going to be. The young shortstop had reports off the chart. He was gifted, could run, had a cannon arm, could hit. Cash didn’t blink putting Cano in and told me we picked the right guy with Arias.”
With the trade completed, the Rangers and Mets engaged in escalating talks built around Soriano for Jose Reyes. But Hicks scuttled those, telling his baseball executives he never would be able to explain to the fans trading A-Rod and Soriano. But that is how close the Rangers came to having a double-play duo of Reyes and Cano.
It is forgotten with time, but as Hoyer explained, “This was A-Rod’s finest hour.” He was so desirous to get out of Texas and into the heart of baseball’s biggest rivalry that he went behind the back of the most powerful agent in the game to meet with Boston. He agreed to cut $30 million from his salary. And when that didn’t work, to move to third, though he arguably was the greatest shortstop ever.
“I actually told him the move to third would be good for him,” Boras said. “I thought it would be less strain on his body and his power could flourish even more.”
Cashman, even with all his knowledge, says the trade was “a no-brainer then, a no-brainer now.” For a few weeks, the Yanks thought they were going to have to use recently obtained Mike Lamb to play third base in place of Boone, who the Yanks cut after the injury to save most of his $5.75 million contract for 2004. Now, the Yanks were getting the best player in the sport, at 28, on a seven-year, $112 million pact.
Who could see that 12 months after Boone’s homer beat Boston that the Red Sox would rally from three-games-to-none down in the ALCS to beat the Yanks in the 2004 ALCS, go on to beat St. Louis for their first title in 86 years, begin a decade in which they would win three, more than any other organization. Begin a decade when A-Rod would be the face of the Yanks falling behind Boston, the face of all that was wrong in baseball.
“We know that now, but believe me, when I heard the Yankees got him, I wanted to puke, I was sick to my stomach,” Hoyer said.
If only Boone had done his cardio.