You know, I’m starting to like this A-Rod guy…

From Newsday.com:

February 16, 2004

Before Alex Rodriguez and the Yankees secured their future together, the Boston Red Sox did all they could to break up the marriage in a frantic, back-door attempt to upstage their hated rivals and convince the All-Star shortstop to play at Fenway Park

Multiple baseball sources said the Red Sox reached out to both the Texas Rangers and Rodriguez Saturday. In these discussions, the Red Sox offered to take Rodriguez and his bulky contract “as is” - a stunning reversal from their previous position.

According to a source, a mutual friend of both Rodriguez and the Red Sox approached the All-Star on Boston’s behalf. The acquaintance suggested that, unlike in the failed December negotiations, the team might be willing to take on Rodriguez’s entire contract. In December, the Red Sox had insisted that Rodriguez take a pay cut.

Saturday, Rodriguez enthusiastically told the go-between, “tell [Red Sox president] Larry Lucchino to - off!”

Lucchino did not return a phone call for comment yesterday. Through a Red Sox spokesman, general manager Theo Epstein denied the Red Sox made an 11th hour push for Rodriguez. However, he conceded that there might have been communication between the mutual friend and Rodriguez. Only the approval of baseball commissioner Bud Selig is needed to finalize the trade that will send Rodriguez, considered baseball’s best player, to the Yankees in return for Alfonso Soriano and a player to be named. The Major League Baseball Players’ Association signed off on the trade yesterday.

“He just wants to go over it,” Rich Levin, Major League Baseball’s senior vice president of public relations, said yesterday of Selig. “It’s a Sunday, and I think he had some family issues.”

That approval should come today, and with it, an announcement by both teams. The Yankees are planning a Yankee Stadium news conference tomorrow, in which they’ll formally introduce Rodriguez.

As part of the agreement between the teams, the Rangers will assume $43 million of the $179 million that Rodriguez is owed over the next seven years. In addition, the Rangers will pay the $24 million remaining in deferred money from the original contract. Rodriguez altered the deferred payments to help the Rangers, and in return for slightly diminishing the value of his contract, he’ll receive a hotel suite on Yankees road trips and the right to link his Web site to the Yankees’ site. Each perk represents more salt in the wound to Red Sox Nation, the vast collection of New Englanders who felt like they had finally gained the upper hand over the Yankees this off-season.

After acquiring ace starting pitcher Curt Schilling and All-Star closer Keith Foulke, the Red Sox were extremely close to acquiring Rodriguez in December, and A-Rod had agreed to diminish the value of his infamous 10-year, $252-million contract by about $28 million in order to expedite the transaction. But the Players’ Association wouldn’t approve the trade, as it didn’t want Rodriguez to set a precedent by giving up so much money.

The two teams and Rodriguez continued to talk and the players’ union agreed to let Rodriguez diminish the value of his contract by $12 million. That left a $16 million gap for the Red Sox to fill to make the trade a reality. Rodriguez would have become the Boston shortstop, Washington Heights native Manny Ramirez would have gone to Texas and Red Sox shortstop Nomar Garciaparra would have gone to the Chicago White Sox for power-hitting outfielder Magglio Ordo�ez.

The Red Sox would not add that $16 million, and so the deal died. In a December statement, Lucchino - who infuriated Yankees owner George Steinbrenner by referring to the Yankees as “the evil empire” in a December 2002 interview with The New York Times - ripped into the Players’ Association. By doing so, he essentially pitted the union against Rodriguez, its highest paid member.

Throughout this SOAP opera, the Red Sox never considered that, if they failed to pull the trigger, Rodriguez would wind up in the Bronx.

“Larry operates under the assumption the Yankees might be involved in 90 percent of what he does,” a Red Sox official said. “But with A-Rod, it was not really a question.”

The official described the Red Sox as “stunned” that Rodriguez would agree to change positions and play third base for the Yankees.

When Newsday broke the story on Saturday that the Yankees and Rangers were engaged in serious discussions to put Rodriguez in pinstripes, a Red Sox official reached out to Rangers general manager John Hart, according to an American League source. The Red Sox told Hart that they would pay A-Rod’s entire contract in exchange for Ramirez and a minor league pitcher. Hart quickly turned down the offer.

The Rangers were much happier with the Yankees’ package, whereby Texas took on only the $5.4 million that Soriano is due in 2004, than Boston’s, which would have required them to take on Ramirez, the second-highest paid player in baseball.

Hart denied speaking with the Red Sox in an interview with the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

A Handle On A-Rod’s Contract

How the remaining seven years of Alex Rodriguez’s contract will be broken down year-by-year in the deal involving the Yankees and Texas Rangers. THe Yankees will pay $112 million of the remaining cotnract and the Rangers $67 million ($43 million in salary and $24 million in deferred compensation.)

What the Yankees Will Pay What the Rangers Will Pay Total: In millions

2004 $15M $3M $18M

2005 $15M $6M $21M

2006 $15M $6M $21M

2007 $16M $7M $23M

2008 $16M $8M $24M

2009 $17M $7M $24M

2010 $18M $6M $24M

Note: In each of the next four years, $1 million will be deferred without interest and will be paid by the Yankees in 2011. In exchange for the alterations, which devalue the contract slightly, Rodriguez will receive a hotel suite on road trips and have the right to link his Web site to the Yankees’ site.