Saturday, March 28, 2009

Tex Explains Why He Became A Yankee

On Friday Mark Teixeira was interviewed by Joe Benigno and Evan Roberts and he spoke about his reasons for choosing the Yankees over the Red Sox, Angels, Nationals, and Orioles. Here's some more from Mike DiGiovanna of the LA Times (hit-tips to MLB Trade Rumors and Adam S. for emailing me the story):
"I always had the Yankees in my sights, and one thing my agent and I had asked every single team is, we're not going to negotiate through the media, and we ask you not to. The Yankees were really the only team that did that. The other teams went out and told everybody their offers, told everybody that they talked to me, that they made this call, made that trip. The Yankees kept quiet. We talked all winter. When they were ready to make their final offer, it was a great offer, and my wife and I were excited about going to New York."

Asked specifically about the Red Sox, who made public comments about their home visit to Teixeira in December, Teixeira said he was bothered.

"I think in the end, it probably worked against them a little bit, because everyone thought the Red Sox were my No. 1 choice," Teixeira said. "... The Yankees had a leg up all along."
Loose lips sink ships... Or in this case, your chances at signing one of the best first baseman in the sport.

You can listen to the entire interview here.

11 Comments:

Liam Gallagher said...

Very intersing.

Anonymous said...

Here's a lesson for Theo Epstein and the Red Sux nation: Shut your pie holes.

Larry Legend said...

I'm really happy the Sox strategy blew up in their face.

Anonymous said...

red sox sould have tex.

Scotty B said...

I love Tex more and more everyday. He's a perfect Yankee and I've thought that since his days wit Texas. As soon as I heard his fav player all time was Mattingly I was sold!

Liam Gallagher said...

Same here Scotty.

Bronx Baseball Daily said...

I do like the way Cashman operates. I would be interesting if he could ever actually run the team without interference.

Although I do think this offseason was mostly Steinbrenner free.

Greg Cohen said...

I agree, Hal has the most control in the Steinbrenner family, and he seems to trust Cashman a lot.

Anonymous said...

If it wasn't for Hank last year Posada would of been a Met and Rivera would of had not been resigned and of course A-Rod would of not been back according to Bill Madden. Cashman wanted to rebuild the team with youth. That philosphy quickly disappeared after not making the playoffs.

Greg Cohen said...

Anon,

A-Rod would not be a Yankee if it wasn't for Hank, he was the only one who wanted to resign him.

As for Posada and Mo, I really don't think they would have signed somewhere else. Just like Pettitte didn't sign somewhere else this year. The Yanks would have eventually signed both.

Bronx Baseball Daily said...

I don't think there is any reason to believe either Mo or Posada would have left. It was just a strategy of theirs both said they never even considered leaving after they signed.