A-possibility becomes A-ffirmative

As baseball's off-season is drawing to a close and all players begin camp, it was a foregone conclusion that the Boston Red Sox had the best off-season of any team in Major League Baseball.

They had picked up Curt Schilling from Arizona in a trade to add to their rotation and landed Keith Foulke to shore up an otherwise lackluster bullpen.

And then baseball's Great Satan (at least to those who aren't Yankee fans) shows up to make the biggest move right before spring training begins.

On Monday afternoon, rumor became reality as Texas shortstop Alex Rodriguez received his wish and was shipped to the Bronx as the New York Yankees made him their third baseman. In return, the Rangers receive Yankees' second baseman Alfonso Soriano and a player to be named later.

This was one of the baseball world's reactions: "Holy *(^$%!"

The other: "(&$#ing Yankees are gonna buy another (&*$ing World Series!"

This move was cheap, underhanded, conniving... and genius. This trade was reportedly so far beneath the radar, we could have found a Stealth Bomber first before this trade even came up in conversation. What's even more sneaky was the fact that the Rangers agreed to pick up a chunk of the money that's still left on A-Rod's ten year deal, encompassing that he agreed to switch to third base, something he couldn't agree on in the near deal to Boston just two months earlier.

And so, the saga continues. George Steinbrenner praises A-Rod's move to third. Yankee fans get another guy to cheer - or jeer - heartily. ESPN's Jim Caple gets to write another "Page 2" column on how the Yankees are the epitome of everything that is wrong and evil in sports. Red Sox fans are left to wonder what might have been.

That includes actor Ben Affleck, who acted (no pun intended) as if he himself had been slapped in the face upon the nearing of the trade. And he also talked like he was a card carrying member of the Red Sox organization.

"They have a $240 million infield, and that doesn't even include their second baseman!"

Ah, to be a Red Sox fan. To be so full of hope and then to have it shot down by a Yankee coup. Besides, shouldn't Affleck concentrate on finding his acting career again rather than caring about what the New York Yankees do?

Anyway, goofing on Affleck aside, the Yankees get A-Rod. Good for baseball? Likely so; baseball's version of Michael Jordan shouldn't be stuck in baseball's version of the L.A. Clippers. He belongs in New York. A-Rod is a native New Yorker and will surely get a hometown hero's welcome every time he comes to the plate.

You'll get your arguments on how it's bad for the game, how small market teams are left in the dust as the Yankees will surely be on their way to another World Series title. Yawn. Those arguments make me sleepier than a post-Thanksgiving dinner nap. All that turkey can't do you that much good, especially with that tryptophan writhing in your system. People can complain about how the Yankees continue to buy championship teams (that includes Ben Affleck), but it takes money to win championships and Steinbrenner, Brian Cashman, and company are willing to put money down -- even if it means spending money on something as silly as a luxury tax -- to win it all and be in the hunt every year.

Needless to say, A-Rod's arrival in New York is good for baseball merely for the fact that the game's best player is playing in the game's best city, which will translate into the continual rise of baseball's television ratings and attendance figures.

Talk is cheap -- A-Rod in New York isn't. Neither is a World Series ring.

Meanwhile, in Boston and every other Yankee-hating media market (including ESPN), the papers are roaring with headlines such as "Damn Yankees," "Why Sox Struck Out," "A-Reality," "Yankees Go With the Cash Flow," and "Time to Put Away the Sox."

What kind of pebble have Larry Luchino, Theo Epstein, and John Henry thrown into the Red Sox pond that will have a ripple effect on the Red Sox for years to come? Will Manny Ramirez want out of Boston what with Theo dangling the maligned slugger in front of the Yankees for 48 hours in November and used him for trade bait in December? And what of Nomar? The final year of his contract is this season and there's grumblings that he'll wear Dodger blue in 2005.

(The Magic 8-Ball, by the way, said "Yes, Definitely" when I asked if he was going back to the Left Coast.)

The Red Sox pointed a loaded pistol in the face of the Yankees in the off-season and the Yankees responded right before pitchers and catchers reporting with a sniper rifle.

May the most accurate shot win.