Trading The Big Apple for Beantown?
By Derek Bunker
Imagine the idea of the current Yankee General Manager, Brian Cashman, leaving his current position to take over as GM of the Red Sox. Sound preposterous? Maybe not as much as you think, according to the New York Post.
Now I’m not sure how seriously to take this idea - and Cashman is accusing a New York Magazine reporter of ambushing his wife, Mary - and leading her to make a statement that can be misconstrued. And, after all, The Post has been known to "exaggerate" about such things in the past. (The recent bogus front page Post headline declaring Dick Gephardt as Kerry's running mate choice is selling for upwards of $40 on Ebay...)
In fact, I personally think that Cashman moving to Boston would never happen. But the story was written and it’s worth discussing in a forum such as this.
Read Chris Smith's New York Magazine Article.
For what it’s worth, as a Red Sox fan I don’t want to change GMs and even if I wanted Theo Epstein out, I wouldn’t look to the Evil Empire to replace him. It’s the same idea as Joe Torre coming to manage the Red Sox someday — it makes my skin crawl. I’d rather beat the Yankees with people of my own as opposed to the old "if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em" idea. Besides, what has Cashman done? All he is doing as a foot soldier for Georgie is carrying out the Boss’ orders. And spare me the "brilliance" he showed in obtaining Javier Vasquez and Tony Clark. Vasquez was a no-brainer as I and many other Sox fans would have taken him over Curt Schilling for the long haul because of the age difference and upside, and Tony Clark was pure luck. If Jason Giambi were healthy Clark probably would have been released by now. He spent a lifeless year in Boston and then the Mets didn’t even want him, so to me, the Clark thing is a fluke. But I’d be interested to hear what people think about all this.
Here are excerpts from the Post article, "NO RED SOX FOR GM," written by George King and Joel Sherman, of August 6, 2004:
...According to this coming Monday's New York Magazine, Cashman's wife, Mary, says that's not out of the realm of possibility, although she admits it's a long shot and isn't happy about how her comments were presented.
"Brian would like to go to Boston and win the World Series," Mary Cashman told New York Magazine. "That would be any man's dream, to go up there and become the god of Boston. But I don't think that will happen."
Informed during the middle of a 5-1 Yankees victory over the A's at Yankee Stadium that the magazine story was out, George Steinbrenner was annoyed. However, he did not comment on the touchy subject.
"I'm just concentrating on trying to win a championship here," Cashman says in the article. "If I have to try to win championships elsewhere, I'll worry about that at another time."
"My wife is not happy. She does not like that it looks like the GM of the Yankees wants to be a Red Sox. That is 100 percent false. "
