The Ball's Back in Boston

Am I the only one who sees a slight resemblence between Jeff Nelson's trade from the 2003 M's and the recently-completed Doug Mientkiewicz trade to the Mets? Perhaps a lesson is to be learned here:

No matter what the cause is --
What you think or do or say --
Enflame the ire of your bosses
Your hearth will burn away!

As you might recall, Mr. Nelson made some harsh comments towards the M's front office right after the 2003 non-waiver trading deadline. Even though the front office vehemently denied it was even a thought in their mind when they traded him to the division-rival Yankees, I haven't heard anyone today who actually believes the front office.



Likewise, as I chronicled earlier, Mr. Mientkiewicz (D-Mint from now on) , seems to have had a problem following a request from his employer, the Boston Red Sox, on a certain, significant, World Series baseball. According to Epstein:

The ball issue was never a factor in this trade or in this negotiating process. We had a baseball decision to make.

Being a college-educated linguist (not currently using his German major, of course), I look at this sentence and see that both Theo and D-Mint had a "baseball decision" to make. I wouldn't fault a reader who construes this as possible front office blackmail, if not mere double-speak.

It appears that both Epstein and D-Mint made the right baseball decisions. Epstein jettisoned a roster-clogging redundancy (for an interesting prospect, even). D-Mint's decision is spelled out thusly:

"I want the fans to see it, and that's what both the Red Sox and I agreed on. They waited a long time to see that ball and to live it."

Mientkiewicz said he will not receive any money under the deal and probably would get the ball back after a year. He emphasized that he's "doing everything they asked me to do."

Of course, my gavel of criticism will be suspended over what happens to the ball after the Red Sox Nation gets to ogle that awesome orb for a year. Indeed, I still believe that that ball deserves its own environmentally-controlled shrine in Cooperstown right alongside Curt's spikes, the ALCS Game 7 final out ball, and the rest of the items on this list.

Update 2/4/05: Awesome AP story about the ball's final journey to Boston now available