I've been waiting to write this one

Today's Stiff of the Week is well known to Boston Red Sox fans everywhere. He is caustic, boorish, pompous, arrogant, self-centered, self-righteous and above all, contemptuous. Let's have a hearty chorus of boos for Brian Cashman, Yankees GM, who just experienced one of the biggest OOPS moments ever. He let Cliff Lee slip through his hands and now that left-handed Boston lineup doesn't have to worry about 3 or 4 starts from Lee against them.

The truly pitiable part of all this is that Brian Cashman cannot understand why Cliff Lee signed with a bunch of bums such as the Phillies. How could he not yearn for pinstripes? Who wouldn't want to play with A-Fraud, besides most of baseball? Why wouldn't he want a 900 sq. ft apartment in Manhattan for only $35,000/month + utilities? Why wouldn't he want a state tax on his income of about $17.5 mil from the proposed contract? Why wouldn't he want to play in one of the most crowded and ugly parts of any city in the country?

Brian fails to see that Cliff cares about people, places AND last of all, things. He liked Philly. He liked the people there and they liked him. He had his own devoted fans. He doesn't need any more Joe six-packers or corporate honchos hanging all over him. He wants to win and with that rotation, he will win. Brian's team is older and slower and more tedious and plodding than ever. Did i mention slower? Pettitte's arm will soon fall off or collapse from age. CC is just one pizza away from a total explosion where he won't be able to pick up the rosin bag, Posada is Jason Varitek and the sox aren't planning to use him. AJ Burnett - oh, nevermind - I can't write about him - it's just too funny and pathetic. He is clearly the worst #3 starter in baseball and the Yankees only paid him $18mil per year for what seems to them now like forever.
Cashman could not produce a winner with a $235m payroll in 2010. Now what, Bri? Let's face it. you thought that the name " NY YANKEES" would be enough to have Cliff begging to come there. Guess what, Buddy? Wrong again !!!!

You offered him 7 years and $175m and he said "NO". What does that say about how his feelings for the Big Apple, Hank S. and all the other clowns there? It says - you're not as wonderful as you think. Come down off that high horse. You were lucky to get your other mercenaries in the past, although many of them are total busts as well ( see- AJ Burnett ).
I can't wait for 2011. Unless CC is in shape and pitching every other day, you've got a big problem, pal. I know, you have Phil Hughes and Joba the mutt. Good for you!!! Let's go with them, OK?

Yankee fans are soooooo forgiving. some are already calling for your head. Nice place to work there, isn't it Brian? Good luck to you in 2011. I know a nice Subway franchise in queens that will hire you, as long as you don't let the sandwiches slip through your fingers as well.

MLB and MLBPA need to sit down NOW!!!!!!

Let me preface my remarks by stating unequivocably that I am now and always have been a die-hard Boston Red Sox fan. I have been through the decades of "bad" and the decade of "good" . We all want our team to win, but let's look at what is happening in Major League Baseball. As you know, there is no salary cap in this sport, so the teams that have the financial resources are going to be more successful overall. Occasionally, a team with a low payroll, has some young up-and-coming players, who perform above and beyond the norm and the team is competitive briefly. Later on, those players leave for " greener pastures" with the rich teams.

But let's look at the big picture. The "richest" teams are clearly the Yankees, Red Sox, Angels, Dodgers and the "poorest" teams are the Royals, A's,Orioles, Astros and Pirates. Which ones do we always talk about as "winners" or "potential winners" and which ones never are in the discussion?

How would you like to be a fan of the KC Royals, knowing that the before the season started, you entire team's payroll is less than that of just Jeter and A-Rod. You have no chance, so unless you are just a fan of the game, you don't go to many or any games and attendance figures are horrible, meaning even less revenue.

During the season, teams such as the Yankees have the luxury of constant re-evaluation and additions to the roster and payroll. Their contract with the YES Network, their advertisers and huge fan base basically make it so that there is NO CEILING whatsoever to what they can spend. They are already this year at $230M, which is at least $75M more than the next team in line and more than 5 times as much as the majority of other major league teams. They have a struggling pitcher. That's OK; let's go buy another one or trade for another one. A player gets hurt; OK, let's go get a replacement player. When you look at the Yankees, you see A-Rod, Teixeira, Granderson, Sabathia, Petitte, Swisher, Burnett and realize that these guys all came to the Yankees as free agents and other teams could not afford to pay what the Yankees could. The Yankees were the highest bidder for each of them, by a mile. Paying a luxury ( overspending ) tax is of no issue to the Yankees. They could literally run their payroll to $400M and still be in the black, just with media deals. They have a city of 15M people and a new park with nice seats and expensive souvenirs and food. Tickets run up to $750 per game and they still nearly fill it. Some of the poor teams are offering 10 game blocks of tickets for $99, just to get people in the park.

Does anyone think that this disparity is going to get better? It's not. The Yankees have an all-star team. One of their worst regular players is Swisher, a virtual star on any other team. With no salary cap, their potential to win World Championships increases each year as more teams fall behind.

Worse than the thought of the Yankees winning the world Series multiple years or decades in a row, is the thought that bankruptcy looms in the future for many low budget teams. It's hard to atract fans when you always lose. The Pittsburgh Pirates, once a proud franchise, is drawing under 11,000 fans per game. They won't last very much longer that way. They are on their way to their 20th consecutive losing season. It's the same for KC, Oakland, Houston and a host of other clubs. We don't need to lose baseball in major cities now and head back to only having 8 teams.

The 19-39 year olds are not that interested in baseball now, because of its lack of constant action. This is a generation that needs a reason to come back. Losing won't help that happen in the cities they reside.

Some teams should be getting better, because when the rich teams play a luxury tax, the money goes to the poorer teams, supposedly to go out and buy free agents. The last few years has shown that this isn't happening. The money is being used to pay regular bills that otherwise unpaid, would push the teams toward bankruptcy. The system is broken and it needs to be fixed.

Remember, I am a Sox fan, and I know that a salary cap would bring all the teams to the approximate same level. That's OK with me, because I like real competition.

Some people beleive that it has nothing to do with the teams, but rather it's the hiring of good managers. This is total nonsense. Look at the successful managers recently.

Terry Francona was a horrible manager in Philadelphia, when they wouldn't spend any money. He comes to Boston and wins 2 titles. Did he suddenly get smart? No, he sudden;y had money behind him to get players ( Ramirez, Ortiz,Beckett, etc ).

Is Joe Girardi some kind of brain child? Anyone could coach that team in NY right now. Just fill out the card and send them out there. Everyone thought Joe Torre was a briliant manager. That's not true. How was he before the Yankees and now with the LA Dodgers? Did he suddenly get stupid or did the money pit run dry?

Is Lou Piniella a bad manager or does he just have a bad team? Why can't anyone win in Baltimore? The answer is clear. They don't spend money for players. You can't make chicken salad out of chicken shE#$^%@.

Every fall, fans of the NFL in nearly every city really beleive that their team can make it to the Super Bowl, because there is a cap on spending. In these games, talent wins out, the talent you already have, not the talent that you can spend freely to get later on.

I am naming MLB and the MLBPA my stiffs of the week, for failing to see what is happening to baseball and what will ultimately result in its demise. No player needs to make $20M+ a year to hit a ball. The integrity of this game is in serious jeopardy and something needs to be done now.

Alex Rodriguez closing in on 600 Home Runs

Unless you have been living under a rock for the last week or you don't care about sports at all, you should be aware that Alex Rodriguez, New York Yankees third baseman, is closing in on 600 home runs for his career. There are only 6 players with that many home runs in a career, so you would think this is a big deal...not so fast my friend.

A-Rod, ( or A-Roid ), as some of us affectionately refer to him, has been linked in the past to steroid use and his "somewhat" admission of using illegal substances early in his career seems to have all of a sudden earned him a free pass.

Well, just how many home runs did he hit while on the juice? Was it 100?, 200? or a lot more? Most pro athletes when they admit to wrongdoing, tend to undertsate the true scope of their transgressions. For example, Andy Pettitte claimed that he only used the juice one time when he was getting over an injury. One time Andy, really? Just one time? Just one little shot in the buttocks on one occasion? Does anyone really beleive that?

Just as Sammy Sosa, Mark McGwire, Rafael Palmeiro and all the rest of the cheaters won't be looking at Hall of Fame status anytime soon, we can all bet that A-Rod will join that list for a good long time when he finally hangs the syringe up next to his glove.

Barry Bonds was villified for streroid use and he never failed a test for steroids. Why is A-Rod so special that he would think that we all should forgive him and act as though it never happened?

Besides his steroid use, A-Rod is a disaster waiting to happen, whether it's his flavor-of-the-month girlfriends, his GQ photo shoot, his loose tongue or his inability to stay under the radar.

Derek Jeter has dated at least a half dozen of the hottest women in the world according to Maxim's Top 100 list, yet we don't hear about it. He knows how to stay classy and keep private things just that, private. He does not have that " look at me" attitude all the time.

We all think that A-Rod has had it tough. That is so wrong. He did not grow up poor in a bad neighborhood. He did not have drug sales on the streets where he lived. He went to a preppy high school and hung out with preppy people. He always thought that he was above the rest and the arrogance continues today.

At games, Derek Jeter is always amenable to having photos taken with fans and signing balls, programs and hats. A-Rod just ignores whomever calls his name, forgetting that these are the people who pay his salary.

He was a loser in Seattle, a loser in Texas and a loser in New York until the Steinbrenner family went out and spent $230 million dollars to help surround him with enough talent to win.

I don't think for one second that he and some of these other maximum production guys are not still on some juice, whether it be HGH or something else that can't be tested for.

We'll never know what his stats would have looked like had he not been on the steroids. We do know that Bonds was a great player well before the steroid scandal hit. A-Rod would never make the Hall of Fame if I had a vote, right along with the other aforementioned cheaters. Hank Aaron will always be the home run champion in my mind, along with Ruth, Mays and Griffey.

A-Rod is the stiff of the week this week, but he's a stiff every week. No one is THAT important. This is a game, a game enjoyed by millions of hard-working people who come to admire excellence, not decadence and cheating.