Sale of Red Sox No Real Surprise

Call it the Boston Fee Party.

An allegedly open bidding process involving the sale of the Red Sox ended as it was expected to end, serving only to generate a record payday for the Jean R. Yawkey Trust and the club’s chief executive officer, John Harrington, a longtime ally of Commissioner Bud Selig.

It ended with a group virtually hand-picked by Selig winning the auction at $660 million, close to $700 million with debt included.

As a franchise, of course, the Red Sox are one of baseball’s jewels.

The sale included historic Fenway Park and 80% of the New England Sports Network.

At $660 million, however, it’s going to be difficult convincing people--an already skeptical House Judiciary Committee among them--that baseball is having financial problems.

The last three franchise sales--starting with the Dodgers at $311 million, followed by the Cleveland Indians at $323 million, then the Red Sox--have produced a succession of record prices.

This one did not leave the Red Sox Nation entirely happy, although the club’s future now seems in stable financial hands.

Many in the Boston media said the fix had clearly been in and that the Selig group--outbid by at least two others--was nothing more than carpetbaggers.

A group headed by Boston entrepreneurs Joe O’Donnell and Steve Karp had been the hometown favorite but ultimately could not keep financial pace with a group originally headed by Tom Werner, a longtime friend of Selig remembered for destroying the San Diego Padres during his brief ownership, and ski operator Les Otten.

As it became obvious that the Red Sox sale would produce a record price and the bidding, led by Cablevision’s Charles Dolan, went over $400 million, Selig continually bolstered the Werner-Otten partnership, ultimately bringing in Florida Marlin owner John Henry, former Maine Senator George Mitchell (whose work on baseball’s economic study committee clearly didn’t convince him that the game is in peril) and former Baltimore Oriole and San Diego Padre president Larry Lucchino, among others.

Ultimately, Dolan, who reportedly bid $720 million and flew to Milwaukee to meet with Selig to ascertain if he was getting a fair shake (he was assured, of course, that he was), may have literally paid a price for being the brother of Indians’ owner Larry Dolan. Some in baseball suspect he underwrote his brother’s $323-million purchase, creating the potential for a conflicting relationship in an industry already rife with them.

In addition, an 11th-hour attempt by Selig to broker a partnership between the Henry and O’Donnell groups failed when those two couldn’t agree on the leadership structure.

As it is, the ugly head of contraction figures into this.

Whether contraction becomes a reality in 2002, 2003 or never, baseball is expected to buy out Jeffrey Loria’s ownership of the Montreal Expos. Loria will use about $150 million of his windfall to buy the Marlins from Henry, who in turn will apply the $150 million to the purchase of the Red Sox.

Talk about a conflict.

Many believe it would have served baseball better to forget contraction, let Loria move the Expos to the Washington (D.C.) area, let Henry buy the Angels from the desperate Walt Disney Co. and leave the Red Sox to Dolan, O’Donnell, Werner or New York attorney Miles Prentice, another of the also-rans despite a reported bid of almost $800 million.

Greed, of course, plays into it, because contraction is likely to be tabled and, with Loria in Florida, his Expos will be operated by baseball in 2002 and then, perhaps, auctioned to competing groups in the D.C. area, retrieving a lot more than the buyout being paid Loria to underwrite his purchase of the Marlins.

With Disney now out in the cold and without a prospective buyer, Henry is expected to become chairman of the Red Sox, with Lucchino serving as club president.

Where that leaves General Manager Dan Duquette isn’t clear. Duquette received a two-year contraction extension--reportedly with a buyout provision--last summer. If he has been under constant fire in New England for his leadership--some might call it a lack of leadership--he also has done a remarkable job this winter, trying to rebuild a dispirited team and roster amid the ongoing ownership change and the uncertainty of his own position.

The New Yankees and Mets have stolen some of the headlines with their trades and signings, but Duquette has been far from idle in the aftermath of his team’s summer from hell.

He improved first base with Tony Clark, strengthened the rotation with John Burkett and Dustin Hermanson, acquired a catalytic leadoff hitter and center fielder in Johnny Damon, may be close to signing former Dodger closer Jeff Shaw (and wouldn’t that be a sour touch if he then dumped Ugueth Urbina on the Dodgers) and seems intent on improving the environment for Manny Ramirez by even remodeling the clubhouse to create a media-free comfort zone of the type Ramirez enjoyed in Cleveland.

Most important, Duquette has rid the clubhouse of the combustible Carl Everett, finding a taker in the Texas Rangers. He even got a serviceable pitcher, Darren Oliver, when the need to move Everett was so strong he would have taken a spare saddle from the Rangers.

With all of that, Duquette also acquired second baseman Pokey Reese in a trade with Colorado, only to decide he couldn’t afford to tender Reese a contract after signing Damon, making Reese a free agent.

Nevertheless, if Pedro Martinez, Nomar Garciaparra and Jason Varitek rebound from their injuries at full strength, as expected, the Red Sox should be capable of challenging the Yankees in the American League East.

Reached at his parents’ La Habra home, where he is spending the holidays, Garciaparra said he is confident that he has recovered fully from the wrist injury that required surgery, limited him to 21 games last season and derailed his bid for a third consecutive batting title. He also said that he is excited about the team’s off-season additions, particularly Damon setting a tone at the top of the lineup.

“Last year was a very tough year--both personally and from a team standpoint,” he said. “A lot of crazy stuff went on that weighs on you, stuff you don’t need. I think we’ve made some good moves, added a lot of talented players, and I think we’ll have a different attitude and mentality.

“I just hope the new ownership realizes what this team means to the community. This isn’t just a baseball franchise, but a religion, a lifestyle. The fans and community deserve a winner. Anyone can say they want to be competitive, but that community deserves to win. I hope the [owners] have that attitude, because the players on the field have it.”

At $700 million, it’s assumed the owners do as well.

Magic Kingdom?

Veteran Angel observers can’t remember the franchise being at a lower ebb, which is saying something, indeed.

Disney has no potential buyers and no apparent inclination to invest in a competitive club. Needing two starting pitchers at least, it is difficult to know where they are coming from when suitors can’t trust General Manager Bill Stoneman’s authority, given that it was compromised by upper management in killing his deal with the Chicago White Sox for Darin Erstad.

Stoneman is saddled with two players--Erstad and Troy Percival--in their walk years and another, Mo Vaughn, who is hungering for a trade to the East Coast.

If the general manager has to go to Burbank to get approval on every deal, he also didn’t know an assistant had given the New York Mets permission to scout Vaughn in a workout Thursday.

Chaos reigns, but maybe Disney will ultimately approve a Vaughn trade to the Mets--how that improves the team isn’t clear--given that they would be dumping $50 million, which is what upper management seems to understand best, having missed the point of an equitable Erstad trade when Erstad has no interest in signing a multiyear contract and can leave as a free agent at the end of the season.

Similarly, only an ownership change will prevent Percival from leaving then. His anger at the club’s leaking confidential salary information hasn’t subsided, and the closer also isn’t happy about the decision not to send a 2002 contract to setup man Shigetoshi Hasegawa, another void that needs to be filled.

Perhaps, Percival will yet be traded to the big brother Dodgers, and wouldn’t that be the ultimate statement on how it is going in Anaheim these days?

The C-Word

Applied to the free-agent market, as worried agents were doing in November, the C-word translated to collusion. There have now been enough signings to convince agents that owners aren’t risking treble damages by another widespread episode of price fixing, as in the ‘80s, when they were fined $280 million. The C-word still applies, but now it translates to a market that has simply remained Cool, Cold, maybe even a little Confused.

It’s all the result of the economic times, the uncertainty of contraction, the attempts by several big spenders, such as the Indians, Blue Jays, Rockies, Braves, Dodgers, Mets and Red Sox, to restrict payroll growth, and a reminder that the owners received from their bankers during a recent meeting in Chicago, stressing that they should adhere to the 60-40 economic principle and not let their liabilities become larger than 40% of their business.

The spinoff is that many free agents remain unsigned, and, amid limited choices, high-caliber players such as National League MVP Barry Bonds and AL MVP candidate Bret Boone ultimately chose to stay with their previous clubs, accepting arbitration offers from the San Francisco Giants and Seattle Mariners, respectively.

“Other teams expressed interest, but nothing emerged that was interesting enough to make Bret jump from the Seattle situation,” agent Adam Katz said.

Boone and Bonds have two choices. They can negotiate multiyear contracts with the Mariners and Giants, as they are trying to do, or they can pursue one-year contracts through arbitration, where they would certainly get whopping increases for 2002 but would have to endure an often acrimonious and embittering process. There are complex pressures on both the clubs and players to get multiyear contracts done.

In the meantime, although some agents remain skeptical about market movement, Katz said that players have enjoyed something of a “fairy tale” economic environment for many years and reality has now emerged.

Asked, however, if a strict adherence to 60-40 might not represent collusion, Katz said, “I’m not a labor lawyer, so I’ll leave it to them. But if certain owners want to live within budgetary restraints because of this particular economic climate, then so be it. As long as they’re free, fair and equitable and there’s no clandestine drag on salaries, then fine. If there is, there is, and it will be handled [by the union]. If there isn’t, there isn’t, and we’ll manage. I mean, you play the hand you’re dealt. It’s that simple.”

Contraction Calendar

The old year may be fading, but where contraction stops is still a mystery. The scheme continues to delay negotiations on a new labor agreement while sidetracked itself by a court case in Minnesota and a union grievance. Neither is likely to be resolved until at least mid-January, meaning a dispersal draft of contracted players, providing owners prevail legally, couldn’t be held until February, the eve of spring training.

It seems unrealistic to think owners can contract in time for 2002, but Selig, reached in Milwaukee on Friday, said he is still taking it day by day and sees “no practical reason to call it off” now. Union leader Don Fehr bit his tongue and said, “Hell, we still don’t even know what teams they plan to contract.”

With the Red Sox ownership situation resolved, Loria headed to Florida and baseball prepared to operate the Expos in 2002, Selig may finally acknowledge contraction will be tabled.

On the other hand, there is a theory that baseball is convinced it will prevail on the legal merits and wants those decisions in hand before it decides about 2002. There is another theory that while some owners have grown disenchanted, Selig doesn’t care how long it takes to make a contraction decision because he believes the season will never start on time, meaning that unless the union gives owners the economic concessions they will demand, there is certain to be a lockout.

“I hope that’s wrong and I don’t believe that will be the case,” Selig said, “but I’m not going to make believe we’ve solved our problems when we haven’t.

“Our problems are too pervasive and can’t be ignored again. We’ve done that too many times.”

Happy New Year.