Who Can Really Say?

Two articles on ESPN tonight about Randy Johnson trade rumors. The first is by Bob Klapisch, who's described this way: "Bob Klapisch of The Record (Bergen County, N.J.) covers baseball for ESPN.com". In what feels like a prior life, I was a paperboy for The Record (Bergen County, N.J.). How long ago was that? Let's just say it was a long time ago, shortly after the invention of dirt, which would put it in the range of mid-1966 to late 1970. It's nice to see a home-boy make good.

Anyway, Klapisch says the Angels and Yanks are interested in Johnson, but that Johnson won't approve a trade unless it's to the Bronx. That's where Johnson thinks he'll have the best chance of being on the long end of a World Series. Klapisch describes a game of chicken between Johnson and the Diamondbacks. Then:

But Arizona is just as committed to this high-stakes game of chicken. The D-Backs believe they -- not Johnson -- have greater leverage. According to the Newark Star-Ledger, the friction between Meister and Garagiola turned ugly on Monday, when a conversation between the two went like this:

"If you don't trade him to the Yankees, you're going to have one unhappy player," Meister said.

"And how would I tell the difference?" Garagiola responded.

I like Joe, Jr. In any case, I think this is about right. Johnson would like them to think he demands a trade, but the D-backs know he knows that he'll be gone at the end of the season anyway. Randy Johnson isn't about to turn into Dick Allen because he isn't traded. The team already has all the incentive in the world to trade him and an agent's spin won't add to it.

Next ESPN.com reports that the D-backs were close enough to a deal with the Dodgers to ask Johnson if he'd agree. In response, Johnson angrily pecked them in a perfectly natural bird-like fashion declined, and it's said, told them he'd only agree to a trade with the Yankees.

Get the hint? Johnson wants to go to the team he thinks will, with his help, win the World Series.

Ok -- hold the phone and let's continue. Later in this piece ESPN reports that the D-backs also want to move Chuck Finley. But the D-backs had to tell the Phils and Marlins that Finley would not play on the east coast.

So the question is, when did free agents or trade restricted players begin to so restrictively exercise their contract rights? Neither Bonds nor Griffey would consider moving to the Yankees. Although Kevin Brown is on the Yankees' roster today, he's playing under a contract negotiated with the Dodgers that gave hime huge concessions so that he could travel to be with his family. And Johnson isn't the first player to say he wants to go first and only to the Bombers. But Finley isn't in the class of the players I've just mentioned, and yet it seems to me that we hear this from players of his caliber more and more.

I don't know that it's a good or a bad thing, or even something that anything can be done about. But it's becoming a broader question than just the Yankees' money.