Red Sox trumped by ‘Empire’ again
Boston failed in a bid to land Alex Rodriguez earlier this winter.

BOSTON (AP) – The Empire struck back.

Boy, did it ever.

After an offseason in which the Boston Red Sox made major moves to knock New York from atop the AL East, the Yankees may have restored the division’s long-standing balance of power this weekend with a trade for reigning MVP Alex Rodriguez.

“The Yankees are a more formidable team as a result of this trade,” Red Sox president Larry Lucchino, who has dubbed his rivals “the Evil Empire,” said Sunday. “We’ve long maintained that we are the hungry underdog. So now we are a little bit more hungry and a little bit more of an underdog. They still have to beat us on the field.”

The six-time defending AL East champions – Boston has finished second in each of the last six years – watched this winter while the Red Sox added pitcher Curt Schilling and closer Keith Foulke to a roster that was five outs from upending the Yankees and making it to the World Series.

That was before former Boston manager Grady Little left Pedro Martinez in too long and New York rallied to send Game 7 of the AL championship series into extra innings, setting up Aaron Boone’s pennant-clinching homer in the 11th inning. But when Boone hurt his knee last month, the Yankees went looking for a new third baseman.

They got the best player in baseball to plug the hole, and in the process completed a blockbuster that even drew the attention of President Bush.

“I’m sure I was as surprised as New York Yankees fans, and Boston Red Sox fans, when I opened my paper this morning and saw he was going to the Yankees,” the former Texas Rangers owner said Sunday at the Daytona 500. “The Yankees are going to be a heck of a team with him in the middle of the lineup.”

The deal agreed to in principle would send second baseman Alfonso Soriano and a player to be named to Texas, and the Rangers will eat as much as $67 million of the record $252 million, 10-year contract Rodriguez signed three years ago. That was before Texas finished last three times with him and realized they couldn’t compete with so much of their payroll committed to one player, no matter how good he is.

That’s not a problem for New York, which will have a 2004 payroll as high as $190 million if the deal is approved by the commissioner’s office; Boston will probably be second at about $125 million.

“The Yankees resources gave them the capability to do what no one else could do,” Lucchino said. “But you have to give them credit for their aggressiveness and for going out and making it happen.”

It’s a common thread through history: In 1920, in need of money to pay for Fenway Park and the Broadway musical “No, No, Nanette,” Boston owner Harry Frazee sold Babe Ruth to the Yankees. Since then, New York has won 26 World Series and the Red Sox have not won once.

What hurts Boston more than the prospect of another season as runners-up: the Red Sox nearly landed A-Rod this winter before talks fell apart when the sides couldn’t agree on how to split up the $179 million left on Rodriguez’s contract. The trade would have sent Manny Ramirez – second in salary only to Rodriguez – and prospects to the Rangers; Boston would have then dealt Nomar Garciaparra to make room for Rodriguez at shortstop.

So Rodriguez is going to the Yankees, who have an apparently unlimited payroll and a knack – if not a passion – for sticking it to the Red Sox.

“You can’t (complain) about the lack of effort on the Red Sox end, they reached for the stars on this, and it didn’t fit,” Schilling wrote to a fan Web site he has posted at frequently, using a screen name he has identified as his own. “Arod to the Yankees … it’s another challenge, but after 85 years did any of you think that getting over this final hurdle and winning it all was gonna be a cake walk? No, it’ll be more fun this way.

“So let’s move on, let whatever happens happen, and focus on the fact that the best Boston Red Sox team in the last 100 years takes the field in 7 days, for a ride that is guaranteed to be the most memorable of any of our lives over the next 8 months.”