Today is February 17th, and it amazes me that it has taken me this long to get around to writing anything about this year's hot stove talk. Because it has been blazing hot, from the very beginning of November right up until today, especially in Boston and New York.

Let's turn back the clock to last season. The Yankees and the Red Sox played each other nineteen times in the regular season, and even the front offices fought numerous battles through the media. Remember Larry Lucchino labeling us the Evil Empire? (Well guess what, Larry, there's a reason New York is called the Empire State.) The northeast corridor rivalry is as hot as it has been since 1978, without doubt. Things escalated to a whole new level when the two clubs met in the American League Championship grudge match, a series that included Pedro Martinez throwing Don Zimmer to the ground and Jeff Nelson cleat-stomping a Red Sox groundskeeper.

And the war moved to a whole new front during the offseason. Boston moved first, acquiring Curt Schilling and Keith Foulke, and nearly pulling off a monster trade that would have sent problem-child Manny Ramirez to Texas in exchange for the best player in the game, Alex Rodriguez. The talk about the "A-rod trade" kept the stoves burning hot for weeks, even months. Everyone thought the deal would get done, that the two sides would work out something that the player's union would approve. Even Peter Gammons, that eternal pessimist, thought that despite the obstacles, the deal would happen.

But it didn't. Oh well. Any tinge of disappointment over the big fish that got away in Boston was tempered by the fact that it meant they could keep the beloved Nomar Garciaparra--and cranks who call sports radio aside, Nomar is loved at Fenway Park like no other contemporary Red Sock. Not Pedro, not Manny, not cowboy Kevin Millar. Nomar is the home-grown hero whose lack of media pretensions and work ethic are a perfect fit for New England's rooters. Fenway Park comes alive when he comes to the plate. So when the A-rod deal fell through, it wasn't all bad.

Until a few days ago. Bob Ryan is a columnist for the Boston Globe who had a moment of infamy last winter when he made insensitive remarks about Jason Kidd's wife on television, but whose longevity and stature as a Boston sports fixture is proved by the fact that these remarks didn't sink his career permanently. Ryan has seen it all. Today he described the mood in Boston as bleak. "First you had the euphoria," he explained, of December and thinking A-rod might come there, "and now the crash." Now that A-rod has done the unthinkable--and signed with the enemy.

No one in Boston thought that the Yankees would get A-rod. No one, that is, except my friend Bill Nowlin (author of Mr. Red Sox: The Johnny Pesky Story, and several other books on the Sox), whose first thought on hearing the A-rod murmurings was "wow, we'd better seal up this deal or once Steinbrenner finds out he's available, he'll go after him." As it turns out, Bill's paranoia was justified, though it took a bit more than just Steinbrenner's shopping spree m.o. to make this turn of events come about.

First, Aaron Boone had to display a callous disregard for his ability to jinx the Red Sox. Boone, after all, came to the Yankees in a trade in mid-2003, in which New York gave up the only prospect they had left in the farm system (Brandon Claussen, a pitcher), when Cincinnati decided to have a sudden de-Boone-ification, booting not only the elder Boone out of the managerial position, but running the son out of town as well. Boonie never quite got his feet under him in New York. His head never stopped spinning. He swung at everything and strange misfortunes kept following him. For example, like a ballplayer's version of a Nietschian nightmare, he had a game-winning home run in Baltimore ruled a foul ball. Boone nearly went ballistic rounding first base. Then the call was corrected and he ran around the bases still completely confused and out of his head. A month later he was just as confused, still swinging at everything and batting under .200, but this time connected on the first pitch he saw from Boston's Tim Wakefield in the eleventh inning of Game Seven of the 2003 ALCS. Walk off home run.

The last time Yankee Stadium experienced something like that was in 1976. The rival was George Brett's Kansas City Royals (i.e. back when the Royals were good). The LCS was only a five game affair back then, and the Royals and Yanks went all the way to game five. Chris Chambliss had struggled somewhat with the Yankees, but through hard work had improved his fielding to the point where he had gained the trust of his manager, and had improved his hitting to the point where instead of slicing balls to the opposite field, he was pulling fastballs deep. Mark Littell was a good fastball pitcher. As Elliott Maddox described it to me, "We figured that was perfect. Fastball pitcher, fastball hitter." Chambliss stepped to the plate in the bottom of the ninth in a tied ballgame with the trip to the World Series on the line. Littell threw his best fastball. Chambliss connected, and in an instant, the field began to flood with fans who knew it was gone. The umpires, police, and a squadron of ballplayers armed with bats had to go out to make sure he touched home plate. The celebration throughout New York went on all night. The Yankees were so elated, so united in the triumph, but so drained from the effort, that in the World Series they were swept in four games.

The same thing happened in 2003. Trying to beat the Red Sox took every ounce of energy, both emotional and physical, that the team could muster. And beating them was, as Joe Torre said, as satisfying as could be imagined. Thus, they could never get in gear for the World Series against the Florida Marlins. Neither could the fans. The World Series would have been nice, but beating the Red Sox was better.

So having floated into the postseason on the wings of a walk-off home run, the Yankee Empire's balloon was ripe to be shot down by deft moves on the part of the Sox front office. And for a while, it certainly looked like the Sox were "winning the winter." The Yankees couldn't hold on to Andy Pettitte, while the Sox signed Curt Schilling after Thanksgiving. The Sox added Pokey Reese to upgrade their defense at second base, and then scored another by landing closer Keith Foulke. The Yankees let David Wells walk away, and Roger Clemens (who was supposed to be retiring, but was lured to Houston by buddy Pettitte). Okay, sure, the Yankees did pick up Gary Sheffield and Kenny Lofton, as well as Javier Vasquez and Kevin Brown, but it certainly felt like the Red Sox had pulled ahead in the Winter Stakes.

Bob Ryan told Michael Kay and Suzyn Waldman today that Boston never dreamed that A-rod was available to anyone else. If they didn't get him, they assumed that Rodriguez would just return to Texas for another unhappy year. And indeed that might have been what happened, if Boone hadn't blown out his knee playing pickup basketball, in violation of his major league contract. Suddenly faced with a gaping hole at third base, the Yankees showed the creativity that has been the hallmark of many of the acquisitions of the Cashman era. At first, the solution looked like it would have to come cheap, a utility infielder like Mike Lamb, perhaps. Then college football star and Yankee minor league bonus baby Drew Henson, realizing that the organization was not going to bring him up to plug the gap, decided to walk away from almost $12 million the Yankees still owed him, $3 million in the upcoming year. Boone's contract, worth $5.75 million might be voided entirely. That gave the Yankees almost $9 million they could spend on a third baseman without any net increase in the payroll. Add to that whatever they might be paying a player who might go in trade...

The next thing you know, the Yankees made a move for Alex Rodriguez.

Supposedly, back in November, A-rod had chatted with Bud Selig at Sammy Sosa's birthday party in the Dominican, and basically begged the commissioner to come up with some way to get him out of Texas. Having won the MVP award, A-rod, halfway through his career now and tired of being the best player in the game who never played in a World Series, decided that he wanted to go to a contender. He was willing to give up the money, but the union wasn't. So things with the Red Sox did not work out, but A-rod's interest in leaving Texas remained. When the Yankees came knocking, A-rod not only got interested in their proposal, he immediately agreed to move to playing third base.

Another situation from the 1970s applies here, somewhat. After winning the pennant, but losing the World Series in 1976, the Yankees brought in one of the biggest impact players on the team, Reggie Jackson. Today Steinbrenner himself recognized the parallel, comparing the A-rod trade to the day Reggie arrived. Of course in 1977 and 1978, the Yankees won the World Championship (and beat Boston in a one-game playoff). George hopes this parallel course will continue. But those championship teams bore the nickname "The Bronx Zoo," for the inharmonious mixing of volatile personalities. Reggie came into the clubhouse ruled by a Yankee Captain named Thurman Munson and, reportedly, tried to become the straw that stirs the drink.

The muckraking tabloid writers in New York (and the reputable ones, too) are eager to see if A-rod, with his reputed big ego, will clash with his once-close friend, the Yankee Captain and the man who will hold onto his shortstop job, Derek Jeter. Remember that when these two prospects were coming up through the ranks of their respective organizations, they were close. So close that after they both made the majors, each man would stay at the other's pad when his team would visit the other's for a series. So close that they both counted their birthdays backwards, turning 20 again instead of 22, and 19 instead of 23. During one bench-clearing brawl in Seattle, the two of them were seen standing aside of the scrum together. (And Yankee backup outfielder, who took exception to this behavior on the part of Jeter, bawled him out about it, and found himself traded from the Yankees at the first opportunity.) But in recent years A-rod has made some disparaging comments about Jeter in the media. Has Jeter felt betrayed by this? Are the two former bosom buddies a bit cold to one another now? Does Jeter think A-rod's a big fat fool for taking all that money to go to Texas, and a classless phony to boot for talking trash in the media about him? Oh, what a juicy tabloid soap opera it could be.

But I do not think it will be. My impression is that both these men have a professionalism about them that precludes most soap opera histrionics. And New York and the Yankees is where players go to grow up. Heck, even bad boy Jason Giambi shaved his goatee, got married, and quit eating drive-thru burgers as a staple upon becoming a Yankee. (Actually, I kind of miss the old rock star Giambi, but that is a topic for another day.) Rodriguez himself got married recently. If he's made mistakes in his youth (like, oh, letting his agent convince both him that a quarter of a billion dollars was a good reason to go to Texas, or tearing down a friend in the papers because you feel insecure about something), that time is over now.

At the press conference today, A-rod was flanked by Jeter and Reggie. Reggie was a star for three teams, but he is remembered as a Yankee. If A-rod's star shines as brightly as Steinbrenner and all of the Empire hope it will, Texas (and Seattle) will become mere footnotes to his career. "Derek has four already," A-rod told WFAN radio, referring to Jeter's championship rings. "I hope he gets ten. Six for me." Alex, it could happen, although there is still the same problem you had in Texas--you need great pitching in addition to an impact player. Texas was 71-91 the year before he went to Texas. Last year, their record was identical. One player cannot do it alone.

Some other intriguing notes about the trade. The wailing and gnashing in Boston is at a fever pitch because of course it appears that the Boston front office really blew it. What Red Sox nation seems to forget is the fact that the Manny for A-rod trade was never a good deal for Texas; trading one monster contract for another wouldn't really give them the financial flexibility they want. Then how about the fact that the Red Sox and Rangers actually had agreed on a deal, but it was the players union that nixed it? No, the fault will be laid at the feet of Theo Epstein and Larry Lucchino. Unfairly? Perhaps--but if the difference between getting the deal done and it no t getting done was really as small as $7-$8 million, which is what people are saying, then Red Sox fans have every right to be miffed. Fenway Park has the highest ticket prices by a wide margin of any house in baseball, and the most loyal fans. $7 million seems a paltry amount compared to possibly getting the best player in the game... and who do you blame but the front office for that? Tom Hicks himself added some fuel to the fire when he hinted in remarks today that unprofessionalism on the part of the Red Sox hindered the deal-making process, and he was all praise for the way the Yankees' brain trust handled things swiftly, decisively, and (mostly) secretly. Ouch. A few days ago, before the trade had even become official, A-rod going to New York was the lead story on Boston tv news. Not the lead sports story. The lead story.

This is a typical case of Boston overreacting to something to do with New York, but it can't be helped. Even Boston's ownership are freaking out. John Henry was heard to remark that now all of a sudden he thinks baseball needs a salary cap. (He must not have heard the news that actually the Yankees' net increase to their payroll on A-rod is negligible and that a salary cap wouldn't have prevented the deal. In fact, it's Boston's pursuit of him that probably would have been quashed...) Steinbrenner responded by saying "We understand that John Henry must be embarrassed, frustrated, and disappointed by his failure.... Unlike the Yankees, he chose not to go the extra distance for his fans in Boston. It is understandable, but wrong that he would try to deflect the accountability for his mistakes on to others... and forget the sour grapes."

And yes, you heard right. The Yankees didn't open the treasury to get Alex Rodriguez. Let's do the math. The 2004 Yankees may be subtracting $5.75 mil for Boone, around $3 mil for Henson, and $5.4 for Soriano's one year deal. That adds up to over $14 million. A-rod will make roughly $17 million next year, but this looks like the increase in payroll for the Yankees is only going to be $3 million or so, and depending on how you count that money that texas is throwing in ($67 million) maybe it works out to even less. So tell me again how the Yankees "buy" all the best players? Right now it looks to me like A-rod isn't actually costing them anything... and when you consider that yesterday alone they sold 22,000 tickets (probably worth half a million or more), and what they will make on A-rod jerseys, t-shirts, etc... (which they really would NOT have made on Boone, in all likelihood), it looks like A-rod's acquisition is a net profit in revenue. Not too shabby, Mr. Cash-man.

You might say the hot stove just caught fire and boiled over. I came home from interviewing Tom Tresh for my book on the Yankees today to find my dad watching the YES Network on his DirecTV, waiting for a replay of the Alex Rodriguez press conference. Meanwhile we watched Mike Francesa, of Mike and the Mad Dog, hosting his WFAN radio show live, and taking call after call about the news. "Let's not forget that Soriano is a hell of a player," he reminded one caller. "He's no bag of balls, there." Indeed he is not, and in the hot weather of Texas, he will put up monster numbers. Who knows, you might even find Soriano surpassing A-rod in offensive categories in 2004.

But A-rod knows that if, like Hideki Matsui, his power numbers drop but his RBI total is huge, and the team goes to the World Series, then it won't matter what Jim Rome and Peter Gammons and sports-talk radio callers think. Because he will be giving the fans of New York what they want, which is a winning team with a shot to win it all. We might still need pitching to do that, and Boston are the ones who snapped up Schilling and Foulke. Joe Torre told the beat writers today that if you gave the Boston front office the choice between A-rod and those two pitchers, you'd have to choose the two pitchers. But in the emotional rollercoaster that is life in Red Sox nation nobody wants to hear common sense like that. It's much more fun to rail against the injustices of the Yankees stacking their lineup. (Is "fun" the right word to use there?)

I dare say there is a little coal left to burn in the hot stove yet. Rumors swirled--quashed by Cashman at the A-rod press conference--that the Yankees were going to sign Greg Maddux. (He actually went to the Cubs.) An offer to lure John Burkett out of retirement is supposedly in the offing as well. Torre says pitching wins championships and right now the Yankees seem not as pitching rich as they have been in the past. But pitchers and catchers report tomorrow, and soon we'll see what we actually have. My dad said it best: "I'm ready for the season to start tomorrow."