Rice is steamed

Is this the same guy who ignored the media and was generally a miserable SOB to most of the public? Of course, this is just my Yankee bias, no doubt. So Rice blames Steinbrenner for not getting over the hump during his career. Steinbrenner surely had a hand in that Mookie Wilson dribbler.

"During that time, Steinbrenner spent more money than the Red Sox," Rice said. "He had more free agents. So when you get the best free agents, and you get the superstars from other ballclubs, that's what made you have a better team. The more money you can spend, the better you should get."

Even now, Rice remains annoyed by the Yankees' habit of throwing money at their problems. Not surprisingly, he lauds Red Sox general manager Theo Epstein for doing things the right way. "If you look at the Red Sox now, you see them bringing guys up in the organization," he said. "That's why Theo has been the person he's been over the last couple of years. He'll bring young kids up and stay within the organization.

"The Yankees haven't won in the last eight years. What do they do? They go out and buy high-priced players in the hope to get back the winning percentage they had 10 years ago."

Oh please, the cannonization of Theo is just so blecccch. I know Theo has done great things for the franchise and I've complimented their moves as I see them. But enough with the sainting and "Yanks overspend" drivel. I'll stop here as I've had to delete several rants already.


UPDATE: Because I am late getting started today (no work for me!), I missed Shysterball's take on the subject. And he took a strikingly similar approach:

Fine, the ball went between Buckner's legs because Steinbrenner signed Don Gullet. We get that.