Living in the past is a good way to run a baseball team.

"The Yankees can find nearly a half-billion dollars to pay three players who, as brilliant as they've performed elsewhere, have yet to do a thing for this franchise."

Hi, I think $420 million is almost $500 million.

But I'm not paid to be smart.


"After blowing their bankroll on Sabathia, A.J. Burnett and Mark Teixeira, the Bankees now claim that $10 million - a pretty damn good paycheck for anyone these days but still, a $6-million pay cut for Pettitte from last season - is as high as they are willing to go for a pitcher who won some of the most important postseason games in their recent history."

1) I don't think they blew their bankroll.

2) If they really blew their bankroll, then that explains why they don't have additional funds for Andy Pettitte.

3) 2003 was the last time Andy Pettitte won a postseason game for the Yankees. That's not "recent."


"(Pettitte went 13-8 in the postseason for the Yankees, who never lost an ALCS game he started. But because they haven't been to the ALCS in quite a while, it's possible they forgot that stat.)"

Exactly. It's ancient history.


"Plus, it would be a tremendous PR coup for the Mets, who frankly have looked like jerks the past few years watching the Yankees rescue their castoffs (Gooden, Strawberry, Cone, Nady) but now have the opportunity to return the favor."

Dwight Gooden, Darryl Strawberry, and David Cone?

Gooden last pitched for the Yankees in 2000; Strawberry last played for the Yankees in 1999; Cone last pitched in 2000 for the Yankees and last pitched in 2003 for the Mets.

"The past few years" is a decade ago if you're Wallace Matthews.

Wallace Matthews is talking about the 1986 Mets. But it's 2008 and this is supposed to be a discussion about Andy Pettitte.


"And best of all, Pettitte doesn't cost you all that much, in money or years. One year at $12 million to $14 million, maybe with an option, probably gets it done, and that's perfect. No long-term entanglements with a head case like Perez, or a hospital case like Sheets. No five-innings-and-out, at best, like you'd get from Pedro.

What you get is a low-maintenance, no-drama professional who's here for one reason only: To help you win now, this year, not promise you things down the road that he will likely never deliver."

Ha ha.

Let's not mention the "no-drama" cheating or the injury history.

That's just weird.