Today marks the deadline for Captain Tek to make his decision for Christ. He can accept the Sox’ 5 million dollar offer, or he can spend the 2009 season pursuing other endeavors. Like finally finishing that novel he’s been working on about the dentist and the cowboy. Or trolling vintage bookstores for rare volumes of Kierkegaard. Or painting barns. Because barns need to be painted.
If the guy does decide to wait around for a better offer, it could prove a decision on par with McLean Stevenson leaving M*A*S*H. Or David Lee Roth figuring he’d be way better off without Eddie Van Halen. But, today’s Globe tells us, it shouldn’t surprise us:
Though [Tek] appears to have no other suitors, it would not be unprecedented for him to sit out until he receives an offer to his liking. With agent Scott Boras advising him, Varitek opted to return to Georgia Tech for his senior year after being drafted in the first round by the Minnesota Twins in 1993. He then reentered the draft and was selected in the first round by the Seattle Mariners in June 1994, then signed with the St. Paul Saints of the Northern League because he could not come to terms with the Mariners.
Varitek never played for the Saints and eventually signed with the Mariners in April 1995, but he lost almost a full year of development. A few years later, Boras took an almost identical approach with Sox outfielder J.D. Drew, who remains an enemy of the people in Philadelphia after stonewalling the Phillies, who drafted him in 1997, and signing with the St. Louis Cardinals in 1998.
Honestly, I find this whole affair a yawner of Teixeira proportions. But as we wait for it to play out this morning, we might as well make use of the time. So I declare Round One of the “shitty ’80s music videos” Tournament: Wax vs. Go West!
