The next night, the Rockies finalized a deal with Baltimore to send outfielder Eric Byrnes and cash -- about $150,000 -- to the Orioles for Bigbie.
''Trading Byrnes for Bigbie was not something they would have done without the second deal," Josh Byrnes acknowledged yesterday.
Later Friday night, at about 11 p.m., the Sox faxed Colorado the offer, which outlined the specifics of a deal that would net Boston Bigbie and a prospect who probably would rank among the team's top 10. The fax was unsigned and indicated that the trade still required ownership's approval. That wasn't expected to be an issue until Boston management and ownership spoke sometime after midnight.
Ownership decided at that point that the Sox, who were consumed with whether and how to deal Manny Ramirez, were better off pulling any other deals off the table. So, Saturday morning, Josh Byrnes, who formerly worked under O'Dowd in Colorado, phoned his former boss to pass along the news. Byrnes, according to Sox CEO Larry Lucchino, did most of the work on the Bigbie deal because GM Theo Epstein's attention was focused on Ramirez.
''Josh has as much integrity as anyone I've ever met in baseball," Epstein said. ''If anyone is at fault, I'm to blame for allowing the Manny situation to disrupt our normal internal communication procedures."
The failed deal set Monfort off. The Rockies owner, speaking through Colorado vice president/communications Jay Alves yesterday, declined further comment. But in the Denver Post Sunday, Monfort said, ''I will talk with the commissioner, believe me. World Champions? If that's what it takes to be a World Champion, then people are right, we may never be one, because we don't operate and treat other organizations like that."
Byrnes said he understood Colorado's anger but felt the Sox acted the way they had to.
