Yankees grab prize Sox pined for

"From the moment we arrived in Boston in late 2001, we saw it as a monumental challenge," owner John Henry said in an e-mail to the Associated Press, referencing the competition with the Yankees. "We sought to reduce the financial gap and succeeded to a degree. Now with a new stadium filled with revenue op portunities, they have leaped away from us again. So we have to be even more careful in deploying our resources."

According to major league sources, the Sox remained in contact with Teixeira's agent, Scott Boras, even after Henry's declaration last Thursday that they would no longer be a factor in negotiations for Teixeira. But they did not enhance the offer they made that night in Texas - eight years, $168 million - until Monday, when they simply rounded it off to $170 million.

The Sox didn't want to be used by Boras as leverage, the sources said, so they imposed a deadline of Monday night. Boras told them Teixeira was traveling and needed time to make a decision. So the Sox wanted an answer yesterday morning, but in the interim the Washington Nationals increased their offer to $180 million over nine years.

And then the Yankees entered the bidding, offering the same money over one fewer season. Yankees general manager Brian Cashman had met with Teixeira in late November and, according to a Yankees source, won him over instantly. Teixeira liked Cashman's easy manner, and Cashman convinced him he could be part of something exciting and historic.

A Yankees source also said he thought, but wasn't 100 percent sure, that Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriguez placed a call to Teixeira, a former teammate in Texas, to help persuade Teixeira to play in New York.