Stepping up
Teams bolstering offers to Blue Jays' Ash in efforts to land Clemens
Posted: Friday December 11, 1998 09:33 PM
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Blue Jay will fly: Five-time Cy Young Award winner Roger Clemens has demanded a trade to a team closer to his Houston home or to a contender AP |
NASHVILLE, Tennessee (AP) -- Gord Ash couldn't help himself.
"This isn't -- I hate to use the pun -- Rocket science," he said Friday.
Nine days into the Roger Clemens
auction, the Toronto
Blue Jays general manager still didn't have a deal in sight for "The
Rocket."
With five teams still in contention for the only five-time Cy Young Award
winner in baseball history, Ash arrived at the winter meetings with little
fanfare, carrying his own luggage as he walked through the lobby of the
Opryland Hotel.
A few hours later, after he finally found Toronto's suite in the vast
2,884-room hotel -- he had to cross a man-made river to get there from the
lobby -- he said nothing was close and the bidding might stretch into next
week.
Still, he expected to go home without Clemens, who has demanded a trade
to a team closer to his Houston home or to a contender.
"I can't see how we leave here without a deal being done," Ash said.
Houston, Texas, the New York Yankees,
Cleveland and perhaps Colorado are in the hunt. Two of the five stepped up
their offers Friday, Ash said, without indicating which two.
And, in a reversal, Yankees owner George Steinbrenner decided to send GM
Brian Cashman to the meetings. New York had been the only team not planning
to attend the session, the first winter meetings for the major leagues
since 1992.
"Don't read too much into it," said one Yankees official, speaking on the
condition he not be identified, an indication Steinbrenner still was unsure
how much he wanted to pursue Clemens.
It was a two-track negotiation. Teams are talking with Toronto about the
players the Blue Jays want and also are talking with Clemens' agents, Randy
and Alan Hendricks, about the contract extension their client wants.
"Anyone that's wanted to talk to the Hendricks -- be my guest, talk to
them," Ash said, confirming for the first time that he's given his
permission for other teams to talk contract with Clemens.
Ash has turned this into a semi-public auction. By hinting about offers,
he makes teams think about increasing their own proposals.
"I like the Oil of Olay approach -- keep them guessing," Ash said, adding
that he wasn't worried about overplaying his hand. "In discussions, you get
a sense when clubs are at the turning point, you get a sense of how far
they're going to go."
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