Spit Gate: Yankee Stadium by Jared Carrabis
Shocker: Cliff Lee's wife spit on by fans at Yankee Stadium


(USA Today) -- Perhaps the Rangers' greatest sales pitch simply was having Kristen sit in the visiting family section at Yankee Stadium during the playoffs. She says there were ugly taunts. Obscenities. Cups of beer thrown. Even fans spitting from the section above.

"The fans did not do good things in my heart," Kristen says. "When people are staring at you, and saying horrible things, it's hard not to take it personal."

I feel bad for poor Kristen here, but when I read this story, the first thing I felt was not disgust, but joy.

Why joy? Because if there is anything that Mark Teixeira has proven to me over the course of his life, other than the fact that he is the biggest dork in baseball, it's that what the Mrs. says, goes.

Had Mumbles Menino made part of his platform to institute more shopping locations in Boston, maybe Teixeira would be the Red Sox' first baseman right now. But he's not, because Leigh Teixeira likes shopping in New York better, and Mr. Teixeira wouldn't want to disappoint his generously, average-looking wife, would he?.

I first took in the latest episode of Yankee fans being Yankee fans via Twitter, so I just got the jist of what happened, and not the full story. After doing a little research, I read on ESPN.com that Cliff Lee's agent, Darek Braunecker, tried to put out the wild fire that had been the story of the flying spit.

"The story is not an issue to us," Lee's agent, Darek Braunecker, told ESPNNewYork.com. "Her experience in New York is certainly a non-issue. She enjoys New York as much as anyone enjoys New York."

Yeah, I'd be saying that too if I were Cliff Lee's agent. Not only is he the agent of a free agent-to-be that could possibly take in upwards of $150 million, while making commission off of it, but the last thing you want is a sour relationship between your prized client and the team with a payroll nearing a quarter of a billion dollars with a target on your client's back.

It's just business, good PR. Whatever you want to call it. All I know is that if I'm Cliff Lee, I've got to have a sense of pride here. If the fans of a team spit on my wife, I'm stubborn enough to not sign that on that argument alone, because honestly, what's the difference between the $150 million that the Yankees will offer, and the $120M-$130 million the Rangers could offer?

Wise guys will say $20M-$30 million, but the point is that when you're raking in over $100 million, you're set for the beyond the years that your body won't allow you to live. Once we're talking in the hundreds of millions of dollars, it's a matter of preference, and I would prefer to play in front of fans with a little more respect, and nobody knows how to teach somebody a little respect more than Nolan Ryan.

-Jared Carrabis

Published on October 26, 2010

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