Fort Worth, Texas — The screaming headline Wednesday morning on the back page of a New York tabloid was brief and right to the point:
"Weasel!"
This kind of NYC wrath seemed extremely serious, like it might have had something to do with either Osama, or another Rocker comment, or maybe a cabbie who ran up the meter on unsuspecting tourists.
On closer inspection, however, the "Weasel" target turned out to be none other than Juan Gonzalez, who for the second time in two years rejected the opportunity to swing his bat for a New York baseball team.
If you had any doubt that the Rangers did something right this week in welcoming back Juan Gone to his ballyard roots, then take a second to allow the indignation in New York to sink in:
"He is a phony ... and the Mets are better off without him," wrote one columnist.
"Juan Gonzalez ought to be ashamed," was another opinion in the other tabloid.
See there. The Rangers done right with this deal, at least based on my long-standing personal baseball theory that anything causing a whine in New York is a worthwhile transaction.
Where is the love?
It's right there in Arlington, just off I-30. Puerto Rico might be home, but Gonzalez's baseball heart has been attached to the Rangers almost forever, or since that long-ago day when former scouting guru Sandy Johnson showed up during spring training in Pompano Beach, Fla., with a 16-year-old string-bean kid who was just off the island.
"The next Babe Ruth," said a smiling Johnson, pointing to Juan.
I took a good look and couldn't quite make the connection. The kid appeared to be on an Ally McBeal diet. Babe Ruth's bat had to have been heavier than young Juan.
Now 32, Gonzalez has spent half his life wanting to play in one place, and one place only. Even when he was traded after the '99 season, and he was hurt and angry and said mean things about the Rangers in a national magazine, he was still always plotting how to get back "home" to Texas.
Last winter, he basically begged the Rangers to take him back. They almost did, but then refused.
This time, however, they got it right. And Juan returns with a contract that says two years, but I hope it's forever out there in right field.
Juan is not coming home because the Rangers offered the most money. The New York Mets were willing to go higher, and the screams in New York center on Juan having left false impressions that he wanted to play there. And now they think he banjoed the Mets, while trying to get the best deal in Arlington. It makes them soooooo mad, just like during the 2000 season when Gonzalez rejected a trade the Tigers had arranged with the Yankees.
Since the NY papers didn't, I guess I should bring up how Roger Clemens once "used" Tom Hicks and the Rangers to force his way to the Yankees. But why be petty?
Now Gonzalez comes back to where he never wanted to leave.
Juan loves us. And they now hate him in New York for it.
Welcome home, big fellow.
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