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To clarify: I am not a Sox fan, nor am I envious of the Yankees and their success. Steinbrenner is by far the best owner in baseball, and has used the system to his benefit.

What I'm trying to say is that putting A-Rod into the cauldron of massive egos and New York media will not work for the Yankees.

For three years, A-Rod had his rear kissed daily by his feckless owner and general manager. That will not happen in your fair city. Just wait until A-Rod has a slump, and the media and King George will be all over him. There were only a few times when Alex came through in the clutch for the Rangers, and his .205 average during the month of May (last year!) came at the worst possible time.

There is no way on God's Green Earth that Jeter and A-Rod will be able to co-exist for more than several months, and that's been well documented in your papers. Other stars such as Giambi and Sheffield will not take kindly to being thought of as chopped liver. Giambi's been pretty quiet, but he expected to have a couple of rings by now. What happens to this team if the pitching doesn't hold up or deliver in the playoffs?

In closing, I am a completely PO'ed Texas Rangers fan, who has watched team management make mistake after mistake at every facet of their job. Consequently, their fan base has dwindled from 2.8 million per year to under 2 million, and the bleeding hasn't been stanched.

When all the Texas fans were screaming for pitching, the Rangers gave up A-Rod for Alfonso Soriano? Give me a break!

Believe me, I know it could be worse...had A-Rod been traded to the Sox, we'd have Manny Ramirez for four years!

Through it all, the worst news Ranger fans received during spring training was Tom Hicks was quitting his day job...to spend more time on his sports teams!

I think you'll have to admit that A-Rod will help pack even more fans into Yankee Stadium. This deal has generated unbelievable levels of interest and even the NY sports media, who don't love George, have said it's a win-win deal.

As a Rangers fan you should be happy. They can now pick up two good pitchers for the price of A-Rod's salary. The Soriano purchase was smart, because even though he had a dismal post season, he's a tremendous player and very undervalued. He fits the Rangers far better than A-Rod did. I hope they have the sense to keep him, instead of trading him off for a quick buck.

And, as you say, at least they didn't get Manny Ramirez.

BTW, a .205 average, or any average, means absolutely nothing in May. What was his average for the year?

Thanks for your response. I'm not too worried about A-Rod being able to handle New York anymore after seeing him handle the press and the pressures so far. But I do agree with you on him and Jeter not getting along -- I watched A-Rod's introductory press conference with the Yankees, and Jeter looked like he was at a colonoscopy appointment, he appeared so glum!

As for Giambi and Sheffield, I don't think it will bother Giambi at all to not have the glare of the media on him -- heck, I think that's been part of the problem with him over the past two years! And Sheff is Sheff -- the guy marches to the beat of his own drummer, and he seems to be impervious to any attacks. The wild card is the steroids issue -- if Giambi gets any more heat about that, this could affect his play. But Sheffield doesn't seem care what anybody says about him, which is a good thing.

As for your Rangers, I still can't believe that they turned down getting Jose Contreras as part of the A-Rod deal. I know Contreras makes 8 million a year, but still -- he's a starting pitcher, and the Rangers desperately need that commodity. And my condolences to you about Tom Hicks -- I hadn't heard he was going to devote more time to his teams. Sheesh! Whatever happened to John Hart, and why was he unable to work the magic with the Rangers that he did with the Indians?