Then there was Boston, forever a Yankee thorn. The Red Sox drafted Teixeira out of high school, but his father John reportedly became irked at a Boston scout and urged his son to instead attend college. Now the Red Sox were again heavy on the scene; Cashman figured he might as well play along.
So he did a bit of research, discovered Teixeira had a fondness for Twisted Sister, the iron men of '80s rock. Sometimes it really is this simple, this high-stakes recruiting game. Sure, it helped that the Yankees eventually offered $180 million over eight years, but what really wowed Teixeira was the super cool video Cashman revealed when he came to visit in the middle of December.
Shot in the new stadium, with digitalized images of what Teixeira might look like as he ran out of the dugout and onto the grass, the crowd at a froth, the New York skyline in the distance, the sound track blared "I Wanna Rock." Cashman pressed play.
"Hey, that's my song!" Cashman recalled Teixeira saying as he and I walked through the old stadium hallways. "I was like, yeah, we know that."
And at that point, with Twisted Sister on blast, Leigh, Teixeira's college sweetheart who is now his wife, said, "I want you to be a Yankee."
I'd love to see that video, but for now, this one.
