Well, they’ve done it.

Scott Boras and the Ramirez kid have gone and shown the world that if you hold out just long enough, you’re not going to be any more effective than of the other geniuses who tried to play hardball in this economy.

Let’s look at the facts.

Manny’s main grievance with his original offer was that he wanted four to five years.  The Dogers offered him two at $45 million.  Now, four months later, he’s taking two at $45 million.  With $25 million of the payments deferred over five years–no interest.  I’m pretty sure that under the terms of the original offer, Manny was going to be paid upfront.

For the record, The Creature’s main grievance with last week’s offer was the $25 million in deferred payments over five years.  Who knows?  Maybe if he had held out another week, he could have had arranged for Manny’s payments to be deferred over the next quarter century and distributed in rubles.

It wouldn’t be a bad bargain–in twenty-five years the ruble just might be stronger than the dollar.

The good news in all this is that Manny can opt out of this contract next season if he so desires, which means that we just might get to relive all this excitement-if we’re lucky.

Here’s hoping.