RAUL IBANEZ TO THE YANKEES: "TIME'S UP!"

There's an expression in my family and I started it.  "When you feel like you're getting screwed, you leave the situation." Raul Ibanez felt as though he was getting jerked around by the Yankees way too long and so, he left. Can you blame him?  I can't.

It's being revealed on this late Saturday evening that it's true ladies and gentlemen...Raul Ibanez has an agreement with the Seattle Mariners, he's gone, just like that. Read HERE.  Don't forget, this is the same Seattle Mariners that George King III of the New York Post said were very serious about getting Raul earlier today...  Read HERE.

Let me state the simple fact here, and this statement I'm about to say is because I'm truly annoyed.  The Yankees have their head in their ass.  What was once a franchise built on fan appreciation and big name talent has turned into a penny pinching operation that turns it's back on guys that believed in themselves enough to become superstars in the Bronx.  Raul Ibanez is that guy and Raul Ibanez had enough pride in himself to know that enough was enough. He left, he was most likely fed up and irritated and told Seattle that his time in the Bronx expired.  It's not only traumatizing for Yankees fans, it's embarrassing for Yankee brass, and I need to tell you and I cannot believe I'm saying this... I have second thoughts about keeping my season tickets.

This not only screams disorganization among the brass in Yankeeland, it screams chaos.  I wrote a heartfelt piece a few weeks ago titled WE DON'T NEED SUPERSTARS, WE NEED BELIEVERS. Raul Ibanez was a believer.  Raul Ibanez did the unimaginable in the postseason and with it gained a huge audience of fans, me included.  Raul wanted to come to the Bronx and was pretty damn specific when he told us here at BYB (HERE), "I heard it was great to be a Yankee I just didn't realize how much!  I can't wait to come back to the Yankees!" What did the Yankees do? Nothing.  They let someone that the fans really wanted back walk away.  They stalled, they flinched... they lost.

I need to tell you, this is devastating.  Not because Raul Ibanez is some superstar that we lost out on. No, it's because he was OUR superstar we lost out on. And you know what? For me, a fan who wants guys who believe... this is disappointing.

We'll have more about this over the next few days.  Many of our writers will most likely want to chat about it and have something to say, all of you will comment too I'm sure. And to Carol, one of our BYB readers on Facebook...I failed you when I said Raul would be back in the Bronx.  But I'll tell you what... if I was in that negotiation room with Raul, he'd be in pinstripes again.

I'm sorry guys... it wasn't meant to be. We need to move on.

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