See: Miguel Tejada and the Orioles. ARod and the Rangers. Mike Hampton and the Rockies.

I was just thinking about this the other day: while huge baseball player salaries may seem interchangably ludicrous to us plebeians, the addition of a few million dollars on top of two hundred could mean the difference between buying that boat and not buying that boat. Or donating that much more to charity. Or whatever rich people do with their money.

Winning is great, and everyone wants to win, but first and foremost on everyone’s mind is “me and my family.” For some people, that’s more money. For others, that’s playing near their family or childhood home (ie Griffey).

So the fact that Texeira even answered the question the way he did means that he either a) is actually considering Baltimore, or, more likely, B) is keeping teams guessing so they’ll throw even more money at him.

If the Angels win the World Series, Texeira will probably be thankful that he’s there and will probably have a great time. But that doesn’t mean he’s going to take a few million less to stay there, or that he’ll suddenly shed any sort of nostalgia for his home.

Winning is nice. Peace of mind is nicer.

It might be true, and it might not, but he seems like he’d prefer to be closer to home, which is Maryland for him. I’m not saying that means I think he’ll be in Baltimore next year. New York seems likely, one team or the other.