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Does Carl Crawford have something against the Yankees and Red Sox?

Tampa Bay Rays' Carl Crawford makes a sliding catch against the Seattle Mariners during the third inning of their MLB American League baseball game in St. Petersburg

Tampa Bay Rays’ Carl Crawford makes a sliding catch against the Seattle Mariners during the third inning of their MLB American League baseball game in St. Petersburg, Florida September 25, 2010. REUTERS/Scott Audette (UNITED STATES - Tags: SPORT BASEBALL)

REUTERS

Here’s Buster Olney this morning, suggesting that Carl Crawford might have something against the Red Sox and Yankees:

. . . if everything is equal -- if the Red Sox or the Yankees make the same level of offer as the Angels -- do not underestimate the impact of the fact that Crawford has built up a competitive callous against Boston and New York in his career. For years, he has been battling against the Red Sox and Yankees, and he will need to be convinced to join them, according to a friend.

I consider this to be in the same vein as “Cliff Lee’s wife hates New York.” Can you dismiss it entirely? No, but you can’t really think this means a whole hell of a lot either. Heck, it probably means less than the Kristen Lee thing on the theory that a guy’s friends -- especially anonymous friends -- are full of more bullcrap than a guy’s wife is (feel free to argue this point in the comments). In reality, the offers being presented, in terms of both money and role on the team, are about 77 times more important to any given free agent than the emotional/lifestyle stuff we hear so much about in the early stages of the offseason.

A “competitive callous?” Whatever. You can buy a lot of pumice stones and moisturizer with the kind of dough the Red Sox or Yankees may offer up.