This Blows

Red Sox co-GM Jed Hoyer: "More teams have traded for or signed center fielders so I think the market, in some ways, is clearer." ... "There are more knowns now than unknowns. Our absolute priority is to bring Johnny back and have him in center field next year, but we'd be irresponsible if we just sat back and didn't explore other alternatives."

Damon (a few hours later): “No, (the Red Sox did not match the offer), I made contact with them. I talked to Tito (Francona) and I told him they need to really get going because if not, I'm going to be on another team... I actually thought it would be tomorrow or Thursday when we agreed in principle and we were actually able to hammer things out tonight. Unfortunately Boston had other plans. I'm not sure if they knew that I meant it but now I'm a Yankee and hopefully now they can go off and get one of the center fielders they've been courting for the past month or so." - Johnny Damon

Translation: The co-GMs really co-fucked up.