Boston was ready to rename every bridge and tunnel after these guys.

Back to Pedro: I don't think the Red Sox should have matched New York's offer of $54 million over four years. That was absolute insanity. But if they made one mistake over the past three years, it was the way they handled Pedro's situation after their much-ballyhooed pursuit of Curt Schilling. How can you spend that much time, energy and money pursuing one star pitcher, sign him to a lucrative extension, include an incredible eight-figure bonus clause for winning the World Series ... and then tell your incumbent franchise pitcher, "Let's talk after next season when you're a free agent, maybe we can work something out." If you were Pedro, would you have taken the hometown discount to stay after that? Hell, no. If anything, you probably would have signed somewhere else and been extra-motivated to stick it to them.