I wish Richard Justice would write more like this, because it's excellent.
Justice has some detail on the events leading up to Berkman's trade with the Yankees:
Lance Berkman was still trying to wrap his mind around the Roy Oswalt trade when the telephone rang at his ranch house in Mason a day later.
"This is going to sound a little callous," he remembers Astros general manager Ed Wade saying. "This isn't the way I want to do it, but we've got a time crunch."...
...Two days before the July 31 trading deadline, Wade told him there were eight teams interested in trading for him, and he needed to know which ones he'd consider going to.
Wade went down the list. Berkman said yes to the Yankees, Padres, Rays and Rangers, and no to the Giants, Angels, White Sox and Tigers.
Berkman hung up the phone and looked at his dad, Larry.
"I think I'm getting traded," he said...
...Wade telephoned him twice the next morning, once to say he had a deal pending with the Yankees and then to say it was done.
"He said he appreciated everything I'd done, and he was sorry we are where we are," Berkman said. "I said, 'I'm a big part of the reason why we're in this position. I haven't done my job."
There's more to the article, including more on why Berkman has been in a slump (left leg injury), and the possibility of his retiring. It's an excellent read.
We didn't come out here to play tiddlywinks, son.
-Hal Smith
