stout, i think what people in houston are getting all upset about is when pet te signed here, he was all about family and hometown. richard justice wrote a pretty decent blog about it that sums up how i feel about it:
http://blogs.chron.com/sportsjustice/
And there's Andy Pet te. He's no sympathetic figure in this. He signed on the Astros knowing the way things work. The Astros are never going to stock their roster the way the Yankees do. They're never going to offer as much money. If you're interested in living in your hometown, if you want to play in one of the most professional clubhouses in the game, you sign on with the Astros. Pet te could have taken the one-year $12-million deal. If he'd agreed to a club option instead of a player option for 2008, I'm guessing McLane would have agreed to $14 million if that indeed was the sticking point.
Pet te doesn't need the money. He has made $76 million during his 12 seasons in the big leagues. Most of us can't even dream of that kind of money. He's going to top the $100-million mark in career earnings. I don't know if he never wanted to return to the Astros in the first place. For about a month, the Astros have suspected that he and Roger Clemens simply weren't interested in another season in Houston. If it just came down to money, to grabbing a few extra coins, this thing doesn't reflect well on either Pet te or McLane.