If Alex Rodriguez really asked for a jet, luxury boxes for his pals at home and away, office space for his marketing staff, guarantees his face would be plastered on billboards all over New York, an escalator clause, escape clause and $300 million for 12 years, good for him.

And if Mets general manager Steve Phillips said no, even before the subject of money came up, because he really believed affording one player the star treatment would destroy morale on the rest of his team, then good for him, too.

But don't believe it.

The time is ripe for outrageous demands, to be sure. Last week, Tiger Woods warned the PGA Tour he wants control over his appearance in promotional campaigns and maybe a share of the spiraling revenues he is generating, besides. That sounded so good that by Monday, Richard Williams, father of Venus and Serena, said he, too, was tired of his daughters' earning power being siphoned off by the WTA Tour.

We may yet learn whether a superstar, or even two, are bigger than the game or the teams they play for, but rest assured A-Rod won't be the test case. That was never his intention, even though Phillips did a masterful job pinning that rap on Rodriguez and his agent, Scott Boras.

"What he says now is that he wants to be treated like any other player on the team. Then, it was show us the design on how we will market around the player," Phillips said, referring to conversations he had with Boras at the general managers' meeting last week in Florida.

"How many billboards will be put up in the city? How will the other players feel about being moved into a secondary role? It was that sort of tone and that sort of content," he said.

Boras has been in a damage-control mode since Monday, when Phillips went public with his tale of negotiating woe. He said the Mets were prepared to make a good-faith offer for Rodriguez, but were so turned off by the laundry list Boras handed him that the talk never got around to dollars.

A day later, Phillips conceded Rodriguez hadn't actually demanded that any of the perks be written into a contract. And he said further that he couldn't remember which ones Boras actually mentioned, which ones were part of Rodriguez's deal with Seattle and which ones he picked up from newspapers or gossiping at the general managers' meeting.

But Phillips was more convinced than ever that he'd made the right choice.

"It's not about the money," he said. "It's about the team."

Phillips' stance was hailed around baseball as courageous, a cry for sanity across a landscape spoiled by greedy athletes, with their unceasing demands for more – hotel suites on the road, luxury cars year-round, use of the corporate jet, a bigger share of merchandising revenues, etc. But it was nothing of the sort.

The Mets must contend with the big-budget Atlanta Braves, with whom they share the National League East, and the even bigger-budget Yankees, with whom they share a town. Phillips would have to re-sign his best and most expensive pitcher, Mike Hampton, and seven other players on the current roster for the Mets just to hold their place, let alone improve it.

And by passing on Rodriguez with the claim that he wouldn't risk "destroying the fabric of the team," Phillips not only saves face with Mets fans, he saves enough money to go after Hampton, the rest of his own free agents, and maybe some more reasonably priced talent out on the open market.

Boras is the most rapacious agent in the game, but this is one instance where he will have to earn his money. Almost overnight, the perception of Rodriguez has gone from a hardworking class act and team leader in Seattle to the most spoiled kind of mercenary brat. Boras probably returned more phone calls in two days than he has in two years, but he's still got a long way to go to sell Rodriguez at the asking price of $25 million a year. Not that he's worried.

"I got calls from all the other wolves," Boras said, referring to Phillips' competitors in the A-Rod Sweepstakes, "and they seemed to be pleased that one wolf was dead."

Phillips never doubted it.

"I think the likelihood is he'll get what he wants from somebody else," he said.

Rodriguez will.

Maybe not everything on his wish list, but that's what negotiations are for.