Everybody and their brother has some kind of spin on the Alex Rodriguez situation. So let me throw in my two cents.

	When you're in A-Rod's shoes, why not swing for the fences?

First of all, let me give you something to think about. People always say the players are ruining the game of baseball. That couldn't be farther from the truth. Let me take you back six years, when I was the player representative for the Cincinnati Reds. Which meant I was the Reds' point guy when the union met in Washington, D.C. to decide how to handle the Strike.

We were at the White House with all these high-ranking officials, including The Man, President Bill Clinton. For an entire day we listened to the owners say things like, "Guys, why don't you go back home, get your gloves and your balls, and let us worry about the business end of the game?"

Aside from being disrespectful, their tone underscored our notion that we were in this mess because of their approach to the business end of the game. It was not going to be easy.

That meeting prompted one of the nicest, and most telling, things said to us players during the negotiations. Bill Clinton, of all people, told us to get back in our vans and go back to our hotel. He said we were dealing with the 28 most untrustworthy people he had ever met in his life.

It was quite a thing to hear. Someone from the political world, where people bend the truth for a living, thought the baseball owners were transparent and unreliable. In a way, President Clinton was telling us it would be a long haul, and he was right. The strike lasted another six months.

During this fun time, Chicago White Sox and Chicago Bulls owner Jerry Reinsdorf remained a staunch hard-liner who wanted to break up the players union. He was not concerned about the small-market teams at the heart of the labor and salary problems in baseball. By breaking up the union, or at least dividing us into different camps, Reinsdorf thought he could curtail the power of star players to ask for, and receive, big contracts.

So what did Reinsdorf do next? He signed Albert Belle to a $55 million contract!

No one ever found the guy who twisted his arm that day. Still, it was amazing. After all his yapping about owners and players getting out of control, he raises the salary bar several notches on his own.

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Bill Clinton, of all people, told us [the player reps] ... we were dealing with the 28 most untrustworthy people [the owners] he had ever met in his life. ”

Reinsdorf could not have done more to show how right Bill Clinton was about this collection of "businessmen." In the most literal way possible, Reinsdorf said one thing and did another.

I hope these stories give you a clue about some of the things the sport of baseball is up against. The next time you want to criticize Scott Boras or some other agent or player for asking a lot from a team, remember that baseball owners have a long history of looking out for themselves and no one else -- not even other owners.

Owners do not have a united front. "For the Love of the Game" was just a movie. That sentiment does not play in major league front offices. Boras knows whom he is dealing with and, more importantly for Alex Rodriguez, how to deal with them.

So, if you're A-Rod, why not ask for the moon and stars? You just might find an owner willing to hand them over.

NEXT: More on Alex and where I would put a few of the big-time free agents if I ruled the baseball world.