Devoted to Managers and those that seek to improve their management skills

In what can only be called amazing, Alex Rodriguez and the New York Yankees look like they're going to be together until the end of his career.

What was fascinating about the deal was there were a lot of hard feelings on the part of the Yankees because of Rodriquez announcing through his agent that he was opting out of his existing contract, which had three years left on it.

The hard feelings came more from the timing of the announcement more than anything else, as it was revealed during the final game of the World Series this year, which resulted in a lot of criticism from baseball for what they perceived was an attempt to upstage the game.

After opting out of the contract, the Yankees vowed not to negotiate with Rodriquez; something they really meant and which surprised Rodriguez when they kept to that promise.

The result was unique, in that Rodriquez knew he probably wouldn't get a hearing with the Yankees through his agent Scott Boras, who was also considered part of the problem from the Yankees standpoint.

What was interesting was Rodriquez then contacted some friends at Goldman Sachs; not to broker a deal, but broker peace, so they could hopefully start negotiations for a deal.

This was a smart move because Goldman Sachs had a long term relationship and stake with the team through the "YES Network," the regional sports cable network.

Here's a few important lessons from the deal:

First, is when Rodriquez opted out of the existing contract, he and his agent thought the result would be that there would be a bidding war for him. It never materialized, so Rodriquez had to change his thinking. They over-estimated the market.

Second, when that happened, Rodriquez suddenly had no place to go that could afford him. He had to backtrack and deal with the situation as it was, not as he hoped it would be.

Third, with all sides really wanting the deal to happen, they didn't let their egos remain in the way, and got down to it.

Fourth, Rodriquez understood that the deal wouldn't happen directly through his agent in the beginning, so he thought of another creative way to get things moving again, and had the terms of the contract (obviously approved by his agent) negotiated upfront with the Goldman Sachs people.

Last, they got the deal done, which is reportedly for $275 million over a 10-year period, and an added bonus incentive if Rodriquez breaks the all-time home run record.

So in the end, Rodriquez was able to negotiate the deal, which breaks his own record of $252 million, to become the richest in sports history.

All of this came about from being willing to be flexible and creative once the original situation deteriorated. Everybody in the deal ended up a winner: something that should always happen in negotiations.