Sometimes, you wonder whether Red Sox owner John Henry’s love affair with numbers gets in the way of him being a true cutthroat.We all know about Henry. He’s a numbers guy. And if the numbers don’t make sense – to him – he tends to throw in his cards.He did this five years ago, when the Red Sox were THIS close to swinging a trade for Alex Rodriguez. The Sox had made some kind of a deal that looked shaky as far as the union went ? and, of course, it was. And when the numbers looked too ridiculous for Henry, he said, “Thanks, but no.”The New York Yankees swooped in, signed A-Rod for a few million dollars more than the Red Sox were willing to pay, and the bloodletting was severe.In the long run, that hasn’t hurt the Red Sox, as the score stands Obi-Wan 2, Darth Vader 0 in World Series championships.A year later, the Red Sox – faced with a palace revolt that cost them Theo Epstein for a couple of months – couldn’t get it together to negotiate with Johnny Damon. Perhaps Henry was feeling stung over the whole Epstein-Larry Lucchino flap, and just wasn’t mentally ready to deal. Who knows?But the Yankees swooped down like vultures, right before Christmas, and threw a little more money – and an extra year – toward Damon and, just like that, he was a Yankee.In the long run, that didn’t hurt the Red Sox either, as Obi-Wan won another World Series, and Darth didn’t even make the playoffs this season.But the Empire always Strikes Back. And somehow or other, the Jedi Knights have been cast into a black hole. Because Henry and the Red Sox are getting the daylights kicked out of them by the Dark Side of the Force.The Yankees beat the Red Sox out for CC Sabathia and A.J. Burnett, and that’s fine. Even though you can never have enough pitching, Burnett hasn’t had a healthy year since he left the Florida Marlins and Sabathia doesn’t have the track record to command the salary the Yankees are going to pay him.Mark Teixeira is different. You can argue that the Red Sox were taking a huge risk if they signed either pitcher. But Teixeira is a proven product. No pun intended, but Henry dropped the ball on this one.And while it’s true that the Red Sox did not suffer for the aforementioned mistakes in judgment (or alarming lack of urgency ? take your pick), the circumstances are different now.First, the Red Sox had the most devastating one-two punch since Willie Mays and Willie McCovey to cover a multitude of sins.But half that duo is gone, and you can see where the Red Sox really suffered without Manny Ramirez hitting behind David Ortiz. Teixeira would have looked awfully nice in the middle of that lineup.The Red Sox had their sights set on Teixeira since about five minutes after the Tampa Bay Rays beat them in the playoffs, and the idea of getting him wasn’t exactly a long shot. In fact, you could argue that Sox fans had every reason to believe they’d land Teixeira, based on past practices (Daisuke Matsuzaka being the best example).And here is where I think sometimes Henry doesn’t get it. You cannot raise expectations the way the Red Sox did in their pursuit of Teixeira and come away empty-handed. You either want him or you don’t. You either sign him or you don’t play. There’s no in-between, especially with the Yankees sitting five hours away, with a new stadium, and plenty of Monopoly money to spend.We could get into a philosophical argument at this point, and bemoan the fact that in a freefall economy, the idea of paying someone $180 million over eight years to play a game is beyond absurd. And of course it’s beyond absurd. But so is playing someone $170 million – which is what the Red Sox were willing to spend. So what’s another $10 million in this game? If it’s too rich for your blood, again, don’t play.We can only hope that these Steinbrenners who own the Yankees have inherited their father’s bravado and missed out on his common sense. We can only hope that the Yankees collapse under the weight of all these contracts. It would serve them right, o