Have you ever heard that old saying? Well, maybe the Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees should write it down somewhere to remind themselves in the off-season, that you should be happy with who's on your team, not whoever's on the free-agent market.

Just look at the case of the defending world champions: The Red Sox let Pedro Martinez, Derek Lowe and Orlando Cabrera go in favor of David Wells, Matt Clement and Edgar Renteria. Pedro won 15 for the Mets, Derek won 12 for the Dodgers and Orlando made only seven errors in Los Angeles with the Angels and he's still playing in the playoffs.

Now Wells won 15 and Clement won 13, but Renteria committed 30 errors in his first season with the Sox. I think it's safe to say that the Red Sox didn't get past the division series this year because of Wells and Clement and had they had Martinez and Lowe, I think they would still be playing.

Now as for the Yankees, remember when you had Roger Clemens and Andy Pettitte? I do. How about Jon Lieber? Clemens the past two years has been, well, Cy Young. Meanwhile, a now healthy Andy Pettitte won 17 games this year and was 11-2 after the All-Star break with a 1.69 ERA. As for that old guy Jon Lieber, you waited a year to get healthy, then you let him go as a free agent to the Phillies. He also won 17 games and was 4-1 in September and was the ace of the Phillies all year.

What I'm saying now, I said before the season started. You didn't know when Curt Schilling would be ready, but you would have known about Lowe and Pedro and how they pitch in the playoffs. As for the Yankees, just think of the headaches you would've stopped had you held onto your players and not wasted money on Carl Pavano, Jaret Wright, and Randy Johnson.

Now the Yanks may still pull it out, but it will be because Brian Cashman bailed the Yanks out with Aaron Small, Chien-Ming Wang and Shawn Chacon.

The Yankees and Red Sox should stop trying to top each other and be happy with the players who brought you championships, not the ones who didn't.