Of course, the $180 million over the next eight years that the Yankees have committed to Teixeira didn't hurt. But his agent, Scott Boras, said yesterday, "Mark did not take his best financial offer."

If true, then Teixeira is a rare free agent and an even rarer Boras client. The Yankees threw the most money at CC Sabathia and A.J. Burnett and got both pitchers. They waited on the outskirts of the Teixeira sweepstakes and swooped in after the Red Sox - the early front-runners - pulled out Dec. 18.

The Yankees agreed to terms with Teixeira five days later. Maybe it was general manager Brian Cashman's negotiating savvy, or Teixeira's lifelong love of Don Mattingly, or the chance to play in the new Yankee Stadium that swayed him.

Maybe the real answer is a little closer to home.

"Once my wife told me she wanted to be in New York and wanted me to be a Yankee, it was pretty much a done deal," Teixeira said.

Teixeira said that discussion happened during the couple's "date night" at the Vaquero Club in Westlake, Texas, on Dec. 12.

"I'd been asking her for weeks and weeks, 'Where do you want to go? Where do you want me to play?'" he said. "And she said, 'I want you to be happy. I just want you to be happy.' And finally, she said, 'I want you to be a Yankee.' So that's when it was done. And once we got the contract figured out, it was a no-brainer. The Yankees hadn't made their decision yet, but that's when we made our decision."

Teixeira, 28, is a switch-hitting first baseman who will bat either before or after Alex Rodriguez in the Yankees' lineup; manager Joe Girardi said he hasn't made up his mind. In 2008, Teixeira hit a combined .308 with 33 home runs and 121 RBIs for the Braves and Angels.

Teixeira, from Severna Park, Md., said playing on the East Coast was a big factor for him and his family; in addition to Leigh, his parents, sister and brother-in-law attended the news conference.

Teixeira also said the Red Sox's final offer was not as lucrative as the Yankees' best pitch. It is believed the Red Sox stopped at $170 million.

"I told my agent, 'This is the pecking order' and I gave him my idea of who was going to be near the top," he said. "At the same time, I'm not going to lie: contract was very important. I wasn't going to take half as much money to play in New York."

Cashman said he almost couldn't believe it when, on the morning of Dec. 23, it seemed to him that the Yankees were the "lead dog" in the Teixeira race. Cashman, like most of Baseball, assumed Teixeira was going to end up in Boston even after the Red Sox said they were out. But that's not what the Teixeiras wanted, apparently, even though the Yankees didn't make their megabucks offer until a few hours before Teixeira accepted it.

"Up until two hours [before], I still didn't think he was going to be a Yankee," Cashman said. "All indications from Scott were that it was going to be the Red Sox."

Teixeira mentioned his "pure joy" about becoming a Yankee. He said growing up as an Orioles fan, he still would wear a Yankees cap because of his admiration for Mattingly.

"Donnie Baseball was my guy," he said.

He won't get to wear Mattingly's number, though. Teixeira will wear No. 25 - his predecessor Jason Giambi's number for the past seven seasons. Mattingly's 23 is retired.

25

Mark Teixeira can't wear the uniform number (23) of his idol, Don Mattingly, because it's retired, and No. 24 is taken by Robinson Cano, so he'll don No. 25. The top 10 previous No. 25s in Yankees history:

Player Years worn

Hank Bauer 1948-51

Joe Pepitone 1962-69

Bobby Bonds 1975

Willie Randolph 1976

Tommy John 1979-82, 1986-89

Don Baylor 1983-85

Jim Abbott 1993-94

Ruben Sierra 1995-96

Joe Girardi 1996-99

Jason Giambi 2002-08