(Image Source: The New York Daily News)

BY TOM MARTIN

Yankees GM Brian Cashman is used to dealing with money -- the Yankees’ money, and how it’s spent on Yankees players. Now he may end up in court in a case to protect his own pockets. 

Here’s News 12:

“This is the woman accused of stalking --and blackmailing Yankees General Manager Brian Cashman. Prosecutors say Louise Neathway extorted $6,000 from Cashman - then tried to get another $15,000 bucks.”

Neathway -- who also goes by “Meanwell” -- says Cashman’s story is skewed. She says the two had a healthy relationship that ended when Cashman wouldn’t leave his wife. She spilled more details to Deadspin’s AJ Daulerio:

“[Neathway] told me that Cashman had given her $6,200 to help pay for the lease on her apartment … She showed me a deposit slip … Both [Neathway] and apparently Cashman agree that a large amount of money changed hands on more than one occasion. The difference is that Cashman calls this extortion; [Neathway] calls this rent money.”



As WABC reports, the case has another “big difference:” Cashman’s record is clean. Neathway’s isn’t.

“She’s currently on probation for a New Jersey stalking case that was dropped in the end to a trespassing charge. But according to the district attorney, that case involved multiple years of stalking.”



Says baseball blog Big League Stew: Forget how the case ends: should the Yankees care it ever began?

“The Yankees have declined comment, but they don't seem to be worried that Cashman's involvement … will affect how he runs the team. That is the bottom line as far as baseball is concerned, isn't it?”



Hardball Talk wonders why this should be anyone’s business.

“On the one hand … it has nothing to do with baseball. On the other hand, Cashman and a handful of other larger baseball figures are routinely covered … for non-baseball things … this is a balancing yin to all of that yang … Deep down we all like gossip and let’s not pretend we don’t.”