Barry Zito suggested in the April issue of Esquire that he was turned off by the Mets' recruitment effort of him. Author Chris Jones portrayed Zito as coming away from a Dec. 19 dinner at a Beverly Hills hotel thinking the Mets' highest-ranking officials were arrogant - though Zito never specifically referred to the Mets when contrasting the Giants' courtship with other teams. "There just wasn't a lot of ego there, which was huge for me," Zito told the magazine about the Giants. "There's a lot of ego in this game, particularly at the higher levels of management. ... As a player, you want somebody who's passionate about you. You don't want to go into a situation feeling like you're having to prove to them how good you are." Added his agent Scott Boras in Esquire: "I'm a positive guy, so I'll just say that the Giants meeting was more positive."