Alex Rodriguez and the uniform with pinstripes
I understand why Alex wasn’t embraced by Yankee fans. For all of his talk about embracing the pinstripes, he spoke with the same somewhat robotic insincerity that’s been his public face for years, a mask that he grew into that free agent year. Everything he says runs through the self-censor loop, because he’s been so consistently and so harshly punished for verbal slips before, and then he’s criticisized for not being frank and open.
In any event: Alex isn’t having a good year, and it’s certainly not the year the Rangers and Yankees are paying him to have.
From my distant view, this all looks insane. There’s the Yankees broadcast crew, possibly prodded from outside (see rumors), hashing on him, ESPN has been frantically whipping the flames of this conflict as a former GM (who once tried to sign Alex, failed, and then attacked him) and now analyst attracts more and more attention by, over and over, whipping Alex for real but mostly perceived shortcomings. The Yankee fan base seems easily-led and almost irrational, spouting off about how he lacks the soul to play in New York, or the courage to face pressure, and so on, until you want to be sick.
I wonder if this makes future signings or trades that require consent harder. If I was a player, knowing that any bad month or week might be fanned into a wildfire of hatred, I wouldn’t want to play there, no matter how good the money was. It wouldn’t be worth it.
In any event, for a reasonably intelligent view on this, I recommend Steven Goldman’s Pinstriped Blog, on the Yes Network site.
Here, a first view on what was happening, and here, even better, at length answering emails from readers on the situation.
As for the Mariners, if the Yankees did call, offering one of the best players in baseball for pennies on the dollar, well, you take that deal.
You do.
Comments
59 Responses to “Alex Rodriguez and the uniform with pinstripes”
OK, I’d take him. But that doesn’t mean I don’t think he’s a phony.
To follow-up on what was being said on the earlier, non-A-Rod, thread: One doesn’t need to feel sorry for Rodriguez to think that what is going on in NY is disgusting. It is disgusting because it is a combined display of ignorance, nastiness, and conceit, all reinforcing each other within the miniature universe of New York.
I could not believe it when John Kruk was the only person on BBTN who thought ARod should NOT be traded by the Yankees. It’s amazing how this asinine idea of the unrecoverable slump has taken hold. I read that the Rangers still owe about 10 million of his contract per year, so he really only costs 15 mill per year. Which, it occurs to me, is about what we’re paying Adrian Beltre. So in case the Yankees organization is just as stupid as its fans – it’s been nice knowing you, AB! Thanks for the inside-the-parker this weekend, it was really fun!
When my daughter was 14, A Rods last Seattle year, she started calling him Heimlich, as in the maneauver. All that aside, I would take him in a New York minute.
That’s one of the dumbest things I’ve ever read.
Hmmm, Alex as the prodigal son. That would be interesting. Maybe the M’s could humiliate him a bit more and offer him a spot in left field….
Having said that, I almost feel sorry for him. I sure wouldn’t want to be dealing with that media frenzy no matter how much money I was making. Especially since he’s still one of the best players in the game (though everybody seems to be forgetting that at the moment).
Cashman’s not an idiot. He’s not going to trade ARod. Not unless George tells him to do so, and think what you may want about Steinbrenner, he’s not an idiot either.
She felt that he choked, as the Yankee fans do now. I thought the name was funny but did not agree, it’s really very simple.
If, on the slim-to-none chance that ARod comes back to Seattle (which I would welcome with open arms), would we keep him at 3B or move him back to SS?
I don’t actually believe he’ll ever come back, I guess this is just more of a generalized question about ARod’s viability as a SS after the last few years.
Okay, but some of the rumors have Steinbrenner instructing the Yes! Network guys to go after Alex. Given his past, that’s entirely plausible, and has one of two possible motivations:
- Steinbrenner thinks bringing a shitstorm down on his player will help him perform better (which is crazy)
- Steinbrenner, having soured on Alex himself, wants to create a public groundswell to cover booting Alex
He always seems like a smart and extremely talented ballplayer trying to present a packaged and likeable image like the early Tiger Woods. He just can’t pull it off. As Derek mentions, he tries to say “the right thing” and promote “the right image” even when those aren’t what he should really be saying and doing–people ultimately prefer rough but “honest” over nice but “fake”.
Alex was perhaps too young and inexperienced to know that people really will forgive you for accepting a contract with a division rival for the GDP of a fair-sized country as long as you HAVEN’T been endlessly saying it’s not about the money.
And who knows, maybe it wasn’t. There may have just been a challenge there–maybe he really did feel like Texas’ day was coming, and it was also a good opportunity to constantly remind his “ex” what they were missing.
I don’t “like” Alex but I don’t “dislike” him either. I admire his baseball abilities, for sure. I just think he has a knack for pissing people off by trying to be too smooth.
Sure, I’d hope the Mariners would take him.
It’s possible, because — despite the fact that he has very recently sworn that he’d rather die on the field as a Yankee, and that he’s scoffed at accepting a trade from the Yankees if approached — ARod has a LOOOONG history of doing the opposite of what he says (I have a list of direct quotes and anecdotes, if you care).
And I’d wager that he’d revert back to his previous all-around-best-player potential-for-another-MVP type play both offensively and defensively, IF he’s accepted his own emotional fragility in “failing” to cut it in the Big Apple and can come “home” to his first team without any additional baggage.
Personally, I think he should jettison his agent, too. What player has ever had a 50 page prospectus printed up for his first free agent tour? Only one whose head was pumped up to the size of a Macy’s Day Parade balloon by his agent…
And the New York “march Alex out of town” stuff is insane. It’s like having a bruise on your writing hand and chopping it off to cure it.
If they offered him for “pennies on the dollar”, you have to take him, but why would they make that offer?
As for the Mariners, if the Yankees did call, offering one of the best players in baseball for pennies on the dollar, well, you take that deal.
That you have to say, “You do” after that is just sad to me. That there are enough people who would not want him back that it requires that extra little lecture… just sad. It’s one thing not to want Carl Everett. It’s quite another not to want Alex Rodriguez.
They’re not going to unless Steinbrenner says he must go, which is doubtful.
A-Rod would never come here, except, I just realized, he’s not a 5-and-10 guy so he couldn’t veto it (unless it’s in his contract). And I don’t think the Yanks would want what we’re selling (Beltre? An overpaid, underperforming 3B with one good year on his resume versus on the best players in the game over the last decade? As Jerry Seinfeld says, “I don’t think SO!”)
NYC is a media circus, and anybody who can’t take the heat should stay out of the kitchen. If A-Rod truly is Teflon man, than the criticism should just bounce right off him. But no one really knows the “true A-Rod” so who knows what’s going through his head?
I don’t root against A-Rod, but I sure as hell root against the Yankees. So if the team tears themselves apart over this, great. If he makes 50 errors and it costs the Yanks the division, all the better.
I also have a theory (yet to catch on widely) that there has to be something like an “A-Rod Curse.” He leaves the Ms, the next year they win 116 games. He goes to the Rangers, they are terrible the whole time he’s there (better now that he’s gone, it would seem). He is almost acquired by Boston, but at the latest minute the Yanks get him. What happens? Only the Sox winning their first WS in 86 years, with an incredible comeback over those self-same, A-Rod-boasting Yanks. Yanks fail to make the WS last year too, despite a seemingly billion-dollar payroll.
Coincidence? I think not.
I can’t believe you’d type that whole thing up and then hit a button labeled “I wish to add my light…”
We’re all dimmer for having read your comment.
A-rod has a no-trade clause.
I wish more of our players were having bad years of the sort that A-Rod is having.
I don’t think this is going to give anyone second thoughts about signing with the Yankees who weren’t already having them though. This has been how Yankees players get treated for underperforming, and has been for a long while now. I think there may be a perverse attraction among competitive types to harsh and challenging environments such as New York.
I’d have A-Rod back here in a heartbeat. And, as much I like Beltre, I’d give up a lot more than that.
A-Rod’s biggest sin has always seem to be trying to hard to be liked.
Attractive character trait? No.
But it falls about 1,000th on the list of unattractive character traits. The public character assassination on this guy, both in New York and in Seattle is absurd.
This sport has wife-beaters, cheaters, drunks and all manner of low character guys (as does any sport or profession) and yet THIS GUY is the one that takes more public heat than any of them? Utterly ridiculous.
His OPS is .879 this year! That’s not an MVP, but not too damn bad for an off year. His defense… yeah, that needs to stop, but c’mon.
I was listening to Dan Patrick on ESPN radio in the car yesterday after he dealt with idiot after idiot on the phone lines, mostly Yankee fans, but also Reggie Miller of all people.
His point was that if you are a Yankee fan and you’re argument is that Alex can’t hack the pressure, as so many said disdainfully, why on earth would you boo him mercilessly and increase the pressure when it only HURTS your team?
You wouldn’t believe the answers from these jokers. Half of them, including Miller, couldn’t wrap their tiny brains around what Patrick was saying and just kept repeating that fans have a right to boo.
I think most of the Seattle fans that still boo A-Rod are very small people and I think the same of most of the booing Yankee fans.
Let’s all pretend for a moment that A-Rod is being shopped. Let’s fantasize further, and picture Cashman calling up our beloved Mr. Bavasi. Any detailed ideas on what the term ‘pennies on the dollar’ truly means?
15
I fail to understand why people feel so betrayed by Alex, but have no resentment towards Griffey. At least A-Rod honoerd his contract and didn’t force his way out.
If I remember the ARod-for-Soriano deal correctly, if we traded Beltre for him straight up, we’d be paying LESS than Beltre’s current contract. Texas is seriously subsidizing his contract.
So, we’d probably be looking at sending cash as well as prospects to New York. And I don’t think Lincoln is going to be willing to send over the cash.
Let’s all pretend for a moment that A-Rod is being shopped. Let’s fantasize further, and picture Cashman calling up our beloved Mr. Bavasi. Any detailed ideas on what the term ‘pennies on the dollar’ truly means?
Purely theoretically: Beltre, Meche, Cruceta, and $13M (50% of Beltre’s remaining contract). But the M’s get the Rangers’ subsidy as well.
And if that’s what Cashman wanted for him, I’ll take two please. But I get the sense that he’d want another pitcher and/or Adam Jones as well.
Like other very successful people A-Rod has generated a backlash from those jealous of his success, money, abilities, attractive wife, etc. He remains a terrific player….and is also a phoney, but any team would be delighted to have such a talent. Does the “forum” think that this backlash would be present if he was on any other team, or is it peculiar to the Yankess only?
#23 Two reasons. The first being that he was honest about wanting to go home. The second is that Griffey fell so far from grace that it was just sad.
As for Arod I actually believe him when he said he wasn’t looking just at money. However, $252 million is a lot of money to place in front of somebody. At that point it would have been stupid not to go back on everything he said and to sign the contract.
I’d take him back in a second. Especially if it was a swap for Beltre or, and I’m dreaming here, the Yankees actually paid some of that salary. However, as many mistakes as George has made in the past I can’t believe he’d be that far off his rocker to trade away Arod for nothing.
#26 Well the backlash has come from all over baseball since he signed that contract. It was the biggest example of how out of hand contracts had become.
A-Rod has never been villified in Seattle. His character flaws have been openly ridiculed – but hardly excessivily. Sure fans booed him when he came back to Seattle. Why not? He became the face of the enemy – M’s fans are fans of the team and A-Rod is an easy target. Any negativity M’s fans exhibit toward A-Rod is a pale reflection of how Boston fans feel about Damon.
NY’s treatment of A-Rod feels like I’m watching a screenplay of a primitive Colesseum crowd that senses a weakness in the hero and turns against him… Blood-crazed mob with no mind of its own….
Mariner fans cheered Randy Johnson, who tanked his way out of town, but boo A-Rod, who at least gave everything he had while he was here. I guess I understand booing A-Rod, but cheering Randy Johnson I sure don’t understand.
As for his contract being “out of hand”: so long as the owners are coining money hand over fist and selling franchises for huge profits after crying poverty and getting a free pass from media and fans alike, well, I don’t care about A-Rod’s contract.
volumes could be written on what effect Alex’ upbringing had on creating his eagerness to please and wish to be liked by all … so do you make him play third here, or do you move Betancourt to 2nd & Lopez to third?
ah, but what are the odds that Alex would ever waive the no-trade…
30 – That’s twice I’ve agreed with you today, scraps. And I’ll leave it at that.
29 – Depends on how you define vilified, I guess. Certainly NY is far, far worse; but I think many Seattle fans have been ridiculous in their treatment of Alex. And still booing his every PA years later like he just kicked their cat? They need to grow up.
Also, before the guy from the other thread repeats the oft-repeated nonsense about A-Rod’s contract preventing Texas from spending money to win: It didn’t. That’s not a matter of opinion, it’s a fact, easily checked. Texas spent plenty of money over the A-Rod contract, and spent it stupidly. That this incorrect assertion has been refuted innumerable times will not, of course, keep it from being repeated from now till the end of time by people who simply don’t care what’s true if it doesn’t match the story they want to believe.
34 – I was about to ask why Texas has to have a salary cap when no one else does, scraps, but the topic was declared dead there before I could.
That was supposed to be directed to 33, not talking to myself.
What’s so bad about being phoney anyway? If Alex is a real jerk inside, at least he is making an effort to be nice. How many people are phoney at work? I am sure we have superiors, co-workers, and clients we don’t like but have to pretend to act nice. Oh yes, it takes effort!
When A-Rod stopped giving people quotes to hammer him over, they started calling him a phony. Because he had to be Bad, but he’d stopped giving them material.
I mentioned in an earlier thread how a few weeks ago A-Rod said he deserved to be booed, that he’d be booing him too, and one of the New York sportswriters responded by writing about how manipulative A-Rod was to criticise himself.
It’s amazing to me that A-Rod keeps cringing to them. I think he’d be a lot healthier if he said “fuck all y’all, go on and hate me” and just Barry Bondsed them for the rest of his career.
The reality is:
The reality is:
Did you know ARod also has a clause in that contract that in the last couple years the team that’s carrying that contract is REQUIRED to ensure he’s the highest paid player in baseball? Yep. (that’s assuming ARod doesn’t exercise his right to be a free agent after the 2007, 2008, or 2009 seasons)
So far that isn’t even near to being a problem, because salaries have fallen down and away from Manny Ramirez/Derek Jeter range, and they never even got close to ARod range…
Sorry about # 39, blame it on fat fingers!
The reality is:
a. The Yankees are not going to trade A Rod
b. Although I don’t like his public personna I truly admire his baseball skills.
c. The Ms should jump at any chance to get A Rod on their team.
d. And the bottom line – there is no way A Rod would ever agree to a trade to the Ms. That is the reality.
I wouldn’t care one tiny bit if A-Rod was making twice as much. If he can get the contract legally and ethicaly, why should I care?
He’s not running guns or drugs, he’s not raping the environment, he’s not a slumlord or a pimp.
Really, why care what he makes?
He’s an entertainer, one of the best in the world, and he brings entertainment at a high level to millions and millions of people.
And frankly he’s done a better job of living up to his contract, as big as it is, then many, many players have with far smaller contracts.
A-Rod’s ops 2003-2005 in “close and late” situations: .945
Golden Boy Jeter’s same numbers: .744
2006, A-Rod: .553
2006, Jeter: .897
Apparently Jeter has stolen A-Rod’s clutchiness mojo. Or maybe its the lack of protection behind A-Rod due to Sheff and Matsui being out?
27 championships, some team’s fans are just never satisfied. I will be extremely elated if Seattle can finish out of the cellar.
And I will add that if indeed blow-ups over the A-Rod roasting are the reason Harold Reynolds got canned, then my estimation of the man just went through the roof.
That would be a seriously solid, admirable reason to get fired.
It was the biggest example of how out of hand contracts had become.
To that, I say, whatever. Rodriguez has been worth every penny of his contract. Over the first half of the contract, Rodriguez was about 62 wins above replacement, and he played at a position that hurt his WARP for two of those years. He’s missed 8 out of 810 games during the first 5 years of his contract. There’s only one Alex Rodriguez. For that, I would pay $125M over and over and over.
And A-Rod probably doesn’t even make as much in a year as Tom Hanks, or a few other A-list movie stars. Where’s the hatred for Tom Hanks? Why isn’t the media trying to run him out of Hollywood?
The money angle is weak. A-Rod’s got a ton of talent, he was offered a bunch of money because of that talent, and he took it. I would’ve done the same thing 110% of the time. I don’t have enough talent to get me a $250M contract, but if I did, I’d take the money every time. Maybe if I invested it right, I could hope to own 10% of a team some day.
Also, I was looking through the Yanks’ contracts the other day, and I’m pretty sure that for the remainder of their contracts, the Yankees will be paying Jeter $3M more per year or so. From the Yanks’ standpoint, the remainder of his contract looks to me like a complete bargain.
Of course, A-Rod will be making more than Jeter because Texas still has to pay him, but I would be a pretty disappointed Rangers’ fan to see my team helping someone else pay the league MVP.
And A-Rod probably doesn’t even make as much in a year as Tom Hanks, or a few other A-list movie stars. Where’s the hatred for Tom Hanks?
Oh, there’s plenty of hatred for movie stars who make lots of money. It’s just pretty basic jealousy (never mind that these people would do the exact same thing if they were in that position).
Oh, there’s plenty of hatred for movie stars who make lots of money.
Really? I don’t see the kind of widespread outrage at movie star contracts that I see at sports contracts. Sports fans can tell you how much athletes are making; are very many people aware of the specific amounts actors get paid?
I think the resentment of rich athletes is because sports fans are mostly people who have played sports, and it’s not a difficult imaginative leap to imagine oneself as a professional athlete, whereas the movie business is a big mystery and actors are otherworldly. Sports heroes are working class heroes; they’re not supposed to care about money, they’re supposed to be folks like you and me.
LOL, I can see the conversation now:
Bavasi: WTF, who is this, do you know it’s 3:00am??!?!
Caller: Umm, it’s Brian Cashman, and it’s about 6:00am here.
Bavasi: Oh … well, can it wait? I still haven’t recovered from a night of watching Carl Everett Bat.
Cashman: Unfortunately it can’t. That’ Beltre guy, what would it take. The boss is kind of …
Bavasi: Wha?! You want him?!?!?! Don’t you already have, well, you know … him, THE guy???
Cashman: Well, emm, yeah, you see, yeah … George, he umm, well, thinks …
Bavasi: What, that Adrian is good or something?
Cashman: No, well, not quite, but he thinks Alex is kind of … a bum and a bad player .. and doesn’t have what it “takes” to
be a yankee.
Bavasi: Wha???
Cashman: So, Adrian and Gil for Alex, what do you think.
Bavasi: Well, we’re kind of in a playoff run, and we need all the …
Strange Voice: This is Steinbrenner, I’ve taken over Brians cell signal …
Cashman: How in the …
Steinbrenner: That A-hole, he can’t hit clutch like Captain Derek, and he can’t get the save like Mariano, and he won’t even
try and help himself, I mean they dont’ even test for …
Cashman: How in the #@!$, this is my personal cell phone …
Steinbrenner: Don’t make me press the “button” I had implanted in you, you don’t want that again do you Brian???
Cashman (whimpering): noooooooo….
Bavasi: OK, so can I sleep, or …
Steinbrenner: No you can’t, A-hole for Beltre and Putz, my final offer.
Bavasi: Wow, just wow.
Steinbrenner: No, wait A-hole for Beltre and Julio Mateo, that’s my post-final offer.
Bavasi: Honey, can you pinch me, I think I’m dreami …
Steinbrenner: did you just call me honey?
Bavasi: I will if you …
Steinbrenner: Dammnit, A-hole for Beltre. You need to just take it or or or..
Bavasi: or??
Steinbrenner: A-hole for Carl Everett and a bag of moldy baseballs, and tell you what keep the baseballs, and I’ll throw in
$500 million a year and tickets to see Yanni next time he’s in town.
Bavasi: Whoa, taking the Yanni tickets is a bit much, but to get rid of Carl, you got a deal!
Really? I don’t see the kind of widespread outrage at movie star contracts that I see at sports contracts.
Oh, I do. Particularly if the actor tries to be activist or is a bit flashy in their money. There’s a deep seated jealousy of the rich that lurks under the surface of a lot of people. All it needs is a little scratch off the surface….
#45: And A-Rod probably doesn’t even make as much in a year as Tom Hanks, or a few other A-list movie stars. Where’s the hatred for Tom Hanks? Why isn’t the media trying to run him out of Hollywood?
Nomar Garciaparra used to say that there were a lot of people who would feel better about ballplayers’ having money if they had only gotten it by winning the lottery instead of working hard to develop the skills to play major league baseball.
There’s a lot of truth in that. I wish I understood why.
If A-Rod were available, the Mariners of course should jump on it. As people have said, he does have a no-trade clause, so who knows if he would want to come back. Some Chicago newspaper was saying that A-Rod wouldn’t mind playing in Chicago. If the Yankees don’t make the playoffs this year, heads will probably roll in New York. So you never know.
As for the A-Rod hate, it is because he makes so much money or because he seems to have a kind of Eddie Haskell personality. Or is it because people (and the media) love to build up heroes only to tear them down. In New York, I think some of the sports media is in a feeding frenzy over A-Rod. They smell the blood in the water, and they relish the chance to pile on…
52:
No, it’s because some people are just idiots. Think about it. Alex is the best player in baseball and certainly the best player on the Yankees. He’s better than any SS OR 3B the Yankees have ever had. Yet they boo him and say “he’s not really a Yankee.” I mean WTF?
re: 53. Yankee fans … idiots.
These two terms might become synonyms for each other, if they haven’t already.
The reason why people hate A-Rod more than rich movies stars has to do with the perception of sports teams.
Fans generally think of their team as “their guys” in some way. True, the players come from all over and may not even like the city they play in. They were born somewhere else and will probably live somewhere else when they retire, and most are just with the team for a couple of years anyway. It’s not logical, but then the appeal of sports is based on emotion, not logic.
When A-Rod left, he essentially told the fans “a huge sack of money is more important to me than all the warm feelings you’ve felt for me over the years.” Thus, people hate him.
Also, before the guy from the other thread repeats the oft-repeated nonsense about A-Rod’s contract preventing Texas from spending money to win: It didn’t. That’s not a matter of opinion, it’s a fact, easily checked. Texas spent plenty of money over the A-Rod contract, and spent it stupidly. That this incorrect assertion has been refuted innumerable times will not, of course, keep it from being repeated from now till the end of time by people who simply don’t care what’s true if it doesn’t match the story they want to believe.
I could see an argument that the scale of the contract influenced spending decisions though. I don’t know what TX operating budget was/is, but I would have to assume that the $252m was decidedly non-trivial. In that sense, it wouldn’t necessarily cause them to spend less, but perhaps more foolishly.
A phony WHAT, exactly? He’s a baseball player. If you’re looking for a religious icon, you’re looking in the wrong place, and you DESERVE to get snookered. If you’re looking for a baseball player, you couldn’t find a better one. There’s not a damn thing phony about what he’s accomplished. The youngest player ever to 450 home runs, by almost a YEAR; what part of that is “phony”?
Ballplayers are not puppets displaying various human characteristics for some kind of dumbed-down morality play.
Another thing I don’t get is, if you’ve got something that’s extremely valuable, but you want to sell it, why would you go to such extreme lengths to trash it publicly? You’d think the Yanks would be talking him UP, not down. “Bad Alex” is still the best 3B in the league, and this is the first time he’s ever been below Saint Jeter in the VORP table. I’d like to wait and see how that ends up before calling it.
This is honestly about the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard. Take ARod? Are you nuts? Not unless you like to win baseball games. Sheesh.
Having heard a lot of stories about baseball players and other athletes from someone who worked in a bar frequented by them, I can say with confidence that a lot of them would be improved significantly if their only negative trait were being a “phony.”
And am I the only one who remembers Alex, before he left Seattle, stating that he would go to the highest bidder? It surprises me that people claim he said it was “not all about the money” when I distinctly remember him saying it was (I was shocked at the time).
And Snelling! Huzzah!
It’s hearsay, but what I’ve heard from the couple of technicians I know who have worked on the Mariners’ broadcast crew over the years is that Alex was a very nice guy to work with, while Junior was a bit of a brat.