A-Rod Disgraces World Series

The World Series is one of America’s great traditions.  Its history has been woven into the fabric of this country.  Players dream of the chance to one day be a part of the Fall Classic, it’s the reason they all play the game.  It’s the zenith of all of their efforts.  Many come and go and are never afforded the opportunity to perform on the game’s biggest stage.  Simply out of respect for those that are fortunate enough to make the Series all affairs involving personnel are traditionally put on hold until the banners rise.  This should have been a time of celebration for Boston and Colorado, but instead it was eclipsed by Alex Rodriguez and his stack of money.   This is a man that truly believes he is bigger than the game.   He couldn’t be on hand Sunday night to receive an award from Hank Aaron, yet there was enough time for him to announce during the early innings of Sunday’s game that he would forego the final four years and $72 million left on his contract and enter the free-agent market.  I hope everyone was paying attention because this was a commentary on Rodriguez’s character and should be taken as a warning of what’s to come for whoever signs him.

At the end of the day I don’t blame him for leaving New York.  I would have sprinted out of town too.  One day the fans would love him, the next they hated him.  The press constantly followed him around, stooping so low as to place pictures of his alleged mistress on the cover of the Post.  That’s no way to live, and even if he brought some of it on himself, I believe that he genuinely felt under appreciated and over exploited.  I would have left the money on the table too, but did he have to do it during the World Series?  He had ten days following the conclusion of the Series to announce his decision.  It couldn’t wait?  He came off like a child tugging at his mother’s shirt tails while chanting look at me.  It was completely classless.  He couldn’t even sit down with Brian Cashman like a  man and tell him face-to-face that he would be opting out of his contract.  He didn’t even call.  He sent him a text message.   

I hope people are paying attention, because wherever he goes he is going to have to be the center of attention at all times.  At all of his previous stops his teammates would marvel at his talent as well as his insecurity.  When you sign A-Rod it isn’t as simple as handing him a bat and saying play ball.  No, someone needs to be there to fawn over him at all times.  He has to dominate the clubhouse, and craves the headlines. Basically he thinks he is bigger than the coach, his teammates, and everything else associated with the name on the front of the jersey.  It’s not that he just wants to be, he has to be ‘it’ to perform well.  It’s like your 110 pound girlfriend asking if her butt looks big, she knows it doesn’t, but she needs to be told… constantly. 

This is exactly why it didn’t work out in New York.  It wasn’t his show.  He had Derek Jeter and the rest of the multi-million dollar men to compete with.  He just didn’t have the psyche to play there.  He’s a guy that values personal milestones over all else.  No one in that town cares that he hit 173 homers and collected 513 RBIs while in pinstripes, and what is certain to be two MVP awards.  It didn’t bring them a ring, so he’s bum like the rest of them.

Still he never should have gotten away. Don’t look now but the Yankees organization is imploding under the baby Steinbrenners’ watch. Say what you want about their father, but he never would have let their affairs transpire the way they have.  Maybe he is a shrewd business man, but he always got what he wanted, and never would have let what he had get away if he still wanted.  He didn’t care about the public’s perception.  Right or wrong, every decision he made was fueled by his desire to win, and for that I respect him. It’s only been a few weeks since the Brothers Steinbrenner took over and already I am questioning their ethics.  Everything they have done has seemed to have a condescending undertone to it.  It was clear that they wanted Joe Torre out of town, but instead of just letting him go like their father wanted, they patronized the citizens of New York by putting on a display filled with smoke and mirrors.  Have things gotten so bad there that money no longer matters?  In less than two weeks they have been spurned by a man that was to be made the highest paid coach in the game (although he would have been taking a pay-cut), and now by  Rodriguez, who was set to receive the richest contract in the history of American sport.

He never would have talked about extending A-Rod, he would have just done it.  Instead the Yankees told the press they were going to make an offer, but they never made it to table.  They had all year to make an offer, why did they drag their feet until it was too late?  Boras is about the bottom line, everyone knows that, if you give him a chance to drive up the price he’s going to take it and exploit it.  Now, if they want to keep Rodriguez around they are going to have to bid on the open market, and instead of having Texas pick up some of the tab they are going to have to pick up the whole thing.

Apparently his days in New York are done as the Yankees have previously said they will would persue him if he opted out.  It doesn’t really matter either way.  Someone is going to sign him.  He’s the best player alive.  I just hope they’re ready to be entrapped by his pursuit of Barry Bonds’ homerun record for the next however many years, just as the Giants were with Barry Bonds.  They better be prepared for the traveling soap-opera that he creates wherever he goes. Remember how he cried when Jeter didn’t invite him over for a pajama party?  It might seem petty to outsiders, but these are the things that will send him into a slump.  If Bonds was a clubhouse cancer, than he’s like a nagging cold that you just have to deal with.  It won’t tear apart a team, but he will constantly whine and air his problems out in the press.  Most of all, I hope they realize that he has no respect for the game.  Just because he never got to World Series doesn’t mean that he can desecrate all that it stands for.   

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World Series Links
The Red Sox Win! (Awful Announcing)
Lowell was named the MVP, but was Papelbon robbed? (FanHouse)
Keep Lowell in Boston! (Red Sox Monster)
Feel it Again (Surviving Grady)
Time to Riot (Sons of Sam Malone)
Red Sox:  Team of the Decade (Larry Brown Sports)
World Series Photo Montage (Babes Love Baseball)

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