With all his honors and his great stats, why isn't A-Rod the king of New York?
Here's why.
In the sixth inning Wednesday night, A-Rod hits a home run - or, what looks like a home run. It hits the yellow staircase just beyond the wall in right and bounces back in play. It should have been a home run, but the ump blows the call and A-Rod only gets a double. He's pissed (justifiably) and argues in vain.
Later on, he comes around to score, so the bad call ends up costing the Yanks nothing. Nada. Zip. Makes it meaningless. The Yanks go up 8-0. Finally, after hitting what the manager calls "rock bottom" with a four-game losing streak, being outscored 23-4 in two games and dropping to last place - last place - something good is happening.
But A-Rod's not happy.
After crossing the plate, he looks out to the field - at the ump, at the wall, whatever - and shakes his head in disgust. He gets to the dugout, and slaps hands with his teammates, but is still visibly pissed, still shaking his head, still bitching.
All this whining because he lost his home run - which didn't mean a damn thing.
Boo-fucking-hoo.
All the talk that numbers don't matter, accolades don't matter, MVPs don't matter. All the talk that winning is all that matters.
All bullshit.
Yankee fans don't mind players getting pissed. Hell, Paul O'Neill busted up water coolers and threw tantrums like a spoiled 10-year-old. And fans still love the guy.
But A-Rod (or Mr. Rod if you prefer), here's the deal: You're getting mad at the wrong things. Yankees fans are pissed (just look at Whitey's post) over the fact that the team sucks. We're pissed that a bunch of millionaires are embarrassing themselves on a nightly bases and don't look like they care.
We want you to be pissed, A-Rod, but we want you to be pissed at what WE'RE pissed at. We want you to be pissed that the team is in last place, that Major League players can't even cover second base when they're supposed to, that a half-dozen guys aren't hitting their weight and that outside of Joba, nobody looks like they give a shit.
Well, nobody gives a shit unless you take away a meaningless home run off the stat sheet. Now that's something to get pissed off at and show some emotion over. There's a reason to get all bent out of shape.
Is it any wonder why your teams have never won?
Note: Edited to take out a reference to A-Rod putting up a joke sign about it after the game; some people wrote in comments that it was Mussina who put up the sign.
His teams never won because they sucked ass. Granted Seattle was decent for a few years but Texas? Come now.
ReplyDeleteI didnt see his reactions following crossing home or anything after that inning for that matter. Arod tends to play more emotional then he really is though and may have been doing what he thought was what the media and fans were expecting.
Hey come on, hes a jock, not a sociologist. Im not defending him but I prefer to see things in neutral rather then in black and white.
Somebody should grab A-Rod, hold him down and do a Clockwork Orange thingy on him, so he would be forced to read your words. It would open his eyes (not only with the clamps but in other ways.)
ReplyDeleteActually Moose wrote comment about balls that hit the yellow stairs are home runs. I don't love A-rod...but your comments were a little over the top there.
ReplyDeleteHe is worried, already, that he may come one HR short of breaking Barry Bonds' record, 10 years from now.
ReplyDeleteThis non-call will ,therfore, haunt him forever.
He will want an asterisk on his Hall-Of-fame bust, noting that he actually hit one more home run (on May 18th, 2008)than shown on his career statistics, but the umpires blew the call and only gave him a double.
Why, Arod, if you were so sure it was a dinger, did you slide hard into second base?
Your slide played right into the umps hands.
Mussina wrote on that board...
ReplyDeleteA Fox TV report after the game led me to believe that A-Rod had put the sign up. It looked like A-Rod was scribbling something on the sign. Sorry about that.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I guess I went a little over the top; and yes, I'm kind of taking it out on A-Rod for the fact that this team has been so frustrating. They seem to have no fire, no spark and no emotion. I want this team to be pissed that it's looking like shit. Acting upset about the call after the point was rendered moot just irked me.
And if you can't overreact on a blog, where can you overreact?
I agree that you certainly can over react on a blog....but you know what, this team showed zero life and no spark the last three weeks while Arod was hurt and you can't blame him for that.
ReplyDeleteHe may not be beloved by you, Bern Baby, but as long as he hits a home run per day, he's beloved by the rest of us.
ReplyDeleteI don't care if he pisses on fans with a firehose, if he hits a home run every day, I love him.
It should be pointed out that in Thurs. nite's game it was A-Rod who went to the mound to help settle Kennedy down and it was A-Rod who thumped him in the chest with his glove after Kennedy got out of the jam. - A-Rod's emotions seem to run deeper than appearances.
ReplyDeleteI've read that A-Rod (not our oh-so beloved Jeets) is usually the first guy to welcome new guys to the team and show new teammates around the city and such.
ReplyDeleteDuque: But will he hit a home run every day in October? That's the question.
ReplyDeleteB. Stanley: I'm not saying he's a bad guy ... although I've been to a few games since he's been to the team and he's never shown ME around New York. (hey, A-Rod, I'll be at the Stadium in about a month or so. Just FYI ...)
Anonymous: What you said about Thursday is very true. I'll go even further - it looked to me like A-Rod was the first one off the bench to congratulate Cano.
Thursday night, the team (and A-Rod) seemed to show the spark and emotion that fans have been waiting for. It looked like the team had life. Hallalujah!
It's as if someone called them out for their lack of fire - as if they were responding to some sort of challenge.
... you're welcome.