Yankeetorial: GIRARDI IS RIGHT

The world wants Alex Rodriguez stoned to death in the public square.

Why not? He is one of the 104 MLB players to test positive in 2003. He's one of the 1,040 MLB players to be overpaid. He's one of the -- pick a number, any number -- to sleep around. He's a jerk.

So hang him from a tree. It's open season, courtesy of Selena Roberts' book -- a groundbreaking piece of hatchetry that for the first time subjects a mid-career pro athlete to the vetting standards of a U.S. Supreme Court nominee.

This is blunt force evil.

No baseball player in creation can withstand this kind of scrutiny.

Usually, they finish their brief careers before the dirt gushes out.

In Arod's case, there's too much money to be made in the takedown.

Everybody wants this. They're willing to pay. This is baseball's version of a fox hunt, and the hounds are howling so loudly that we'll hear nothing else for months.

All Arod... all the time. All negative. All attack. All out.

If Arod hits, he's juicing. If he slumps, it's because he's not juicing. Whatever he does, he cannot win..

Wherever he goes, cameras will follow. They'll goad him. They'll camp out. They'll get him. The video wiseass who breaks Arod -- who provokes him to lash out -- will get rich.

Like Selena Roberts will get rich.

For the record, I don't blame Selena Roberts. If she didn't write it, somebody else would have. But her "anonymous source" bullshit will soil whatever career reputation that the Duke lacrosse scandal left behind. If she wants to invoke the great "public's right to know" line, she should have picked a subject who actually affects the world -- not a baseball player.

She knows she won't get sued. Everybody does. So it's open season.

Yesterday, Joe Girarid put on a rainout theater rant against the book.

He's absolutely right.

So what do we, as Yankee fans, do? Not much. But when a Redsocks fan takes delight, offer this response:

"Hey, how is Dustin Pedroia's brother doing on his sex charges?"