Dare I ask again...
Did he cold-cock a woman? Abuse a child? Triple homicide? DWI manslaughter? Murder-suicide? Gang shooting? Did he text pictures of his dick to a female reporter? Did he, for off-days entertainment, train dogs to tear each other apart? Did he, for profit, lie for a generation about the effects of head injuries on his employees?
Is he the only guy to use steroids, or the only guy to get caught in the net of a million dollar manhunt? If all this was so incredibly evil, why did the federal government pass on an investigation? Have there been other 10-month probes, featuring cash bribes, into how other stars, such as David Ortiz, secured their drugs?
And now he duped the innocent Steinbrenners into a bad deal? Dear God, they must have stared into his evil, Svengali eyes...
OK, yes, I know... Alex Rodriguez pees on floors. He is an egotistical scumbag.
But he's being run out of town by egotistical scumbags.
As noted on another post, A-Rod is a douche bag, but he's he didn't pull a Luca Brasi and force the Yanks into signing his contract.
ReplyDeleteIf the Yankees have buyer's remorse right now, that's their problem. The Daily News columnist is as big a douche bag as A-Rod is for even suggesting otherwise.
In the pantheon of Yankees douche bags, does Al reign supreme? Maybe so but it might be fun to read what some Yankees historians on this blog think. In the 100+ years of Yankees existence, surely we’ve had some doozies.
ReplyDeleteIf we do a poll, who would be the nominees for All-Time Yankee Douchebag? A-Rod's easy. The others will hurt.
ReplyDeleteMickey Mantle? (See what I mean?)
Jim Leyritz?
Reggie?
Giambi and Andy admitted doping. Who are we missing?
How about the Bambino being Yankees Captain for only six days after aggressively confronting a fan in the stands? Imagine if Al had done that! I suppose if you take apart any human being, you'll find douche bag on the resume somewhere. Not as flagrant as Al, for sure, but it's there. Professional athletes probably have more than most. As far as me, it's the old glass houses and tossing stones thing. I cringe when I think of some of my past words and actions. Fortunately for me, I don't live in a fish bowl. I wish I were better and I wish Al were better. I root for that. If that makes me a nauseating fanboy, I can live with that.
ReplyDeleteWho are we missing?
ReplyDeleteGreat idea for a poll. My contributions would be:
1) Randy Johnson
2) Roger Clemens
3) Kevin Brown
4) Kevin Youkilis (he never really shook off his RedSockian douchebaggedness)
5) Jim Bouton
6) Jack "The Hitman" Clark
All Time D-Bags:
ReplyDelete1. Carl Mays: beaned and killed Cleveland shortstop Ray Chapman.
2. Hal Chase ("Prince Hal"): great gloveman at first and Yankee manager; gambler who threw games.
3. Ben Chapman: star Yankee outfielder who as Phillies manager race-baited Jackie Robinson
4. Leo Durocher: played shortstop for Yanks. Run off the team and out of the league when caught stealing cash from Babe Ruth.
Moral: A Rod is a saint compared to these guys.
I can't help it, I'll always like Bouton for 'Ball Four'. When that came out and I snagged my copy, players didn't suddenly have clay feet, but they sure bled and limped a lot.
ReplyDeleteHow is Billy Martin being left off these lists? Or is asshole not really the same as douchebag? That kind of goes for Reggie, too, but when you hit three HRs in a WS game, you can be the world's biggest A-Hole--hey, a new name for Alex!--and I won't care. Assholes are a grand tradition in sports, and their numbers are legion. (And if the Mick wants to bird dog girls from rooftops and under the bleachers and drink himself to death, I think it has to be balanced against playing when crippled and in ridiculous pain.)
Which brings us back to a point made the other day in the comments. If the Rod still hit and fielded like he did in his prime, juice or no juice, lie or no lie, I somehow think all of the villainizing would go away. Except from the Gammonites. They have to make a living, after all, and they're not going to do it going after Big Papi.
Ceeja's list is awesome.
ReplyDeleteThanks, John M. I agree with you on Bouton -- Bouton loved Mantle and the Yanks, but rightly called out both for their seamier sides. He and Mantle reconciled later in life, and even the Yanks now invite him back for oldtimers games.
ReplyDeleteYou guys never disappoint!
ReplyDeleteI must say that I think Ball Four was a great read, and I enjoyed the anecdotes immensely, but I have two problems with Jim Bouton:
ReplyDelete1) First and foremost he violated a trust. He made a profit by publicly relating what he had learned in private. He told tales out of school.
2) When telling the tales, he made everybody else the bad guy. With the exception of taking drugs, little Jimmy B. somehow never did any of the things the other bad boys were doing. Could it be that little Jimmy B. was married at the time?
If you were in those locker rooms, and you were ogling women in the stands, and some asshole wrote about it using your name, and it caused problems in your home, you'd think he was a douchebag, too.
In fact, the proof that he was regarded as an untrustworthy tale-telling douchebag was that, when he attempted another comeback in the minor leagues in the mid 1970s, the other players, though young minor leaguers, were savvy enough to avoid him. I remember him writing about it in SI and having the gall to be mystified as to why it was happening. My reaction was, "Gee whiz, Jim, ya think they're afraid to utter a peep around you because they might see it in print later?"
Oh, and I have an omission above:
7) Carl Pavano