It's time for the New York media to relay what A-Rod has done wrong lately. The New York media previously gnashed their teeth that A-Rod wanted the full bonus the Yankees had promised him in his contract, and he wanted the full amount even if the Yankees gave the bonus to charity rather than A-Rod. Also, A-Rod wouldn't create controversy on demand, which frustrated Bill Madden. Now A-Rod isn't doing anything to increase the ratings at YES (because A-Rod is singlehandedly responsible for these ratings) and he didn't get voted on to the All-Star team. What a bunch of serious missteps by A-Rod.
I'll start off first with Bob Raissman, who says that A-Rod has played well on the field, but he still isn't helping the Yankees with television ratings. Because A-Rod's job is to make sure ratings increase, not perform well on the field, and it is A-Rod's job and only A-Rod's job to increase Yankees' television ratings.
Is there a Yankeeography on the Yankees Entertainment & Sports Network in Alex Rodriguez’s future?
Judging by pinstriped suits’ (Hal, Hankenstein, etc.) positive reaction
to A-Rod’s “Summer of Love Tour,” we would have to say (Only On) YES.
Rodriguez has done all the right things upon his return from a year-long sentence for his role in the Biogenesis caper.
The New York media is still a little bitter they can not bash A-Rod for underachieving this year, so resorting to being cutesy and sarcastic about A-Rod coming back from his year-long suspension and contributing to the team is the attitude of choice.
Since he embarked on this comeback, during which he’s posted the kind of
numbers even know-it-all Analytics Aliens could not have predicted,
The media continuously has no idea what Sabermetrics are or how these statistics are supposed to be used. Using Sabermetrics isn't like being a psychic where they are trying to predict the future as if they know it all. It's the use of statistics to make predictions based on past information and A-Rod's age. It's less know-it-all and more let's-use-data-to-try-and-predict-but-this-isn't-guaranteed-to-be-right. Sabermetricians don't claim to be psychics.
much of the media has gifted him the kind of supernatural powers performance-enhancing drugs cannot produce.
Yes, the media is making A-Rod into a better player than he truly is. Why is the media always on A-Rod's side? Sure, it's really impressive he's putting up such numbers at the age of 40 (while apparently clean) after taking an entire year off from baseball, after suffering injuries prior to his year off from baseball, but stop talking about him like he's good at the sport. The media is always overrating A-Rod's abilities.
This is a much higher power — like the ability to jack up television
ratings, which influence the rates networks can charge advertisers to
buy time.
Sure A-Rod's doing a good job of hitting the baseball, but the real test of his baseball skill is his ability to increase television ratings. This is A-Rod's job and only A-Rod's job. If YES ratings are low, it's because A-Rod can't draw a viewing crowd. These ratings are a direct reflection on A-Rod and it's not at all possible ratings would be even lower if A-Rod wasn't drawing more viewers to YES Yankees broadcasts.
Part of the debate over whether Rodriguez deserves to be a member of the
American League All-Star team Tuesday night in Cincinnati includes a
perception he can draw eyeballs to the Foxies’ party.
But this perception is wrong because the Yankees don't have great ratings. This is just like the perception Paul Goldschmidt could help a contending team who trades for him is wrong because the Diamondbacks aren't very good. The D-Backs suck and that means so does Goldschmidt.
Kay admits Rodriguez does not belong on the AL All-Stars. “Just tell me
who he replaces?” Kay asked. But on his ESPN-98.7 gabfest, Kay added: “I
think it would be great for Fox (if A-Rod was on the team). I think it
(the game) will get higher ratings with Alex there.”
Kay, and the many others who share his opinion, never quantify it. If
they did, they couldn’t back up their words.
It concerns me that Bob Raissman gets paid to write about television broadcasts and ratings when he uses the logic he is about to use in order to justify his point. The big issue here is that there is no telling what the ratings would be this year if A-Rod wasn't playing, so it's almost impossible to say the effect he has on ratings. The Yankees are also not expected to be competing for the World Series, which also affects the ratings.
Through July 7, Yankees TV
ratings on YES were averaging a 2.55 rating, down a hefty 15% from the
same point in the 2014 season, according to The Nielsen Co. And average
total viewership on YES’ Yankees cablecasts is 237,000, down 17% from
the same point in 2014.
This is concerning for me. Bob Raissman uses ratings from the 2014 season, which could easily be skewed based on it being Derek Jeter's last season as a Yankee. Ratings could have been higher for 2014 than 2013, which would mean the ratings for the Yankees this season are normal. It's concerning to me that Raissman uses a potentially outlier year to prove his point without using any other data from previous seasons to compare 2014 to. Maybe he could learn something from the Analytics Aliens.
So, if A-Rod can’t put the Yankees ahead in the ratings department on
YES, where the majority of peepers have forgot about his PED past and
mostly have forgiven him (as long as he continues being productive) for
past “sins,” there is no shot — absolutely none — that extraneous
eyeballs from sea to shining sea are going to go out of their way to
tune into Fox’s All-Star telecast to see A-Rod.
Who says A-Rod isn't helping YES ratings? Aren't there are other reasonable explanations for the decline in YES ratings? It's possible A-Rod is helping ratings, but the other factors that go into how many Yankees fans watch the games are hurting the ratings more.
Why waste time watching a guy they still despise?
This is the only obvious conclusion. Fans who will watch the All-Star game hate A-Rod because the ratings for Yankees games are down from the 2014 season.
Understand?
Yes, I understand you are making assumptions and using rating data from one year, a year that very well could be an outlier, in order to make the point you want to make. I understand you are assuming A-Rod is personally responsible for the ratings decline on YES and you are willfully ignoring all other factors that could affect ratings. I understand you get paid to do this job and I understand that makes me sad and embarrassed for you.
Rodriguez would have zero impact on All-Star TV ratings. And
even if A-Rod were on the team, viewers would see him only during the
opening introductions and likely in a pinch-hitting role.
How Bob Raissman knows that Rodriguez would have zero impact on All-Star TV ratings is beyond me. He seems to really lack the ability to think three dimensionally about this topic.
Maybe, MAYBE, ESPN would enjoy a ratings boost from A-Rod if he were
added to the Home Run Derby. In that freak show, an oddity of A-Rod’s
proportion could be a ratings difference maker.
Maybe, MAYBE, Bob Raissman has very little evidence anything he is writing is fact-based.
That said, it’s surprising that A-Rod is not driving ratings higher on
Yankees telecasts. Think about it: The numbers were better at this point
last season WITHOUT him.
True, but the ratings could have been higher last season due to one of the greatest Yankees ever playing his last season. I'm sure the 2014 ratings had less to do with The Jeter retiring and more to do with Yankees fans watching games again now that they were rid of A-Rod.
Rodriguez brings controversy, legitimate star power and a possible
comeback of the year storyline to a team with little marquee value to
sell, unless you believe Chase Headley, Brett Gardner, Mark Teixeira or
Didi Gregorius are all major attractions.
Bob Raissman a few paragraphs ago: "The Yankees had better ratings WITHOUT A-Rod. How come the ratings for Yankees games on YES are so low and A-Rod can't pull them up? What else could explain the decreased ratings?"
Bob Raissman now: "The Yankees have no star power and the team is a tough sell. Here is a list of players who don't provide marquee value."
Think perhaps the lack of other players on the roster with marquee value affects the ratings of Yankees games? Perhaps the ratings would be even worse without A-Rod on the team, which means he would have an impact on the All-Star games' ratings.
Maybe this can be attributed to boring baseball (played by both teams in
this city) and a lack of offense. Has this caused viewers to tune out?
Absolutely not. Do not entertain this wild idea. I'm sure A-Rod has more to do with the decreased ratings from 2014 than the fact it was The Jeter's last season, as well as the perception the 2015 Yankees lack marquee value and don't seem like they would be competitive. It's A-Rod, not the boring (supposedly) team that causes viewers to tune out.
Anyway, even though he has proven not to be a ratings magnet, A-Rod sure ain’t boring.
This has provided plenty of material for use inside the Valley of the
Stupid and other media precincts. The Gasbags wonder why. Or they ask
who really is keeping A-Rod out? Is it players who can’t stand him?
Yes, it is the players who can't stand A-Rod. His not being selected is not a result of other players being more deserving, but instead is the result of the players not liking A-Rod and getting their revenge by choosing to put more deserving players on the team.
“I’m not going to make it (A-Rod not being an All-Star) like it’s the
crime of the century because it isn’t,” Mike Greenberg said on ESPN
Radio.
Just enough of a “crime” to float across many media platforms where
opinions can be delivered between commercial messages. Consider it a
gift delivered by A-Rod.
Yes, it is definitely A-Rod's fault that many media platforms are discussing his not being in the All-Star game. A-Rod specifically tells ESPN what to talk about and when to talk about it. The network will immediately do as they are told.
Just don’t ask him to deliver any ratings. He doesn’t have that kind of juice.
Maybe he doesn't, maybe he does. The ratings on YES aren't simply a by-product of A-Rod's presence on the Yankee roster. Bob Raissman admits the Yankees lack marquee stars, yet he isn't capable of connecting the dots and seeing that could be part of the reason in the ratings dip. He also doesn't compare the 2015 ratings to any other year for further perspective, outside of 2014 when The Jeter was making his farewell tour. It's Raissman's job to talk about ratings and the media, yet he fails at this job.
Now John Harper thinks the fact A-Rod didn't make the All-Star team shows that the people really hate A-Rod. Because, you know, it's so embarrassing to hate A-Rod that people who don't like him have to do it in private and through passive-aggressiveness acts rather than just admit how they feel about him. No one has the guts to hate A-Rod publicly, so the fact he didn't make the All-Star team proves what John Harper chooses to believe. Weird how that works. Harper has a belief and tries hard to fit reality into that belief.
Nope, for all of the stature A-Rod has regained in baseball this season
with his bat and his contrite demeanor, his peers wouldn't let him slip
past the velvet rope to mingle with the best of the best, as he once did
every summer.
It's the result of a vendetta against A-Rod, not a snub based on A-Rod's merit compared to the merit of other AL hitters.
Does that have anything to do with the many bridges A-Rod torched when
he was at war with every facet of Major League Baseball — including the Players Association — in 2013 while trying in vain to avoid a PED suspension?
It’s a fair question, though one to which there is no obvious answer.
This is a fair question. It is also a question that makes more assumptions than is required when the easy and more obvious answer is that A-Rod's exclusion on the AL All-Star roster was based on his merit versus the merit of other AL hitters. But why would John Harper go with the easy answer when he can come up with an answer more elaborate that helps him to write a column about how this All-Star exclusion means everyone hates A-Rod?
A-Rod had the numbers to warrant a DH spot on the AL All-Star team, but
after the fans voted Nelson Cruz as the starter, the Yankee star was not
named among the reserves that are chosen by player vote and manager Ned
Yost’s preference.
Perhaps, and I know this doesn't fit the story that John Harper wants to push, the players just thought there were more deserving candidates to represent the AL in the All-Star game and A-Rod's exclusion wasn't because they don't personally like him. I know, that would be a logical conclusion, but what's the fun in logic when Harper can shoehorn his beliefs into this (lack of a) story?
Prince Fielder earned the back-up DH nod, and it’s tough to argue with
his selection, considering that he’s hitting .347 with 13 home runs, 50
RBI and a .943 OPS.
John Harper a few paragraphs ago: "Was A-Rod left off the All-Star roster because the MLB players hate him for suing the union? It's possible!"
John Harper now: "Here is a player who took A-Rod's roster spot that was more deserving than A-Rod."
I think we have our answer on why A-Rod didn't make the All-Star team.
Had Yost somehow finagled Kendrys Morales, his Royals DH, onto the team,
then you could have made the case that A-Rod got snubbed.
But you are the one making the case A-Rod was left off for reasons other than merit. You are the one suggesting it was a conspiracy among the players that ended with A-Rod not being on the All-Star roster. Now you are refuting your own theory, but only refuting it after trying to make the case that everyone hates A-Rod. It's important to put that line of thought out in the universe before refuting it.
But Fielder certainly was deserving.
So, there we go. It wasn't about whether A-Rod was hated or not by his fellow players, but about Prince Fielder being more deserving than A-Rod.
In truth, Brett Gardner is the Yankee who had a right to feel he got jobbed.
Gardner is clearly having an All-Star season, and in many ways he has
become the heart and soul of these Yankees, his hustle and
aggressiveness setting a tone at the top of the lineup for a team that
has exceeded expectations so far.
So does this exclusion mean that John Harper thinks the AL players hate Gardner like he believes A-Rod's exclusion was the result of the players passive-aggressively telling A-Rod how they feel? Of course not! That's silly. The "he got snubbed because everyone hates him" logic is only used for A-Rod.
As for A-Rod, Yost made the case on the ESPN All-Star selection show
that much discussion went into his candidacy, but ultimately the need
for position players outweighed whatever desire there was to include
him.
“We wanted to try to find a way to get Alex Rodriguez on there,” Yost said. “We couldn’t.”
How hard they tried is anybody’s guess.
PROBABLY NOT HARD AT ALL!
In fact, I bet AL pitchers threw Prince Fielder fastballs straight down the plate in order to ensure he made the All-Star team over A-Rod. How could this not be true? It's a fair assessment with no obvious answer.
A-Rod would have added some sizzle to an event that remains mostly a
spectacle, no matter how determined MLB is to cling to this silly idea
that the game should decide home-field advantage in the World Series.
It’s not likely that a pitcher would have thrown A-Rod the “pipe-shot”
that Adam Wainwright served up for Derek Jeter last year.
It's not likely. In fact, I wouldn't have been surprised if A-Rod had made the team, and the second he stepped in the batter's box, the NL catcher would have pulled out a switchblade and knifed him to death. It could happen. Would the NL catcher murder A-Rod in the All-Star game? It's a fair question with no obvious answer.
Nor would you think someone might pull a Ryan Dempster
and drill him on such a big stage as some sort of statement on behalf
of the union members who were included in the suit Rodriguez temporarily
brought against the Players Association — at least until he seemed to come to his senses.
It could happen since the only assumption that is being worked under right now is that everyone hates A-Rod. Sure, there's no evidence this is true, but who needs evidence when John Harper has a fancy computer and inclination to believe this conclusion?
On the surface, at least, all seems to have been forgiven this year as
A-Rod has made his return from his 2014 suspension. He has long since
won over Yankee fans with his rather stunning offensive production, to
the point that he was practically given the Jeter treatment, curtain
call and all, when he hit a home run for his 3,000th hit.
He almost got "the Jeter treatment," which apparently is what a curtain call will now be referred to as being.
And while he was never the outcast in the Yankee clubhouse he was sometimes portrayed as,
Gee, I wonder who sometimes portrayed A-Rod as the outcast in the clubhouse? I'm sure it wasn't John Harper and his fellow media members.
all indications are that he is admired now more than ever by teammates
for his work ethic, his superstar status and his singular talk of
winning as a team.
But fuck indications, let's make some shit up. Sure, A-Rod isn't an outcast like the media portrays him as being, and sure, he probably didn't make the All-Star team based on merit and not based on some long-held grudge, but where's the fun in coming to this conclusion?
Everybody loves A-Rod? Well, not enough to give him a Jeter-like
All-Star sendoff, even with a deserving resume. Perhaps forgiveness only
goes so far.
Wait, "a Jeter-like All-Star sendoff"? Is Alex Rodriguez retiring after this season? I think all indications are that A-Rod will be back next year, so why would his presence in the All-Star game this season have been a "sendoff"? It's likely that John Harper is doing what every boring, predictable New York sportswriter does, which is compare A-Rod to Derek Jeter, and therefore lazily assumes this is A-Rod's last season or chance to the make the All-Star team. Everything always comes back to Derek Jeter for sportswriters. Always.
Showing posts with label New York Yankees. Show all posts
Showing posts with label New York Yankees. Show all posts
Thursday, July 30, 2015
Friday, July 10, 2015
0 comments Filip Bondy Longs for the Days When The Drama Around the Yankees Was More Important Than What Was Happening on The Field
I'm not posting as much lately, as you have noticed. How much I post in a week depends on two things. (1) The amount of time I have and (2) the number of articles I can find to write about. I've not being able to find much of either lately, so I've not posted as much. I'll try to do better in the coming weeks. I was going to take the entire month of July off from posting anything, but decided against that. So on to Filip Bondy longing for the days of the Steinbrenners.
New York sportswriters are famous for a few things. Among them is overreacting to anything that may have immediately happened, mistaking a New York-based team making roster moves for this movement actually being improvement, and lionizing George Steinbrenner. They didn't lionize him as much while he was alive of course, but once he died, Steinbrenner then became the savior of all saviors for the Yankees organization. "How much better would this all be if George was alive?" is brought up several dozen times per year in columns. Filip Bondy is bored with the Yankees, because winning games or not having a circus surrounding the team is too boring for him. See, sportswriters like Bondy prefer drama because it makes it easier for them to do their job. That's why most Yankees sportswriters were salivating at the idea of Alex Rodriguez returning to the team this year. Surely, he would be good for some controversial copy that would sell papers and get pageviews. Well, it hasn't exactly turned out that way. So Filip is sad that the Yankees are boring to him. A logical person might understand that being boring isn't a bad thing and craving the excitement of controversy isn't how a sportswriter should live out his/her existence. But as I said, it's more important to these writers for the Yankees to be exciting. That's how they judge the team and they seem to believe the purpose of the Yankees organization is to give them good stories to write about in a daily column.
So Filip misses George Steinbrenner and wishes Hank would take over the team so he will have more interesting topics to write about. It's so pathetic how sportswriters like Filip cover a professional sports organization and crave drama like they are watching a soap opera. This is the type of article that is written when an uninspired and uncreative sportswriter doesn't have anything else to write about.
The sound you just heard was another baseball crashing into the second deck after a brief, towering orbit — right alongside the Yankees’ narrative arc.
Oh no! The narrative arc for the Yankees' season has crashed. How ever will columns be written and hot takes disseminated? When will the Yankees do something noteworthy to interrupt this boring season of having to cover baseball? Filip Bondy certainly didn't get into covering sports for a living so that he would end up having to cover sporting events.
Sunday afternoon in the park was not so much a picnic in the Bronx, as it was a cold, wakeup shower following a dreamy nap.
Poetic. This sentence was not so much a delicious meal of narrative enjoyment, as it was a shit sandwich following a bath in raw sewage.
Before they were creamed by Detroit, 12-4, the Yanks had gone 11-1 at home while outscoring opponents, 87-31.
The Yankees were dominating opponents. BORING! No one cares about how well the Yankees are playing at home. Get some drama to stop Filip from being bored while watching all these baseball games.
“We’re built for this ballpark,” Joe Girardi declared, before the game. But then Masahiro Tanaka’s splitters roamed way too high and the Tigers — also built for this bandbox — hammered five homers off three pitchers to provide a more realistic vision of the home team.
A more realistic vision of the home team which proved Girardi wrong by moving the Yankees to having a 11-2 record at home while outscoring opponents 91-43. Obviously the other 12 games were a fluke. For sure.
The dirty little secret about this edition of the Yankees is that they’re not a very good club, destined to streak back and forth like this and to finish anywhere from second to fourth place in the AL East.
I don't think it is a secret that the Yankees aren't especially good this season. They are a decent team who could get hot and slide into a Wild Card spot or fall back and just be a pretty good team. Of course, this does not please Filip Bondy because it's too boring. Simply covering the Yankees isn't enough for him. Someone drum up some controversy!
As I said earlier, the New York media was counting on Alex Rodriguez creating controversy and the media was salivating over this prospect. A-Rod has hit the ball well and been on his best behavior, much to their total dismay. I'm surprised Mike Lupica hasn't planted steroids in A-Rod's locker yet, just for the sake of writing a story about it.
Tanaka is too fragile in body; Michael Pineda too brittle of mind. Mark down the Bombers for 81 to 87 victories, once again on the cusp of the wild-card race.
Oh no, the Yankees may only be on the fringe of the playoffs. Wake Filip up when September ends so he will know if the Yankees made the playoffs or not. No wait, check that, wake him up if there is anything interesting to write about the Yankees after September. This whole "covering sports without controversy" just isn't working for him.
Let’s instead address the more pressing problem, which is: How do the Yankees become less boring?
I've watched more Yankees games this year than I have in a while, so I don't know how to answer that question. What I do know is the Yankees becoming boring isn't really a bad thing for anyone but sportswriters who cover the Yankees. So they will continue to beat the drum for the idea the Yankees are boring until their readers reluctantly agree.
The once-compelling Yanks have only three marquee position players worth watching. Alex Rodriguez and Mark Teixeira hit home runs. Brett Gardner is a home-grown hustler. The bullpen, when healthy, is deep. That’s about it. There aren’t nearly enough up-siders.
Yes, the Yankees need to go sign more free agents and generate some excitement. That'll work. Overspend on a few players and give the media something to talk about.
What's funny is Filip is about to complain the Yankees don't have enough homegrown players, but there is no way in hell sportswriters like Filip Bondy would have the patience to watch these homegrown players turn into MLB regulars. In fact, much of what the Yankees seem to be trying to do is be smart with their acquisitions and give some players in their system time to develop. What's the result? Filip Bondy calls them "boring."
The bottom of the lineup is a bottomless pit.
The lineup isn't loaded with stars. Oh how ever has such a fate befallen the Yankees? If there aren't All-Stars at every lineup spot then Filip Bondy has no need to watch any Yankee games.
Something new and exciting is required to perk up the place, write some new headlines now that A-Rod has reached his milestones. There is one quick fix available, if only the Steinbrenner family would cooperate.
Hal should stand aside once more for his brother, Hank.
I hope this is tongue-in-cheek, because it's ridiculous. As if Hank Steinbrenner creating controversy and saying stupid shit will fix the Yankees problem of being boring. It would just distract from the product on the field that Bondy seems to hate so much. If Filip Bondy hates the product on the field so much then he is in the wrong profession.
We have nothing against Hal, who is a very nice, unassuming owner, a fine man. He does not think he is God’s answer to personnel decisions. But he is not a natural pot stirrer, like his dad.
No one cares if you have good stories to write. Your job matters much less to everyone else than it does to you. I know it hurts knowing this, but it is true.
His words and actions are measured. When the team struggles, no ultimatums are issued.
See? The New York media mistakes ultimatums and reactionary decisions for good decision-making. Because see, when ultimatums are issued and bad decisions are made, the New York media can bash the Yankees. That's all they want to do. Give them a story to write about or they will create one themselves.
“Brian, I believe is a good one,” Hal said last year, when he decided to re-sign Cashman. “Every general manager has signings. Some work out better than others.”
In the fantasy world where Hank Steinbrenner has more control and a bigger voice, the New York media will then bash the Yankees for their failings when firing everyone and issuing ultimatums didn't work out.
Steinbrenner also said something else during that interview on the Michael Kay show.
“I would hold me responsible before anybody else,” he said.
The horror at the realization a Steinbrenner won't randomly fire and hire the same person over and over while expecting different results every time! What kind of rational behavior is that from a male Steinbrenner? It's sad to me how much Filip Bondy and his fellow hacks in the media favor drama over actual sporting events. It doesn't surprise me of course.
This is the Bronx, not Queens. There are no tomorrows, or day-after-tomorrows. There is only today. The visage of The Boss glares down disapprovingly from a mural behind the right-field bleachers, at what transpires below.
There are lot of things that The Boss (why capitalized?) disapproved of. Like not trading Mariano Rivera early in his career and generally having any sort of patience without making a knee-jerk move he may later regret. Now George Steinbrenner is considered a saint for some reason.
We have fond memories of Hank in his brief role as chief spokesman of the Yankees, after his father ceded control. But then soon enough the quieter Hal was elected Chairman of the Board in September 2007. A muzzle quieted the biggest mouth in ownership.
And this meant that Filip Bondy had to write about...baseball. I mean, baseball, why would Filip Bondy want to write about that boring-ass sport?
This is a significant waste of noise. We remember very well the fuss he made during the transition-of-power years, when Hank dissed the Red Sox in the New York Times magazine.
“Go anywhere in America and you won’t see Red Sox hats and jackets, you’ll see Yankee hats and jackets,” he said. “This is a Yankee country. We’re going to put the Yankees back on top and restore the universe to order.”
And then the Yankees didn't do that. Normally, there would be criticism by Bondy directed at Hank Steinbrenner for promising something that didn't come true, but covering the Yankees isn't about the accuracy of statements that are or are not said. Covering the Yankees is about taking the noise surrounding the team and pumping out narratives and reactionary columns that makes what happens on the field as ancillary to the noise around the team as possible. Since the act of dissing the Red Sox was more important than the accuracy of his statement, Hank Steinbrenner's comment will only receive a mild rebuke for it's inaccuracy.
Well, here we are, many seasons later, and there is no restoration of the universe, only AL East chaos.
And it's boring chaos, which makes it all that much worse.
Cashman’s acquisitions have largely faltered and there are no new homegrown position stars.
"There are no homegrown stars on this team! Draft these players and then give them time to develop!"
"Why are the Yankees so boring and lack All-Stars at every spot in the starting lineup and rotation?"
Nobody is going to win a pennant with a generic lineup that begins with Didi Gregorius in the two slot and concludes with Garrett Jones, Chris Young, Stephen Drew and Brendan Ryan.
No, but huge contracts given to underachieving players also aren't going to happen when this "generic" lineup is run out everyday. Homegrown position stars don't just happen overnight. Sometimes there is a waiting period where short-term fixes have to be put in place until the time when these homegrown stars are ready to be stars. Take a look at who played second base for the Yankees until Robinson Cano made his debut in 2005. Filip probably doesn't remember this, but it was Miguel Cairo. Who played in the outfield before the hustling Brett Gardner magically appeared? It was Bobby Abreu and Johnny Damon, which limited Gardner's at-bats initially.
Someone, somewhere, needs to scream about all this.
No, they don't. Someone, somewhere needs to write a good column about the New York Yankees without lazily calling them boring because there isn't enough drama surrounding the team.
We miss George terribly. Hank is the next best thing. Get off the golf course.
Yes, George Steinbrenner would have fixed everything by firing Brian Cashman, then re-hiring him, then firing him again, to where the end result was that the Yankees won about 81-87 games in a season and didn't really end up going anywhere. Sort of like where the Yankees are today. That's exactly what should Hank Steinbrenner should do. Create drama so Filip Bondy has something to write about, that's all the Yankees should do.
A-Rod has been a severe disappointment in this aspect. I keep waiting for a New York sportswriter to write a column that essentially bashes A-Rod for not causing controversy this year.
New York sportswriters are famous for a few things. Among them is overreacting to anything that may have immediately happened, mistaking a New York-based team making roster moves for this movement actually being improvement, and lionizing George Steinbrenner. They didn't lionize him as much while he was alive of course, but once he died, Steinbrenner then became the savior of all saviors for the Yankees organization. "How much better would this all be if George was alive?" is brought up several dozen times per year in columns. Filip Bondy is bored with the Yankees, because winning games or not having a circus surrounding the team is too boring for him. See, sportswriters like Bondy prefer drama because it makes it easier for them to do their job. That's why most Yankees sportswriters were salivating at the idea of Alex Rodriguez returning to the team this year. Surely, he would be good for some controversial copy that would sell papers and get pageviews. Well, it hasn't exactly turned out that way. So Filip is sad that the Yankees are boring to him. A logical person might understand that being boring isn't a bad thing and craving the excitement of controversy isn't how a sportswriter should live out his/her existence. But as I said, it's more important to these writers for the Yankees to be exciting. That's how they judge the team and they seem to believe the purpose of the Yankees organization is to give them good stories to write about in a daily column.
So Filip misses George Steinbrenner and wishes Hank would take over the team so he will have more interesting topics to write about. It's so pathetic how sportswriters like Filip cover a professional sports organization and crave drama like they are watching a soap opera. This is the type of article that is written when an uninspired and uncreative sportswriter doesn't have anything else to write about.
The sound you just heard was another baseball crashing into the second deck after a brief, towering orbit — right alongside the Yankees’ narrative arc.
Oh no! The narrative arc for the Yankees' season has crashed. How ever will columns be written and hot takes disseminated? When will the Yankees do something noteworthy to interrupt this boring season of having to cover baseball? Filip Bondy certainly didn't get into covering sports for a living so that he would end up having to cover sporting events.
Sunday afternoon in the park was not so much a picnic in the Bronx, as it was a cold, wakeup shower following a dreamy nap.
Poetic. This sentence was not so much a delicious meal of narrative enjoyment, as it was a shit sandwich following a bath in raw sewage.
Before they were creamed by Detroit, 12-4, the Yanks had gone 11-1 at home while outscoring opponents, 87-31.
The Yankees were dominating opponents. BORING! No one cares about how well the Yankees are playing at home. Get some drama to stop Filip from being bored while watching all these baseball games.
“We’re built for this ballpark,” Joe Girardi declared, before the game. But then Masahiro Tanaka’s splitters roamed way too high and the Tigers — also built for this bandbox — hammered five homers off three pitchers to provide a more realistic vision of the home team.
A more realistic vision of the home team which proved Girardi wrong by moving the Yankees to having a 11-2 record at home while outscoring opponents 91-43. Obviously the other 12 games were a fluke. For sure.
The dirty little secret about this edition of the Yankees is that they’re not a very good club, destined to streak back and forth like this and to finish anywhere from second to fourth place in the AL East.
I don't think it is a secret that the Yankees aren't especially good this season. They are a decent team who could get hot and slide into a Wild Card spot or fall back and just be a pretty good team. Of course, this does not please Filip Bondy because it's too boring. Simply covering the Yankees isn't enough for him. Someone drum up some controversy!
As I said earlier, the New York media was counting on Alex Rodriguez creating controversy and the media was salivating over this prospect. A-Rod has hit the ball well and been on his best behavior, much to their total dismay. I'm surprised Mike Lupica hasn't planted steroids in A-Rod's locker yet, just for the sake of writing a story about it.
Tanaka is too fragile in body; Michael Pineda too brittle of mind. Mark down the Bombers for 81 to 87 victories, once again on the cusp of the wild-card race.
Oh no, the Yankees may only be on the fringe of the playoffs. Wake Filip up when September ends so he will know if the Yankees made the playoffs or not. No wait, check that, wake him up if there is anything interesting to write about the Yankees after September. This whole "covering sports without controversy" just isn't working for him.
Let’s instead address the more pressing problem, which is: How do the Yankees become less boring?
I've watched more Yankees games this year than I have in a while, so I don't know how to answer that question. What I do know is the Yankees becoming boring isn't really a bad thing for anyone but sportswriters who cover the Yankees. So they will continue to beat the drum for the idea the Yankees are boring until their readers reluctantly agree.
The once-compelling Yanks have only three marquee position players worth watching. Alex Rodriguez and Mark Teixeira hit home runs. Brett Gardner is a home-grown hustler. The bullpen, when healthy, is deep. That’s about it. There aren’t nearly enough up-siders.
Yes, the Yankees need to go sign more free agents and generate some excitement. That'll work. Overspend on a few players and give the media something to talk about.
What's funny is Filip is about to complain the Yankees don't have enough homegrown players, but there is no way in hell sportswriters like Filip Bondy would have the patience to watch these homegrown players turn into MLB regulars. In fact, much of what the Yankees seem to be trying to do is be smart with their acquisitions and give some players in their system time to develop. What's the result? Filip Bondy calls them "boring."
The bottom of the lineup is a bottomless pit.
The lineup isn't loaded with stars. Oh how ever has such a fate befallen the Yankees? If there aren't All-Stars at every lineup spot then Filip Bondy has no need to watch any Yankee games.
Something new and exciting is required to perk up the place, write some new headlines now that A-Rod has reached his milestones. There is one quick fix available, if only the Steinbrenner family would cooperate.
Hal should stand aside once more for his brother, Hank.
I hope this is tongue-in-cheek, because it's ridiculous. As if Hank Steinbrenner creating controversy and saying stupid shit will fix the Yankees problem of being boring. It would just distract from the product on the field that Bondy seems to hate so much. If Filip Bondy hates the product on the field so much then he is in the wrong profession.
We have nothing against Hal, who is a very nice, unassuming owner, a fine man. He does not think he is God’s answer to personnel decisions. But he is not a natural pot stirrer, like his dad.
No one cares if you have good stories to write. Your job matters much less to everyone else than it does to you. I know it hurts knowing this, but it is true.
His words and actions are measured. When the team struggles, no ultimatums are issued.
See? The New York media mistakes ultimatums and reactionary decisions for good decision-making. Because see, when ultimatums are issued and bad decisions are made, the New York media can bash the Yankees. That's all they want to do. Give them a story to write about or they will create one themselves.
“Brian, I believe is a good one,” Hal said last year, when he decided to re-sign Cashman. “Every general manager has signings. Some work out better than others.”
In the fantasy world where Hank Steinbrenner has more control and a bigger voice, the New York media will then bash the Yankees for their failings when firing everyone and issuing ultimatums didn't work out.
Steinbrenner also said something else during that interview on the Michael Kay show.
“I would hold me responsible before anybody else,” he said.
The horror at the realization a Steinbrenner won't randomly fire and hire the same person over and over while expecting different results every time! What kind of rational behavior is that from a male Steinbrenner? It's sad to me how much Filip Bondy and his fellow hacks in the media favor drama over actual sporting events. It doesn't surprise me of course.
This is the Bronx, not Queens. There are no tomorrows, or day-after-tomorrows. There is only today. The visage of The Boss glares down disapprovingly from a mural behind the right-field bleachers, at what transpires below.
There are lot of things that The Boss (why capitalized?) disapproved of. Like not trading Mariano Rivera early in his career and generally having any sort of patience without making a knee-jerk move he may later regret. Now George Steinbrenner is considered a saint for some reason.
We have fond memories of Hank in his brief role as chief spokesman of the Yankees, after his father ceded control. But then soon enough the quieter Hal was elected Chairman of the Board in September 2007. A muzzle quieted the biggest mouth in ownership.
And this meant that Filip Bondy had to write about...baseball. I mean, baseball, why would Filip Bondy want to write about that boring-ass sport?
This is a significant waste of noise. We remember very well the fuss he made during the transition-of-power years, when Hank dissed the Red Sox in the New York Times magazine.
“Go anywhere in America and you won’t see Red Sox hats and jackets, you’ll see Yankee hats and jackets,” he said. “This is a Yankee country. We’re going to put the Yankees back on top and restore the universe to order.”
And then the Yankees didn't do that. Normally, there would be criticism by Bondy directed at Hank Steinbrenner for promising something that didn't come true, but covering the Yankees isn't about the accuracy of statements that are or are not said. Covering the Yankees is about taking the noise surrounding the team and pumping out narratives and reactionary columns that makes what happens on the field as ancillary to the noise around the team as possible. Since the act of dissing the Red Sox was more important than the accuracy of his statement, Hank Steinbrenner's comment will only receive a mild rebuke for it's inaccuracy.
Well, here we are, many seasons later, and there is no restoration of the universe, only AL East chaos.
And it's boring chaos, which makes it all that much worse.
Cashman’s acquisitions have largely faltered and there are no new homegrown position stars.
"There are no homegrown stars on this team! Draft these players and then give them time to develop!"
"Why are the Yankees so boring and lack All-Stars at every spot in the starting lineup and rotation?"
Nobody is going to win a pennant with a generic lineup that begins with Didi Gregorius in the two slot and concludes with Garrett Jones, Chris Young, Stephen Drew and Brendan Ryan.
No, but huge contracts given to underachieving players also aren't going to happen when this "generic" lineup is run out everyday. Homegrown position stars don't just happen overnight. Sometimes there is a waiting period where short-term fixes have to be put in place until the time when these homegrown stars are ready to be stars. Take a look at who played second base for the Yankees until Robinson Cano made his debut in 2005. Filip probably doesn't remember this, but it was Miguel Cairo. Who played in the outfield before the hustling Brett Gardner magically appeared? It was Bobby Abreu and Johnny Damon, which limited Gardner's at-bats initially.
Someone, somewhere, needs to scream about all this.
No, they don't. Someone, somewhere needs to write a good column about the New York Yankees without lazily calling them boring because there isn't enough drama surrounding the team.
We miss George terribly. Hank is the next best thing. Get off the golf course.
Yes, George Steinbrenner would have fixed everything by firing Brian Cashman, then re-hiring him, then firing him again, to where the end result was that the Yankees won about 81-87 games in a season and didn't really end up going anywhere. Sort of like where the Yankees are today. That's exactly what should Hank Steinbrenner should do. Create drama so Filip Bondy has something to write about, that's all the Yankees should do.
A-Rod has been a severe disappointment in this aspect. I keep waiting for a New York sportswriter to write a column that essentially bashes A-Rod for not causing controversy this year.
Wednesday, June 24, 2015
5 comments What A-Rod Has Done Wrong Today: He Hates Charities and Won't Create Controversy on Demand
It's been a long, tough summer for New York writers who were waiting to jump on the many mistakes A-Rod would make over the 2015 season. He really hasn't made many at all. He's hitting the baseball well and adapting to his job as the Yankees' designated hitter. He's caused no problems that I know of, and if he wasn't hated due to his cheating, the fact he's playing so well at an advanced age for a professional athlete would be celebrated. But that's not how it is. No one likes A-Rod, especially when there is no reason not to like A-Rod. When A-Rod doesn't give New York sportswriters a reason to dislike him, that's more annoying than anything else. So Bill Madden does what he can to drum up some controversy by pointing out that A-Rod will not drum up any controversy to respond to the Yankees' offer of donating $6 million to the charity of A-Rod's choice.
Why won't A-Rod say anything or respond publicly to the offer? Doesn't A-Rod realize it's more exciting for him to publicly reject this offer rather than privately reject the offer? Doesn't A-Rod realize the Yankees promising him $6 million if he met a milestone is the exact same thing as the Yankees giving $6 million to the charity of A-Rod's choice? If I promise you $10,000 to run a package from Philadelphia to Japan, but don't like the fact it took longer than I wanted it to, so I say I will give the $10,000 to your favorite charity instead, wouldn't that just please you? You are getting $10,000 to give to your favorite charity. That's better than having the money for yourself.
Can A-Rod not be satisfied? He was promised $6 million and the Yankees don't want to pay it to him. Why can't he just accept the Yankees giving this money to a charity? Does A-Rod hate charities that much? If A-Rod doesn't hate charities and hates the Yankees for not giving him $6 million, why can't he say it publicly so Bill Madden can write a story about A-Rod's quotes on this topic?
I like the "new" A-Rod. He's hitting the ball and he's not really saying much. He's letting this whole grievance of $6 million play out behind the scenes and not commenting. Of course, the New York media finds this unacceptable, so they have to find something wrong with A-Rod's approach to take the high ground.
In his ever-percolating home run milestone grievance with the Yankees — which was expected to come to a head Saturday but was pushed back until Monday — Alex Rodriguez’s silence is deafening.
"THE FACT A-ROD WON'T CAUSE A DISTRACTION HAS IN ITSELF NOW BECOME A DISTRACTION! WHEN WILL THIS MONSTER BE SATIATED WITH THE DAMAGE HE HAS CAUSED?"
A face-saving olive branch from the Yankees has been out there for a while, but A-Rod, on the advice of his attorneys and handlers, is having none of it.
I always throw this disclaimer in here it seems, but I'm not an A-Rod apologist. I really try not to be. The way the New York media frames anything that concerns A-Rod forces me to call them on their bullshit. Let's be clear here...the Yankees signed a contract saying they would give A-Rod $6 million when he passed Willie Mays on the all-time home run list. The Yankees don't like that A-Rod got busted for using steroids, which is their right to be horrified by this. A-Rod still wants the $6 million that was in the contract he signed for passing Willie Mays on the all-time home run list, which is his right as a person who signed the contract.
Bill Madden is framing this discussion in such an anti-Rodriguez way though. Look at the language he is using.
"A face-saving olive branch from the Yankees..." like the Yankees are the ones trying to make peace in this situation when the grievance Rodriguez has is that the Yankees won't give him the money promised in his contract. The Yankees are not living up to a contract they signed, but they get credit for offering the olive branch?
"but A-Rod, on the advice of his attorneys and handlers..." like A-Rod has no control over the decision. He's totally and completely at fault on his own for using PED's, but when it comes to anything else he's just a puppet on a string. It's silly to believe A-Rod isn't anything but 100% culpable for his errors, but when it comes to making decisions about $6 million, all of a sudden A-Rod can't make his own decisions.
"...is having none of it" like the Yankees aren't trying to violate a contract they signed with A-Rod, as if he is a villain forcing them to pay money they didn't contractually agree to pay him. Bill Madden is framing this like he himself wouldn't go after $6 million in this situation. It's ridiculous the way Madden writes about this situation.
Sunday marked the 45-day deadline for A-Rod to file a grievance against the Yankees for their refusal to recognize his tying Willie Mays on the all-time home run list as a milestone, which under a separate marketing deal from his contract would have required them to pay him a $6 million bonus.
That day came and went with no agreement and no grievance filed.
So not only is A-Rod a huge distraction, but he's also not filing a grievance at this point in an effort to get the situation resolved without ever having to file a grievance. Does it get more diabolical than a person quietly asserting what he believes to be his rights in a manner that is as non-confrontational and distracting as possible? What type of monster tries to see if an agreement can be worked out before filing a grievance? He thinks he's A-God, not merely A-Rod.
Rodgriguez, when asked following Sunday’s win in Baltimore about a possible grievance, said: “That stuff will work itself out. I don’t know much about those kind of things.”
Oh sure, now Rodgriguez (spelling, Bill, spelling) claims to have NO KNOWLEDGE about what is going on, just like Bill Madden claims he has no knowledge of what's going on. Bill Madden knows that he was wrong when he said A-Rod's handlers were taking care of the situation and making him hold out for more money, but he can't admit that. Bill can't believe that A-Rod is pretending not to know what Bill Madden claims A-Rod doesn't know when it's obvious that Bill Madden doesn't know what A-Rod knows but A-Rod knows enough to know he's playing coy about what he does know. This is very, very clear.
While the Yankees remain confident in their position that A-Rod’s admission to using steroids and his subsequent year-long suspension from baseball has made him and his accomplishments unmarketable, they suggested to the MLB Players Association months ago that the dispute possibly could be settled by the Yankees making a donation — less than the $6 million — to a charity of Rodriguez’s choice.
So to sum it up, the Yankees not only won't give A-Rod the $6 million he claims he's owed for passing Willie Mays on the all-time home run list, but they won't even give the charity of his choice the full $6 million instead of giving the money to A-Rod. The Yankees won't give A-Rod $6 million and have held out an olive branch of an offer to give a charity less than the $6 million A-Rod claims they owe him. But again, Rodriguez is the bad guy here, not the Yankees.
“If you guys are so interested in my charities, I’ll be at the Boys and Girls Club on Tuesday,” said a smiling Rodriguez Sunday.
Oh, you snide son of a bitch. Bill Madden would cut your throat if he could. Smiling while talking about the Boys and Girls Club, bragging about how involved you are.
“That’s a great organization and we welcome all you guys to come out and give the Boys and Girls Club some exposure.”
What a son of a bitch's son of a bitch. A-Rod knows the New York media has no intent on giving the Boys and Girls Club some exposure. That's not what they want to do at all, but he just HAS to be cocky about it and point out the New York media is only looking for controversy to stir up rather than having a genuine interest in a charity receiving the "less than $6 million" that was supposed to go to A-Rod. What kind of animal points out the media's fake concern that charities are receiving exposure?
Rodriguez, however, has given no indication to the union or the Yankees that he has any intentions other than trying to make them pay him the full $6 million bonus and additional $6 million bonuses should he tie Babe Ruth (714), Hank Aaron (755) and Barry Bonds (762) on the all-time homer list.
He's given no intention he's willing to accept less than $6 million, but of course he's also not filed a grievance yet. So A-Rod also hasn't given an indication he isn't willing to work something out with the Yankees. But yeah, stay negative.
Rodriguez is apparently willing to once again go before the same baseball arbitrator, Fredric Horowitz, who found him guilty on all counts — but reduced his sentence — in his appeal of his 211-game suspension for doping in 2013, to force the payments.
All of a sudden it's A-Rod, and not his handlers, who is at the controls of this scheme again. It's hard for me to keep up with when A-Rod is and is not in control of this situation. And yes, A-Rod seems to be willing to go to this arbitrator, but as I often say when it comes to Peter King discussing contract negotiations, this is all a part of the negotiation so who knows what really A-Rod is willing to do? It could all be posturing.
If Rodriguez should prevail — and all the parties are said to privately have agreed not to hold Monday as a firm deadline for A-Rod to file his grievance since it won’t be heard anyway until after the season — the Yankees would also be required to pay an additional $3 million in luxury taxes.
Rodriguez is basically a cartoonish Bond villain at this point. Not only is he insisting the Yankees pay him the amount they contractually agreed to, but the fact the Yankees won't pay A-Rod $6 million is now costing the team $3 million more in luxury taxes. When will Rodriguez finally stop his continuous reign of evil? He's forcing the Yankees to spend more money, thereby hurting the team, by winning a grievance he hasn't filed yet in a hearing that hasn't occurred yet. If Rodriguez would just let the Yankees cheat him out of money, the Yankees could save even more money. But nooooooooooo, his selfishness knows no end.
It would appear to be a difficult case for A-Rod to prove since there have been zero commercial/endorsement opportunities presented to either Rodriguez or the Yankees for his passing of Mays — or, for that matter, to Rodriguez for the 3,000-hit milestone he’s closing in on.
A player can be marketable even without getting commercial/endorsement opportunities. Go check out how much a signed A-Rod jersey bids for and see if he is still not marketable.
(By contrast, Derek Jeter had numerous commercial/endorsement deals after he reached 3,000 hits.)
Jeter also had numerous commercial/endorsement deals before he reached 3,000 hits as well. And of course Derek Jeter is going to be mentioned at some point, as if nearly any professional athlete can live up to the image Jeter crafted for himself on the field and as an endorser. Simply because A-Rod isn't as marketable as Derek Jeter doesn't mean he isn't marketable.
As one baseball official noted Sunday: “Alex can’t even make the case that he’s helped the Yankees this year with his comeback season as their attendance and TV ratings are both down.”
How do we know ratings and attendance wouldn't be further down if A-Rod wasn't playing? Perhaps ratings and attendance would have declined further if it weren't for Rodriguez. Plus, attendance and ratings are a sign that the Yankees team as a whole isn't as marketable as it once was and not a reflection simply on one player.
It is believed the only reason the Yankees made any suggestion to settle with a charity donation was because of the enormous cost of litigating the case —
It's also believed that a charity donation isn't what A-Rod thinks the contract he signed called for and a charity donation of less than $6 million isn't even the amount A-Rod was promised for passing Mays. But again, Bill Madden has to look at this issue from the point of view of the Yankees organization.
Regardless, if it’s war he wants with them again, the Yankees are said to be confident they will win it and prepared to spend whatever it takes to make their case.
One minute Madden is decrying how the Yankees will have to spend $3 million more in luxury taxes if A-Rod wins and talks about how ratings and attendance are down, then he paints the Yankees as an organization with deep pockets who are fighting a moral war to avoid having to pay money they contractually agreed to pay.
“I’m not going to get into that now. All that stuff is family business and will be handled privately,” said Rodriguez.
Congratulations A-Rod, you are now causing a distraction by refusing to cause a distraction. Now the whole team is upset with you (they aren't) and this will probably if all goes well affect your play (it won't) so that the New York media can then state you were too concerned about lining your pockets when you needed to be worried about helping the Yankees win games. Not causing a distraction is a distraction. Bill Madden is horrified that you refuse to comment on the grievance you haven't filed yet, thereby creating controversy when he has to write this column about how you aren't creating controversy.
Why won't A-Rod say anything or respond publicly to the offer? Doesn't A-Rod realize it's more exciting for him to publicly reject this offer rather than privately reject the offer? Doesn't A-Rod realize the Yankees promising him $6 million if he met a milestone is the exact same thing as the Yankees giving $6 million to the charity of A-Rod's choice? If I promise you $10,000 to run a package from Philadelphia to Japan, but don't like the fact it took longer than I wanted it to, so I say I will give the $10,000 to your favorite charity instead, wouldn't that just please you? You are getting $10,000 to give to your favorite charity. That's better than having the money for yourself.
Can A-Rod not be satisfied? He was promised $6 million and the Yankees don't want to pay it to him. Why can't he just accept the Yankees giving this money to a charity? Does A-Rod hate charities that much? If A-Rod doesn't hate charities and hates the Yankees for not giving him $6 million, why can't he say it publicly so Bill Madden can write a story about A-Rod's quotes on this topic?
I like the "new" A-Rod. He's hitting the ball and he's not really saying much. He's letting this whole grievance of $6 million play out behind the scenes and not commenting. Of course, the New York media finds this unacceptable, so they have to find something wrong with A-Rod's approach to take the high ground.
In his ever-percolating home run milestone grievance with the Yankees — which was expected to come to a head Saturday but was pushed back until Monday — Alex Rodriguez’s silence is deafening.
"THE FACT A-ROD WON'T CAUSE A DISTRACTION HAS IN ITSELF NOW BECOME A DISTRACTION! WHEN WILL THIS MONSTER BE SATIATED WITH THE DAMAGE HE HAS CAUSED?"
A face-saving olive branch from the Yankees has been out there for a while, but A-Rod, on the advice of his attorneys and handlers, is having none of it.
I always throw this disclaimer in here it seems, but I'm not an A-Rod apologist. I really try not to be. The way the New York media frames anything that concerns A-Rod forces me to call them on their bullshit. Let's be clear here...the Yankees signed a contract saying they would give A-Rod $6 million when he passed Willie Mays on the all-time home run list. The Yankees don't like that A-Rod got busted for using steroids, which is their right to be horrified by this. A-Rod still wants the $6 million that was in the contract he signed for passing Willie Mays on the all-time home run list, which is his right as a person who signed the contract.
Bill Madden is framing this discussion in such an anti-Rodriguez way though. Look at the language he is using.
"A face-saving olive branch from the Yankees..." like the Yankees are the ones trying to make peace in this situation when the grievance Rodriguez has is that the Yankees won't give him the money promised in his contract. The Yankees are not living up to a contract they signed, but they get credit for offering the olive branch?
"but A-Rod, on the advice of his attorneys and handlers..." like A-Rod has no control over the decision. He's totally and completely at fault on his own for using PED's, but when it comes to anything else he's just a puppet on a string. It's silly to believe A-Rod isn't anything but 100% culpable for his errors, but when it comes to making decisions about $6 million, all of a sudden A-Rod can't make his own decisions.
"...is having none of it" like the Yankees aren't trying to violate a contract they signed with A-Rod, as if he is a villain forcing them to pay money they didn't contractually agree to pay him. Bill Madden is framing this like he himself wouldn't go after $6 million in this situation. It's ridiculous the way Madden writes about this situation.
Sunday marked the 45-day deadline for A-Rod to file a grievance against the Yankees for their refusal to recognize his tying Willie Mays on the all-time home run list as a milestone, which under a separate marketing deal from his contract would have required them to pay him a $6 million bonus.
That day came and went with no agreement and no grievance filed.
So not only is A-Rod a huge distraction, but he's also not filing a grievance at this point in an effort to get the situation resolved without ever having to file a grievance. Does it get more diabolical than a person quietly asserting what he believes to be his rights in a manner that is as non-confrontational and distracting as possible? What type of monster tries to see if an agreement can be worked out before filing a grievance? He thinks he's A-God, not merely A-Rod.
Rodgriguez, when asked following Sunday’s win in Baltimore about a possible grievance, said: “That stuff will work itself out. I don’t know much about those kind of things.”
Oh sure, now Rodgriguez (spelling, Bill, spelling) claims to have NO KNOWLEDGE about what is going on, just like Bill Madden claims he has no knowledge of what's going on. Bill Madden knows that he was wrong when he said A-Rod's handlers were taking care of the situation and making him hold out for more money, but he can't admit that. Bill can't believe that A-Rod is pretending not to know what Bill Madden claims A-Rod doesn't know when it's obvious that Bill Madden doesn't know what A-Rod knows but A-Rod knows enough to know he's playing coy about what he does know. This is very, very clear.
While the Yankees remain confident in their position that A-Rod’s admission to using steroids and his subsequent year-long suspension from baseball has made him and his accomplishments unmarketable, they suggested to the MLB Players Association months ago that the dispute possibly could be settled by the Yankees making a donation — less than the $6 million — to a charity of Rodriguez’s choice.
So to sum it up, the Yankees not only won't give A-Rod the $6 million he claims he's owed for passing Willie Mays on the all-time home run list, but they won't even give the charity of his choice the full $6 million instead of giving the money to A-Rod. The Yankees won't give A-Rod $6 million and have held out an olive branch of an offer to give a charity less than the $6 million A-Rod claims they owe him. But again, Rodriguez is the bad guy here, not the Yankees.
“If you guys are so interested in my charities, I’ll be at the Boys and Girls Club on Tuesday,” said a smiling Rodriguez Sunday.
Oh, you snide son of a bitch. Bill Madden would cut your throat if he could. Smiling while talking about the Boys and Girls Club, bragging about how involved you are.
“That’s a great organization and we welcome all you guys to come out and give the Boys and Girls Club some exposure.”
What a son of a bitch's son of a bitch. A-Rod knows the New York media has no intent on giving the Boys and Girls Club some exposure. That's not what they want to do at all, but he just HAS to be cocky about it and point out the New York media is only looking for controversy to stir up rather than having a genuine interest in a charity receiving the "less than $6 million" that was supposed to go to A-Rod. What kind of animal points out the media's fake concern that charities are receiving exposure?
Rodriguez, however, has given no indication to the union or the Yankees that he has any intentions other than trying to make them pay him the full $6 million bonus and additional $6 million bonuses should he tie Babe Ruth (714), Hank Aaron (755) and Barry Bonds (762) on the all-time homer list.
He's given no intention he's willing to accept less than $6 million, but of course he's also not filed a grievance yet. So A-Rod also hasn't given an indication he isn't willing to work something out with the Yankees. But yeah, stay negative.
Rodriguez is apparently willing to once again go before the same baseball arbitrator, Fredric Horowitz, who found him guilty on all counts — but reduced his sentence — in his appeal of his 211-game suspension for doping in 2013, to force the payments.
All of a sudden it's A-Rod, and not his handlers, who is at the controls of this scheme again. It's hard for me to keep up with when A-Rod is and is not in control of this situation. And yes, A-Rod seems to be willing to go to this arbitrator, but as I often say when it comes to Peter King discussing contract negotiations, this is all a part of the negotiation so who knows what really A-Rod is willing to do? It could all be posturing.
If Rodriguez should prevail — and all the parties are said to privately have agreed not to hold Monday as a firm deadline for A-Rod to file his grievance since it won’t be heard anyway until after the season — the Yankees would also be required to pay an additional $3 million in luxury taxes.
Rodriguez is basically a cartoonish Bond villain at this point. Not only is he insisting the Yankees pay him the amount they contractually agreed to, but the fact the Yankees won't pay A-Rod $6 million is now costing the team $3 million more in luxury taxes. When will Rodriguez finally stop his continuous reign of evil? He's forcing the Yankees to spend more money, thereby hurting the team, by winning a grievance he hasn't filed yet in a hearing that hasn't occurred yet. If Rodriguez would just let the Yankees cheat him out of money, the Yankees could save even more money. But nooooooooooo, his selfishness knows no end.
It would appear to be a difficult case for A-Rod to prove since there have been zero commercial/endorsement opportunities presented to either Rodriguez or the Yankees for his passing of Mays — or, for that matter, to Rodriguez for the 3,000-hit milestone he’s closing in on.
A player can be marketable even without getting commercial/endorsement opportunities. Go check out how much a signed A-Rod jersey bids for and see if he is still not marketable.
(By contrast, Derek Jeter had numerous commercial/endorsement deals after he reached 3,000 hits.)
Jeter also had numerous commercial/endorsement deals before he reached 3,000 hits as well. And of course Derek Jeter is going to be mentioned at some point, as if nearly any professional athlete can live up to the image Jeter crafted for himself on the field and as an endorser. Simply because A-Rod isn't as marketable as Derek Jeter doesn't mean he isn't marketable.
As one baseball official noted Sunday: “Alex can’t even make the case that he’s helped the Yankees this year with his comeback season as their attendance and TV ratings are both down.”
How do we know ratings and attendance wouldn't be further down if A-Rod wasn't playing? Perhaps ratings and attendance would have declined further if it weren't for Rodriguez. Plus, attendance and ratings are a sign that the Yankees team as a whole isn't as marketable as it once was and not a reflection simply on one player.
It is believed the only reason the Yankees made any suggestion to settle with a charity donation was because of the enormous cost of litigating the case —
It's also believed that a charity donation isn't what A-Rod thinks the contract he signed called for and a charity donation of less than $6 million isn't even the amount A-Rod was promised for passing Mays. But again, Bill Madden has to look at this issue from the point of view of the Yankees organization.
Regardless, if it’s war he wants with them again, the Yankees are said to be confident they will win it and prepared to spend whatever it takes to make their case.
One minute Madden is decrying how the Yankees will have to spend $3 million more in luxury taxes if A-Rod wins and talks about how ratings and attendance are down, then he paints the Yankees as an organization with deep pockets who are fighting a moral war to avoid having to pay money they contractually agreed to pay.
“I’m not going to get into that now. All that stuff is family business and will be handled privately,” said Rodriguez.
Congratulations A-Rod, you are now causing a distraction by refusing to cause a distraction. Now the whole team is upset with you (they aren't) and this will probably if all goes well affect your play (it won't) so that the New York media can then state you were too concerned about lining your pockets when you needed to be worried about helping the Yankees win games. Not causing a distraction is a distraction. Bill Madden is horrified that you refuse to comment on the grievance you haven't filed yet, thereby creating controversy when he has to write this column about how you aren't creating controversy.
Friday, April 10, 2015
0 comments After One Game, the Didi Gregorius Experiment Can Only Be Called a Failure
Derek Jeter never would have started his Yankees career like Didi Gregorius did. Well sure, Jeter did go 0-5 with a strikeout in his first ever at-bat for the Yankees and committed two errors in his first 15 games during the 1995 season, but in a world where Derek Jeter came to the major leagues as a Hall of Famer already, he would not have started his Yankees career like Gregorius did. Jon Heyman wants to be the first to point out that after ONE FREAKING GAME it's going to be hard for Gregorius to replace Jeter. ONE GAME! That's how long it took for the inevitable Jeter nostalgia to begin in full force from Jon Heyman.
The second part of the sub-headed title is "Didi Doesn't Resemble Jeter." What? You are kidding me, right? The shortstop who was traded to the Yankees in a three way trade involving Shane Green, Robbie Ray, and Domingo Leyba ISN'T a Hall of Fame shortstop after one game? It's a shocking turn of events.
It is, of course, eminently possible the scoreboard operator was just off to a slow start, sort of like the Yankees, who looked punchless, listless, even mindless on Opening Day against an upstart Blue Jays team that features six rookies and real hope.
"I'll take 'It's Insane to Draw Conclusions After 0.617% of the Season is Over' for $200, Alex."
Maybe Scott Boras told Jon Heyman to bash Gregorius so that the Yankees may one day move Stephen Drew back to the shortstop position. I wouldn't put that past those two crazy kids to conspire like that.
Anyway, the first game in the post-Jeter era was nothing short of an unmitigated disaster – a 6-1 defeat to Toronto in which Tanaka lasted only four innings and the Yankees gathered only three hits (including one by returning hero Alex Rodriguez -- yes, he was treated like a hero.)
I hate it when fans choose to hero worship a player when the media doesn't think the player is worthy of being applauded. These fans are so stupid and clearly don't have the high moral standards that baseball writers like Jon Heyman have. Anyway, back to the hero worship of a retired player and framing one game in a 162 game season around that retired baseball player...
Beyond the loss, the game raised questions about 1) Tanaka, 2) the Yankees offense, and 3) the unfortunate sap charged with the impossible job to replace the great Derek Jeter.
The questions about Tanaka can be valid since he's coming off elbow surgery and there is a concern his velocity is down. Otherwise, IT WAS ONE FREAKING GAME! CALM THE FUCK DOWN SO I CAN CALM DOWN AND STOP TYPING IN ALL-CAPS!
Gregorius was never going to "replace" Jeter and the idea he could do this is so unreasonable that it seems like anyone who would write that Gregorius could replace Jeter in any way is simply wanting to set Gregorius up for failure.
That chap's name is Didi Gregorius, a nice young fellow with a winning smile and an impossible task.
It's been one game and he hasn't succeeded yet, so let's jump to some conclusions.
"I don't think anybody can be like Jeter," Gregorius said after the game. No one disagreed.
Correct, but somebody can play shortstop for the Yankees and that is what Gregorius is trying to do. So rather than have his tenure as Yankees shortstop revolve around him replacing Jeter, maybe just acknowledge what has been acknowledged, which is that it is impossible to replace Jeter.
It's never easy replacing a legend (Jeter is so big the Yankees section of the New York Times baseball preview section was all about the guys who's no longer here, the guy who's now in the "journalism" game – yes, Jeter himself). Meanwhile, his replacement pulled the sort of memorable gaffe Jeter never made in 20 years.
And if Jeter had committed a gaffe like this then the New York media would immediately have forgotten about it or pretended it never happened.
Get this, and it is hard to believe this happened in a major-league game. Gregorius was thrown out trying to steal third with the Yankees down by five runs in the 8th inning, two outs and cleanup man Mark Teixeira up.
Yeah, I can't believe a guy tried to steal third base in a major league game with two outs and the cleanup hitter up. That's something that has never occurred before I don't believe. How in the world does Gregorius expect the Yankees to win the game if he's trying to steal third base and take away the opportunity for Mark Teixeira to hit a five-run home run to tie the game? That's what Jeter would have done. He would have stayed at second base and then proudly thrown his hand up in the air as Mark Teixeira hit a five-run homer that ties the game up. Not Didi Gregorius. He chose to steal third base with two outs, which is an event that has never occurred in MLB history before.
I like how Heyman acts like this not smart play has never occurred in an MLB game prior to when Gregorius tried to do it. It was not a smart play, but it was one play in the first game of the season. The Yankees were down 5 runs, not 1 run.
Gregorius explained afterward that he thought he'd take advantage of the shift that's killing the Yankees at bat to take the extra base.
Which, by the way, is the type of reasoning that Derek Jeter would use to justify stealing third base. If he succeeded then the media would all get bruises from patting each other on the back and applaud happily.
"Look at that Jeter. He's always aware of what's happening on the baseball field and is such a strategically strong base runner. He knew the shift was on and immediately sprung at the chance to try and steal third base."
Even if Jeter failed, I'm sure media members like Jon Heyman either wouldn't mention it or point out the Captain was just trying to inject some life into a game that was surely lost at that point. They would frame it as a smart move, but it just didn't work out.
At that moment the Yankees' chances to win went from 1 percent to basically zero.
Gregorius stealing third base ripped the chances the Yankees had of winning the game down by almost 1%. He basically lost the game for them. There was a 99% chance the Yankees were going to lose, but he lowered those chances to a 99.6% chance they would lose. Such an egregious error. That should be what the New York media calls him now, Didi Egregious.
Afterward, Girardi, whose instinct is always to say everything is hunky dory even when it's anything but, called it a "very good learning experience." Though that begs the question why that wasn't learned by junior high.
But hey, at least Jon Heyman isn't overreacting to a player getting caught stealing at third base in a five run game or anything. Comments like,
Get this, and it is hard to believe this happened in a major-league game.
Though that begs the question why that wasn't learned by junior high.
certainly sound like Heyman is talking about a bad play that was more important than Gregorius being caught stealing in a five run game in the first game of a 162 game season. But Heyman is not done!
Though it's hard to recall a major-league player attempting something quite so foolish,
And if anyone would know anything about being foolish, it's the sportswriter who is making a huge deal out of a player being caught stealing third base in a five run game on Opening Day. Overreactions don't come more strong than this.
certainly not in his debut with a new team, nor while replacing the perfect player.
Holy fucking shit. Derek Jeter is retired, get over him. Jon Heyman just called Jeter "the perfect player." Hero worship much? Derek Jeter was caught stealing 97 times in his career. He stole 358 bases. "The perfect player" failed to steal a base 21.3% of the time, though I am sure none of them were Jeter's fault and none of them involved him trying to steal third base in a blowout. "The perfect player" wouldn't do that.
But say this for Gregorius. He didn't run away and hide.
"You can't run around," Gregorius said. "You guys are going to find me."
But even if Gregorius tried to run and hide, he's such a failure as a human being that he would just end up failing to hide anyway.
That's the problem with the major leagues. It's all right there in front of us all. And what you see with the Yankees just doesn't look very encouraging right now.
This is a sentence that Jon Heyman writes after one game. One game. ONE GAME.
Rodriguez, the most candid Yankee right now,
But I'm sure A-Rod is only being candid because everything he is saying are lies. It's easy to be candid when you are the lying scum of the Earth who may end up playing well on the baseball diamond so let's just not talk about that very much, okay?
admitted he isn't certain what he can bring, which is only natural considering all the obstacles. "I'm not sure," he said when asked if he can play like he did before he went away. "I haven't played in a long time."
AND HE'S PROBABLY NEVER, EVER PLAYED WITHOUT PED'S FLOWING THROUGH HIS BODY!
He didn't look like a guy who was, A) rusty, 2) 39 going on 40, or C) in needs of 'roids.
PROBABLY BECAUSE HE'S ALREADY BACK ON STEROIDS!
The cheer-to-boo ratio was about 80-20 when he was announced, and only positive things were heard later, when folks started to see Rodriguez can at least put together a game full of good at-bats.
A-Rod said he wasn't sure he deserved the adulation. But he did appreciate it, he said.
Such false modesty. No one knows the true evil that A-Rod has planned for this 2015 season. Only time will tell what his real plan to tear the Yankees organization apart will be.
As for Gregorius, he will have many chances, as Yankees people love his defense, and frankly, there aren't a lot of great shortstop alternatives right now. At least it's a great sign that he handled his faux pas with aplomb.
It's also a great sign that it was the first game of the season and this was one stupid play he made in a 162 game season.
The pressure certainly is greater here. And it has to be that much greater when you're standing where Jeter once built his legend.
Which is why it is vitally important that the media overreact to anything Didi Gregorius does poorly this season, while pointing out anything great Didi does has already been done before by Jeter. Anything Gregorius does wrong? Well, Jeter would NEVER have done that. Keep the legend alive and slowly turn it into fiction.
The second part of the sub-headed title is "Didi Doesn't Resemble Jeter." What? You are kidding me, right? The shortstop who was traded to the Yankees in a three way trade involving Shane Green, Robbie Ray, and Domingo Leyba ISN'T a Hall of Fame shortstop after one game? It's a shocking turn of events.
It is, of course, eminently possible the scoreboard operator was just off to a slow start, sort of like the Yankees, who looked punchless, listless, even mindless on Opening Day against an upstart Blue Jays team that features six rookies and real hope.
"I'll take 'It's Insane to Draw Conclusions After 0.617% of the Season is Over' for $200, Alex."
Maybe Scott Boras told Jon Heyman to bash Gregorius so that the Yankees may one day move Stephen Drew back to the shortstop position. I wouldn't put that past those two crazy kids to conspire like that.
Anyway, the first game in the post-Jeter era was nothing short of an unmitigated disaster – a 6-1 defeat to Toronto in which Tanaka lasted only four innings and the Yankees gathered only three hits (including one by returning hero Alex Rodriguez -- yes, he was treated like a hero.)
I hate it when fans choose to hero worship a player when the media doesn't think the player is worthy of being applauded. These fans are so stupid and clearly don't have the high moral standards that baseball writers like Jon Heyman have. Anyway, back to the hero worship of a retired player and framing one game in a 162 game season around that retired baseball player...
Beyond the loss, the game raised questions about 1) Tanaka, 2) the Yankees offense, and 3) the unfortunate sap charged with the impossible job to replace the great Derek Jeter.
The questions about Tanaka can be valid since he's coming off elbow surgery and there is a concern his velocity is down. Otherwise, IT WAS ONE FREAKING GAME! CALM THE FUCK DOWN SO I CAN CALM DOWN AND STOP TYPING IN ALL-CAPS!
Gregorius was never going to "replace" Jeter and the idea he could do this is so unreasonable that it seems like anyone who would write that Gregorius could replace Jeter in any way is simply wanting to set Gregorius up for failure.
That chap's name is Didi Gregorius, a nice young fellow with a winning smile and an impossible task.
It's been one game and he hasn't succeeded yet, so let's jump to some conclusions.
"I don't think anybody can be like Jeter," Gregorius said after the game. No one disagreed.
Correct, but somebody can play shortstop for the Yankees and that is what Gregorius is trying to do. So rather than have his tenure as Yankees shortstop revolve around him replacing Jeter, maybe just acknowledge what has been acknowledged, which is that it is impossible to replace Jeter.
It's never easy replacing a legend (Jeter is so big the Yankees section of the New York Times baseball preview section was all about the guys who's no longer here, the guy who's now in the "journalism" game – yes, Jeter himself). Meanwhile, his replacement pulled the sort of memorable gaffe Jeter never made in 20 years.
And if Jeter had committed a gaffe like this then the New York media would immediately have forgotten about it or pretended it never happened.
Get this, and it is hard to believe this happened in a major-league game. Gregorius was thrown out trying to steal third with the Yankees down by five runs in the 8th inning, two outs and cleanup man Mark Teixeira up.
Yeah, I can't believe a guy tried to steal third base in a major league game with two outs and the cleanup hitter up. That's something that has never occurred before I don't believe. How in the world does Gregorius expect the Yankees to win the game if he's trying to steal third base and take away the opportunity for Mark Teixeira to hit a five-run home run to tie the game? That's what Jeter would have done. He would have stayed at second base and then proudly thrown his hand up in the air as Mark Teixeira hit a five-run homer that ties the game up. Not Didi Gregorius. He chose to steal third base with two outs, which is an event that has never occurred in MLB history before.
I like how Heyman acts like this not smart play has never occurred in an MLB game prior to when Gregorius tried to do it. It was not a smart play, but it was one play in the first game of the season. The Yankees were down 5 runs, not 1 run.
Gregorius explained afterward that he thought he'd take advantage of the shift that's killing the Yankees at bat to take the extra base.
Which, by the way, is the type of reasoning that Derek Jeter would use to justify stealing third base. If he succeeded then the media would all get bruises from patting each other on the back and applaud happily.
"Look at that Jeter. He's always aware of what's happening on the baseball field and is such a strategically strong base runner. He knew the shift was on and immediately sprung at the chance to try and steal third base."
Even if Jeter failed, I'm sure media members like Jon Heyman either wouldn't mention it or point out the Captain was just trying to inject some life into a game that was surely lost at that point. They would frame it as a smart move, but it just didn't work out.
At that moment the Yankees' chances to win went from 1 percent to basically zero.
Gregorius stealing third base ripped the chances the Yankees had of winning the game down by almost 1%. He basically lost the game for them. There was a 99% chance the Yankees were going to lose, but he lowered those chances to a 99.6% chance they would lose. Such an egregious error. That should be what the New York media calls him now, Didi Egregious.
Afterward, Girardi, whose instinct is always to say everything is hunky dory even when it's anything but, called it a "very good learning experience." Though that begs the question why that wasn't learned by junior high.
But hey, at least Jon Heyman isn't overreacting to a player getting caught stealing at third base in a five run game or anything. Comments like,
Get this, and it is hard to believe this happened in a major-league game.
Though that begs the question why that wasn't learned by junior high.
certainly sound like Heyman is talking about a bad play that was more important than Gregorius being caught stealing in a five run game in the first game of a 162 game season. But Heyman is not done!
Though it's hard to recall a major-league player attempting something quite so foolish,
And if anyone would know anything about being foolish, it's the sportswriter who is making a huge deal out of a player being caught stealing third base in a five run game on Opening Day. Overreactions don't come more strong than this.
certainly not in his debut with a new team, nor while replacing the perfect player.
Holy fucking shit. Derek Jeter is retired, get over him. Jon Heyman just called Jeter "the perfect player." Hero worship much? Derek Jeter was caught stealing 97 times in his career. He stole 358 bases. "The perfect player" failed to steal a base 21.3% of the time, though I am sure none of them were Jeter's fault and none of them involved him trying to steal third base in a blowout. "The perfect player" wouldn't do that.
But say this for Gregorius. He didn't run away and hide.
"You can't run around," Gregorius said. "You guys are going to find me."
But even if Gregorius tried to run and hide, he's such a failure as a human being that he would just end up failing to hide anyway.
That's the problem with the major leagues. It's all right there in front of us all. And what you see with the Yankees just doesn't look very encouraging right now.
This is a sentence that Jon Heyman writes after one game. One game. ONE GAME.
Rodriguez, the most candid Yankee right now,
But I'm sure A-Rod is only being candid because everything he is saying are lies. It's easy to be candid when you are the lying scum of the Earth who may end up playing well on the baseball diamond so let's just not talk about that very much, okay?
admitted he isn't certain what he can bring, which is only natural considering all the obstacles. "I'm not sure," he said when asked if he can play like he did before he went away. "I haven't played in a long time."
AND HE'S PROBABLY NEVER, EVER PLAYED WITHOUT PED'S FLOWING THROUGH HIS BODY!
He didn't look like a guy who was, A) rusty, 2) 39 going on 40, or C) in needs of 'roids.
PROBABLY BECAUSE HE'S ALREADY BACK ON STEROIDS!
The cheer-to-boo ratio was about 80-20 when he was announced, and only positive things were heard later, when folks started to see Rodriguez can at least put together a game full of good at-bats.
A-Rod said he wasn't sure he deserved the adulation. But he did appreciate it, he said.
Such false modesty. No one knows the true evil that A-Rod has planned for this 2015 season. Only time will tell what his real plan to tear the Yankees organization apart will be.
As for Gregorius, he will have many chances, as Yankees people love his defense, and frankly, there aren't a lot of great shortstop alternatives right now. At least it's a great sign that he handled his faux pas with aplomb.
It's also a great sign that it was the first game of the season and this was one stupid play he made in a 162 game season.
The pressure certainly is greater here. And it has to be that much greater when you're standing where Jeter once built his legend.
Which is why it is vitally important that the media overreact to anything Didi Gregorius does poorly this season, while pointing out anything great Didi does has already been done before by Jeter. Anything Gregorius does wrong? Well, Jeter would NEVER have done that. Keep the legend alive and slowly turn it into fiction.
Sunday, April 5, 2015
0 comments What A-Rod Has Done Wrong Today: He Didn't Sharpen His Thespian Abilities
Alex Rodriguez had a pretty good spring training by the way. He actually managed to hit a few home runs and hasn't caused the ruckus that the New York media has wanted him to cause. They wanted a circus surrounding A-Rod where a few of his teammates would back stab him and they could write all about it with glee. It hasn't happened. Of course, as I have detailed, this means the New York media has had to work extra hard (which they are against...the New York media prefers easy-to-write stories based on controversy, the longer the controversy lasts the better) to come up with things that A-Rod has done wrong. Today, Bob Raissman uses a video re-enactment of "The Sandlot" to point out that A-Rod is no longer in the Yankees' marketing plans. It's always something negative about A-Rod, even if Raissman has to streeeeeeeeeeetch to get there. A-Rod's name gets pageviews and turning anything surrounding or not surrounding A-Rod into a negative has become a sport.
Anyone else wondering why Alex Rodriguez did not perform in the Yankees’recent video re-enactment of the Babe Ruth scene from the 1993 movie “The Sandlot?”
No, I absolutely did not care nor was I wondering why Alex Rodriguez was not in that video re-enactment. In fact, I was going through my list of priorities on the day I saw that video and this is how the things I cared about were prioritized.
1. Shit I have to do, don't have to do, may not do, and anything else I may be thinking of doing or worrying about during the day that I will never get through unless there is 1,023,150 hours in a day.
2. Why wasn't A-Rod in that video re-enactment of the Babe Ruth scene from the 1993 movie "The Sandlot"?
Well as Jack Woltz, the big-shot studio boss in “The Godfather,” might say: “You don’t understand. A-Rod never gets that movie. That part is perfect for him.”
Great use of a quote from "The Godfather," which is a movie about a family that leads a life of crime and the youngest son tries through three movies to get the family out of the life of crime. There is an obvious parallel here to the Yankees, where A-Rod is leading the team down a life of crime through PED use and it's up to the younger guys, the same ones who appears in this video, to get the Yankees out of this PED spiral. And obviously, Bob Raissman thinks things around the Yankees would get better if A-Rod would just get shot or die in a garden.
An appearance by Rodriguez in the video would be tantamount to Yankees brass giving him their true stamp of approval and officially welcoming him back into the fold as a member in good standing.
So A-Rod not appearing in the video isn't because he chose not to appear or it just couldn't be fit into his schedule, but it was a metaphorical and literal move by the Yankees to distance themselves from A-Rod.
And you know if A-Rod HAD appeared in the video then Bob Raissman would write an article that went along the lines of, "The attempted A-Rod redemption tour continues with the video he made with the rest of his Yankees teammates. He's doing his best to make the public think he's not a liar and a cheat, but he'll never erase the stain of his past deeds."
In fact, I think Bob Raissman is mad A-Rod wasn't in the video, because it was a perfectly good opportunity missed to rip A-Rod for trying to be light-hearted.
It would also further soften Rodriguez’s tainted image, placing him smack in the middle of a singular group of players the organization has left to market.
Exactly. The Yankees do not want Rodriguez to be acknowledged as part of the team, so the role he would have had in the video went to another player the Yankees liked. The Yankees are pulling some strings for the purposes of pulling A-Rod from a silly video. I'm sure that's a realistic line of thought.
Seriously, as cute and fun as this video is, it shows the direction and lengths Bombers brass must go to sell players like CC Sabathia, Didi Gregorius, Dellin Betances, Jacoby Ellsbury, Brian McCann and Brett Gardner.
Oh yeah, because what Yankees fan has ever heard of no-name players like Jacoby Ellsbury, CC Sabathia, Brian McCann and Brett Gardner? Who are these guys? It's not like three of these guys were expensive free agents the team signed and received a ton of press for signing or anything like that. Without Derek Jeter on the team, half of these Yankees players need name tags. That's the line Bob Raissman is selling here.
We are a long way from the Joe Torre years. The Yankees were once a mixture of the Core Four, high-priced superstar free agents and other assorted homegrown heroes.
Total contract value for four of these players? $472 million. Oh yeah, I remember the days when the Yankees had high-priced superstar free agents on the roster. Why doesn't that happen anymore? Dellin Betances is a homegrown player for the Yankees. But yeah, in all serious the Yankees of 2015 aren't the same team that they fielded in the late 90's and early 2000's. This doesn't mean Yankees fans don't know who Ellsbury, Sabathia, McCann, Gardner, Gregorius, and Betances are of course.
Ticket sales and TV ratings were not a problem.
But now the Yankees are struggling financially and the Yankees were only 3rd in the majors in attendance last year. They are struggling and nothing proves this better than A-Rod not appearing in a re-enactment video from a movie. By the way, Bob Raissman may be going insane.
The reality now is the Yankees are a team in transition. The glitz is gone. See, it’s doubtful any current players are going to be seen, like Derek Jeter was, in national TV commercials providing huge exposure for him and the team.
Players like Derek Jeter only come along once in a decade or two, so it's not surprising the Yankees don't have a current player who can immediately fill the national TV spot void that Jeter had. You know what other team doesn't have a player who appears in national TV commercials? The San Francisco Giants. That probably explains why they are a team in transition and were only 4th in attendance last season.
This means going in another direction to sell individual players to potential ticket buyers and viewers. Instead of just relying on the hard sell — only featuring pure baseball video, interviews, etc. — the producers of the “Sandlot” video showed these guys in a different light.
This video means about 1.56% of what Bob Raissman believes it means. And I like how Derek Jeter isn't even on the Yankee roster anymore, but everything still comes back to him at some point. Old habits for New York sportswriters die hard.
They are doing some acting, having a lot of fun, showing plenty of personality. The cast comes off as very likeable.
And that's why A-Rod wasn't in the video, because nobody in the Yankees organization finds him to be likeable he was not invited to be in the video. A-Rod's absence is conspicuous because Bob Raissman needs A-Rod's absence to be conspicuous. Everything means something when Raissman faces a deadline and can't think of anything else to write about.
None of this translates to what will go down on the field this season.
What? You mean because the Yankees did a team re-enactment of a scene from "The Sandlot" this doesn't mean anything for how they will perform on the field during the season? This is beyond shocking to me. I was under the impression team videos in spring training had a direct impact on a team's performance on the field during the season. Who can forget the Royals, another team with no marketable superstars who somehow managed to win enough baseball games last year to make an appearance in the World Series, and their team karaoke edition of "I Will Survive" last spring training? This performance was credited by Ned Yost as the very reason the Royals made the World Series. I guess Ned Yost was wrong.
What this video does translate to is it translates as a direct attempt by the Yankees to convince the public that Alex Rodriguez is not on the Yankee team and to indicate by A-Rod's lack of an appearance in the video that he is NOT a part of the team's marketing strategy. The Yankees want to get no-name players like Brian McCann, CC Sabathia, Jacoby Ellsbury and Brett Gardner at the forefront of the team's marketing in an effort to get the public to know their names. This wasn't just a team video, it was a direct attempt by the Yankees to shun A-Rod.
But this is about being proactive, trying to sell the team in different ways. Showing players out of their element is good business, smart marketing.
I bet the Yankees are glad they have Bob Raissman's approval. I know the team was nervous that Bob wouldn't think they used smart marketing, especially knowing he was on to them when he saw they left A-Rod out of the re-enactment video. Mark Texieira is also left out of the re-enactment video, so who knows what that means for Tex's future with the Yankees franchise? Masashiro Tanaka wasn't in the team video either, so I guess the Yankees aren't planning to market the team using him in any way. This team video featuring a re-enactment of a scene from "The Sandlot" is indicative of the Yankees ENTIRE marketing plan for the 2015 season.
After all, despite what serious seamheads, saber(metric) swallowers,
Bob immediately loses more credibility by writing "saber(metric) swallowers." Bob is hitting for the cycle right now though by creating issues where there isn't one, projecting issues on to the Yankees that may not exist involving Alex Rodriguez, participating in some Derek Jeter nostalgia on how life around the Yankees won't ever be the same again without him around until it is, and he manages to bash Sabermetrics. Very impressive.
and self-proclaimed guardians of the game swear, baseball is more show business than anything else. No different from a movie or a Broadway show.
This from a guy who found time to bitch about American announcers seeming to cheer for the United States during the World Cup. Baseball is show business, but soccer announcers have no right to try and help citizens of their country try to enjoy a soccer game by showing a slight bias towards one team. Who cares if nearly every country had announcers from their home country calling the games? Baseball is entertainment, but announcing soccer games is some serious shit.
And of course, Raissman tells his readers that baseball is entertainment while breathlessly trying to create a drama out of Alex Rodriguez not being in a team video. The huge deal Raissman and his media friends have made out of every single move A-Rod has made over the past few months definitely shows their understanding that baseball is just entertainment. That's why there has been all this journalistic grandstanding about A-Rod evilness, because it's just a sport, so why are you so serious about everything you stupid stat heads who refuse to moral grandstand about A-Rod's existence in the baseball landscape?
The idea is to push the product. By taking this video route, the Yankees showed creativity. Still, it will be impossible to quantify if this cinematic masterpiece produces tangible results.
This is probably one of the most meaningless columns I have ever read. It rambles from "A-Rod isn't in the video so that means something," to a rough transition on how this is the Yankees' entire marketing strategy, and now Bob Raissman is playing the critic who is judging whether this marketing attempt to build around no-name players that also happen to not be no-names will work for the Yankees or not. Will the Yankees have terrible attendance like they did last season when they were only 3rd in the majors in attendance? If not, this video will have worked. If the Yankees attendance stays in the doldrums of 3rd place, then it will just prove the team should have not marketed itself around players the average Yankees fan has never heard of, which also happen to be some of the highest paid players on the Yankees team. But of course it all comes back around to...
Especially without A-Rod’s presence.
A-Rod. It always comes back to an invented issue involving Alex Rodriguez. The New York media has to be frustrated that A-Rod has hit well in spring training and doesn't seem to have created the distraction they wanted him to create. Trying to connect A-Rod's lack of involvement in a team video to any feelings his teammates have about him or writing a column about what A-Rod not being in the team video may or may not mean is an incredibly pointless exercise. But hey, I'm the one that takes sports too seriously because I sometimes use Sabermetrics. If only I could be more laid back and view sports as entertainment like Bob Raissman does.
Anyone else wondering why Alex Rodriguez did not perform in the Yankees’recent video re-enactment of the Babe Ruth scene from the 1993 movie “The Sandlot?”
No, I absolutely did not care nor was I wondering why Alex Rodriguez was not in that video re-enactment. In fact, I was going through my list of priorities on the day I saw that video and this is how the things I cared about were prioritized.
1. Shit I have to do, don't have to do, may not do, and anything else I may be thinking of doing or worrying about during the day that I will never get through unless there is 1,023,150 hours in a day.
2. Why wasn't A-Rod in that video re-enactment of the Babe Ruth scene from the 1993 movie "The Sandlot"?
Well as Jack Woltz, the big-shot studio boss in “The Godfather,” might say: “You don’t understand. A-Rod never gets that movie. That part is perfect for him.”
Great use of a quote from "The Godfather," which is a movie about a family that leads a life of crime and the youngest son tries through three movies to get the family out of the life of crime. There is an obvious parallel here to the Yankees, where A-Rod is leading the team down a life of crime through PED use and it's up to the younger guys, the same ones who appears in this video, to get the Yankees out of this PED spiral. And obviously, Bob Raissman thinks things around the Yankees would get better if A-Rod would just get shot or die in a garden.
An appearance by Rodriguez in the video would be tantamount to Yankees brass giving him their true stamp of approval and officially welcoming him back into the fold as a member in good standing.
So A-Rod not appearing in the video isn't because he chose not to appear or it just couldn't be fit into his schedule, but it was a metaphorical and literal move by the Yankees to distance themselves from A-Rod.
And you know if A-Rod HAD appeared in the video then Bob Raissman would write an article that went along the lines of, "The attempted A-Rod redemption tour continues with the video he made with the rest of his Yankees teammates. He's doing his best to make the public think he's not a liar and a cheat, but he'll never erase the stain of his past deeds."
In fact, I think Bob Raissman is mad A-Rod wasn't in the video, because it was a perfectly good opportunity missed to rip A-Rod for trying to be light-hearted.
It would also further soften Rodriguez’s tainted image, placing him smack in the middle of a singular group of players the organization has left to market.
Exactly. The Yankees do not want Rodriguez to be acknowledged as part of the team, so the role he would have had in the video went to another player the Yankees liked. The Yankees are pulling some strings for the purposes of pulling A-Rod from a silly video. I'm sure that's a realistic line of thought.
Seriously, as cute and fun as this video is, it shows the direction and lengths Bombers brass must go to sell players like CC Sabathia, Didi Gregorius, Dellin Betances, Jacoby Ellsbury, Brian McCann and Brett Gardner.
Oh yeah, because what Yankees fan has ever heard of no-name players like Jacoby Ellsbury, CC Sabathia, Brian McCann and Brett Gardner? Who are these guys? It's not like three of these guys were expensive free agents the team signed and received a ton of press for signing or anything like that. Without Derek Jeter on the team, half of these Yankees players need name tags. That's the line Bob Raissman is selling here.
We are a long way from the Joe Torre years. The Yankees were once a mixture of the Core Four, high-priced superstar free agents and other assorted homegrown heroes.
Total contract value for four of these players? $472 million. Oh yeah, I remember the days when the Yankees had high-priced superstar free agents on the roster. Why doesn't that happen anymore? Dellin Betances is a homegrown player for the Yankees. But yeah, in all serious the Yankees of 2015 aren't the same team that they fielded in the late 90's and early 2000's. This doesn't mean Yankees fans don't know who Ellsbury, Sabathia, McCann, Gardner, Gregorius, and Betances are of course.
Ticket sales and TV ratings were not a problem.
But now the Yankees are struggling financially and the Yankees were only 3rd in the majors in attendance last year. They are struggling and nothing proves this better than A-Rod not appearing in a re-enactment video from a movie. By the way, Bob Raissman may be going insane.
The reality now is the Yankees are a team in transition. The glitz is gone. See, it’s doubtful any current players are going to be seen, like Derek Jeter was, in national TV commercials providing huge exposure for him and the team.
Players like Derek Jeter only come along once in a decade or two, so it's not surprising the Yankees don't have a current player who can immediately fill the national TV spot void that Jeter had. You know what other team doesn't have a player who appears in national TV commercials? The San Francisco Giants. That probably explains why they are a team in transition and were only 4th in attendance last season.
This means going in another direction to sell individual players to potential ticket buyers and viewers. Instead of just relying on the hard sell — only featuring pure baseball video, interviews, etc. — the producers of the “Sandlot” video showed these guys in a different light.
This video means about 1.56% of what Bob Raissman believes it means. And I like how Derek Jeter isn't even on the Yankee roster anymore, but everything still comes back to him at some point. Old habits for New York sportswriters die hard.
They are doing some acting, having a lot of fun, showing plenty of personality. The cast comes off as very likeable.
And that's why A-Rod wasn't in the video, because nobody in the Yankees organization finds him to be likeable he was not invited to be in the video. A-Rod's absence is conspicuous because Bob Raissman needs A-Rod's absence to be conspicuous. Everything means something when Raissman faces a deadline and can't think of anything else to write about.
None of this translates to what will go down on the field this season.
What? You mean because the Yankees did a team re-enactment of a scene from "The Sandlot" this doesn't mean anything for how they will perform on the field during the season? This is beyond shocking to me. I was under the impression team videos in spring training had a direct impact on a team's performance on the field during the season. Who can forget the Royals, another team with no marketable superstars who somehow managed to win enough baseball games last year to make an appearance in the World Series, and their team karaoke edition of "I Will Survive" last spring training? This performance was credited by Ned Yost as the very reason the Royals made the World Series. I guess Ned Yost was wrong.
What this video does translate to is it translates as a direct attempt by the Yankees to convince the public that Alex Rodriguez is not on the Yankee team and to indicate by A-Rod's lack of an appearance in the video that he is NOT a part of the team's marketing strategy. The Yankees want to get no-name players like Brian McCann, CC Sabathia, Jacoby Ellsbury and Brett Gardner at the forefront of the team's marketing in an effort to get the public to know their names. This wasn't just a team video, it was a direct attempt by the Yankees to shun A-Rod.
But this is about being proactive, trying to sell the team in different ways. Showing players out of their element is good business, smart marketing.
I bet the Yankees are glad they have Bob Raissman's approval. I know the team was nervous that Bob wouldn't think they used smart marketing, especially knowing he was on to them when he saw they left A-Rod out of the re-enactment video. Mark Texieira is also left out of the re-enactment video, so who knows what that means for Tex's future with the Yankees franchise? Masashiro Tanaka wasn't in the team video either, so I guess the Yankees aren't planning to market the team using him in any way. This team video featuring a re-enactment of a scene from "The Sandlot" is indicative of the Yankees ENTIRE marketing plan for the 2015 season.
After all, despite what serious seamheads, saber(metric) swallowers,
Bob immediately loses more credibility by writing "saber(metric) swallowers." Bob is hitting for the cycle right now though by creating issues where there isn't one, projecting issues on to the Yankees that may not exist involving Alex Rodriguez, participating in some Derek Jeter nostalgia on how life around the Yankees won't ever be the same again without him around until it is, and he manages to bash Sabermetrics. Very impressive.
and self-proclaimed guardians of the game swear, baseball is more show business than anything else. No different from a movie or a Broadway show.
This from a guy who found time to bitch about American announcers seeming to cheer for the United States during the World Cup. Baseball is show business, but soccer announcers have no right to try and help citizens of their country try to enjoy a soccer game by showing a slight bias towards one team. Who cares if nearly every country had announcers from their home country calling the games? Baseball is entertainment, but announcing soccer games is some serious shit.
And of course, Raissman tells his readers that baseball is entertainment while breathlessly trying to create a drama out of Alex Rodriguez not being in a team video. The huge deal Raissman and his media friends have made out of every single move A-Rod has made over the past few months definitely shows their understanding that baseball is just entertainment. That's why there has been all this journalistic grandstanding about A-Rod evilness, because it's just a sport, so why are you so serious about everything you stupid stat heads who refuse to moral grandstand about A-Rod's existence in the baseball landscape?
The idea is to push the product. By taking this video route, the Yankees showed creativity. Still, it will be impossible to quantify if this cinematic masterpiece produces tangible results.
This is probably one of the most meaningless columns I have ever read. It rambles from "A-Rod isn't in the video so that means something," to a rough transition on how this is the Yankees' entire marketing strategy, and now Bob Raissman is playing the critic who is judging whether this marketing attempt to build around no-name players that also happen to not be no-names will work for the Yankees or not. Will the Yankees have terrible attendance like they did last season when they were only 3rd in the majors in attendance? If not, this video will have worked. If the Yankees attendance stays in the doldrums of 3rd place, then it will just prove the team should have not marketed itself around players the average Yankees fan has never heard of, which also happen to be some of the highest paid players on the Yankees team. But of course it all comes back around to...
Especially without A-Rod’s presence.
A-Rod. It always comes back to an invented issue involving Alex Rodriguez. The New York media has to be frustrated that A-Rod has hit well in spring training and doesn't seem to have created the distraction they wanted him to create. Trying to connect A-Rod's lack of involvement in a team video to any feelings his teammates have about him or writing a column about what A-Rod not being in the team video may or may not mean is an incredibly pointless exercise. But hey, I'm the one that takes sports too seriously because I sometimes use Sabermetrics. If only I could be more laid back and view sports as entertainment like Bob Raissman does.
Friday, March 6, 2015
0 comments What A-Rod Has Done Wrong Today: He Prevented the Yankees From Signing Free Agents
It's not hard for the media to find things that A-Rod has done wrong. They simply exaggerate something small or turn a good thing A-Rod has done into a bad thing. So what A-Rod has done wrong today is he signed a contract that allows him to earn $61 million over the next three years and this is singlehandedly prevented the Yankees from signing Yoan Moncada. His contract is the only bloated contract on the Yankees roster, so it's definitely his fault the Yankees lost Moncada to the Red Sox. Look at the Yankees payroll. See A-Rod at the top as the fourth-highest paid player on the team? Not only can't he earn his keep like Mark Teixeira does, but his contract is causing the Yankees to lose free agents. By existing, A-Rod is hurting the chances the Yankees have of competing. I'll let Joel Sherman explain better than I can.
Early Monday, the Yankees found out Yoan Moncada wasn’t coming to their minor league complex and Alex Rodriguez was.
I know the Yankees were probably hoping he wouldn't, but were they under the impression that A-Rod just wouldn't show up to spring trainig at all?
This was a symbolic crossroads moment for the organization. A 19-year-old they wanted got away — to the Red Sox — and a 39-year-old they wished would go away came back.
But it's not a crossroads because the Yankees still have a ton of resources and Moncada is an unproven entity who could very well be Jose Abreu or could very well just not be Jose Abreu while being overpaid.
Ultimately, the Yankees refused to invest $63 million to inject more talent into their farm system.
Perhaps that is because they never were able to make the $61 million they owe Rodriguez go away.
The Yankees lost out on Moncada because they wouldn't give him $9 million more to match the offer the Red Sox made. I'm sure that $9 million wasn't spent because A-Rod is owed $61 million and not because A-Rod is only the fourth-highest paid player on the roster during the 2015 season. The Yankees still owe Teixeira $45 million, owe C.C. Sabathia $73 million, $133 million to Masahiro Tanaka, $131 million (or $110 million if they don't pick up his club option in 2022) to Jacoby Ellsbury, and $68 million to a 31 year old catcher (Brian McCann). It's totally A-Rod's fault that the Yankees couldn't spend an extra $9 million to bid on Moncada. It's not like there are other bloated contracts on the roster. Yes, "perhaps" it is A-Rod's fault that Moncada isn't a Yankee. The team that gave Chris Capuano, Garrett Jones and Stephen Drew $15 million for next year couldn't find $9 million to spend on Moncada. It's not possible that "perhaps" the Yankees just didn't want to up their bid. It has to be A-Rod's fault they lost out on Moncada.
The albatross contracts of A-Rod, CC Sabathia and Mark Teixeira have two or three more years to run, and until they expire, the Yanks are drawing firmer financial lines in the sand rather than following their long-held policy of “Get ’em at any price.”
True, but the title of this column is "On Day 1, Yankees find new reason to shun A-Rod." If it's about A-Rod, it leads.
So the Yankees were willing to offer Moncada $25 million with an indication they would go to $27 million. Thanks to a 100 percent penalty tax for exceeding the international signing pool, that $27 million sum would have actually cost the Yankees $54 million, and the Red Sox’s winning bid of $31.5 million will cost them $63 million.
For the difference of $9 million, the Yanks allowed the Red Sox to deepen what already is perceived as a far superior feeder system.
This is typical stupid, nonsensical sportswriting from a New York sportswriter. Joel Sherman seems to believe the Yankees are only competing with the Red Sox for the AL East or World Series title, so any move the Red Sox make must immediately be matched by the Yankees. Because the working assumption is that every big move the Red Sox make is a really, really smart move that will propel them to the top of the division. If the Red Sox get a deal with Gatorade, then the Yankees must spend more to get a deal with Powerade. This is how the brain dead New York sports media works. Beating the Red Sox at whatever game the New York media decides must be played is all that really matters.
After more than a year away, Rodriguez spent his first day back on Yankees soil treated with — at best — distance. The Yanks say that is because they weren’t expecting him. But they had several hours to audible into a more helpful posture to Rodriguez and never did.
They were probably still enraged that A-Rod showed up to camp early AND singlehandedly prevented them from signing Moncada by refusing to allow the organization to spend $9 million more to match the Red Sox bid. A-Rod now apparently controls the purse strings of the Yankees front office. Who knew?
Maybe it is because they still are issuing tough love for all the bile and lawsuits Rodriguez hurled at them last year, and because of his refusal to have a Yankee Stadium press conference before pitchers and catchers reported this year.
Yes, the tough love the Yankees are giving A-Rod from all the bile he's hurled at them. I forgot, was it A-Rod who was trying to take $61 million from the Yankees organization or was it the Yankees organization who worked hard to make sure they didn't have to pay $61 million to A-Rod? It seems Joel Sherman has forgotten too. I guarantee you if the "New York Post" was trying to take money from Joel Sherman's pocket, even for reasons that were Sherman's fault, he wouldn't consider the "Post" to be the victim. Again, logic goes out the window when A-Rod is involved.
Not one significant Yankees official attended his first workout in a team facility since his suspension. Can you imagine another player owed the money Rodriguez is owed who would not draw Joe Girardi or a major league hitting coach or general manager Brian Cashman or head of personnel Billy Eppler?
And of course, the Yankees refusal to watch the guy who they owe $61 million to and is singlehandedly holding them back from signing free agents is a knock on A-Rod. Logic wouldn't indicate that perhaps it is a fault of the Yankees organization that they won't invest time into making sure a guy they are paying $61 million to will contribute to the team. The refusal to attend A-Rod's first workout shows what an asshole A-Rod is and isn't at all an indication of how the Yankees may bitch and moan about A-Rod's contract, but they aren't willing to help him succeed either.
And can you imagine any other player the Yankees would let fend for himself with 35 reporters without sending even one media relations employee over to help at such a delicate time?
No, but again, the immaturity of the Yankees organization is the fault of A-Rod. Hey, maybe the reason A-Rod wouldn't have a press conference at Yankee Stadium is because he knows the Yankees organization would let the reporters have a field day asking him questions that they can use to bash him and they don't have his best interests at heart? Joel Sherman doesn't think about this. He's not smart enough to think, "The Yankees have left A-Rod to fend for himself, rightly or wrongly, so maybe that's why he won't do exactly as they say when it comes to talking to the press." It's another fault of A-Rod that he won't do exactly as the Yankees wish of him, while knowing they don't at all have his best interests at heart. He shouldn't look out for himself. That's just selfish.
Instead, A-Rod leaned against a parking lot gate outside the minor league complex and, with cars whizzing by on Himes Avenue, answered questions for eight minutes.
Any credit given for answering the questions? No? Great. Let's get back to blaming him for the Yankees being outbid by the Red Sox for Moncada.
Monday, when the Yankees learned A-Rod was planning to work out at the minor league complex around 11 a.m., they intercepted to say he needed to take a physical first across the street at George M. Steinbrenner Field.
Rodriguez — in his current pose as good employee — did just that. He arrived at the minor league complex around 1 p.m. and worked out for about an hour. If you did not know it was Rodriguez, his batting practice was a veteran prepping for the season. Nothing special.
A-Rod is an asshole for not holding a press conference at Yankee Stadium, yet he gets mocked for doing exactly as the team wants him to do otherwise. It's hard to win if the media keeps moving the goalposts.
If you wanted to try to apply meaning, he did hit a half-dozen over the fence, but his fly balls did not have the backspin from his prime that seemed to turn baseballs into golf balls and give them extra distance. Is that because it is the third week of February and it is a normal progression? Or is it because he is in the late December of his career?
I don't know, Joel. It could be because he's 39 years old. Derek Jeter hit 4 home runs last year in 581 at-bats when he was 40 years old. It's almost like age catches up with players later in their career...except for those players who are using PED's. Which of course, if A-Rod did hit home runs with the normal backspin of his prime then Joel Sherman would suggest A-Rod was still using PED's. Again, it's hard to win if the media keeps moving the goalposts.
He said he was not on any illegal performance enhancers and — asked how he could justify tarnishing a game he claims to love — Rodriguez responded: “No mistake that I’ve made has any good answer. There’s no good answer. It’s unexplainable. I’ve dug a big hole for myself. I paid a price.”
WHY DIDN'T ANYONE ASK HIM HOW IT FELT TO PREVENT THE YANKEES FROM IMPROVING THEIR TEAM?
Rodriguez has put on a fake face before to try to escape low moments. But we should think of him as the child in the team-player relationship, and the Yanks as the adult.
Okay, I can see that. A-Rod can sort of be a child. If the Yankees are the adult then they are the adult who tries to take money from the child and won't support the child when he is in need of support, while making a passive-aggressive attempt to ensure that child fails. That certainly sounds like an adult to me.
I understand the well-earned Yankees rage at this child, but now they should rise above it — remember they are the adults. A-Rod needs the organization’s assistance on the field and with media.
Yes, but the fact they won't provide this assistance shows they aren't the adult. Funny how the Yankees organization gets the benefit of the doubt from Sherman. Both sides can't be dipshits and in the wrong. Sides must be taken and Sherman has taken the Yankees' side.
At a crossroads moment, the Yankees decided not to spend $60 million-plus on Moncada. As for the $60 million-plus they already owe, the Yankees have to transition back to good cop and see if they can get the most out of this man-child.
Such a weak attempt to bring A-Rod's contract into the reason the Yankees didn't get Moncada. It certainly couldn't be the other contracts the Yankees have which prevented them from bidding $9 million more to match the Red Sox bid. Maybe the guy the Yankees are paying $15 million to this year who says his best years are behind him was part of the reason the Yankees wouldn't spend $9 million more on Moncada. The Yankees owe $30 million to a guy who can't stay healthy and admits he's not such a great player anymore. But that should be ignored in favor of trying to connect the Yankees missing out on Moncada to A-Rod's existence on the roster. There's definitely more correlation there.
Early Monday, the Yankees found out Yoan Moncada wasn’t coming to their minor league complex and Alex Rodriguez was.
I know the Yankees were probably hoping he wouldn't, but were they under the impression that A-Rod just wouldn't show up to spring trainig at all?
This was a symbolic crossroads moment for the organization. A 19-year-old they wanted got away — to the Red Sox — and a 39-year-old they wished would go away came back.
But it's not a crossroads because the Yankees still have a ton of resources and Moncada is an unproven entity who could very well be Jose Abreu or could very well just not be Jose Abreu while being overpaid.
Ultimately, the Yankees refused to invest $63 million to inject more talent into their farm system.
Perhaps that is because they never were able to make the $61 million they owe Rodriguez go away.
The Yankees lost out on Moncada because they wouldn't give him $9 million more to match the offer the Red Sox made. I'm sure that $9 million wasn't spent because A-Rod is owed $61 million and not because A-Rod is only the fourth-highest paid player on the roster during the 2015 season. The Yankees still owe Teixeira $45 million, owe C.C. Sabathia $73 million, $133 million to Masahiro Tanaka, $131 million (or $110 million if they don't pick up his club option in 2022) to Jacoby Ellsbury, and $68 million to a 31 year old catcher (Brian McCann). It's totally A-Rod's fault that the Yankees couldn't spend an extra $9 million to bid on Moncada. It's not like there are other bloated contracts on the roster. Yes, "perhaps" it is A-Rod's fault that Moncada isn't a Yankee. The team that gave Chris Capuano, Garrett Jones and Stephen Drew $15 million for next year couldn't find $9 million to spend on Moncada. It's not possible that "perhaps" the Yankees just didn't want to up their bid. It has to be A-Rod's fault they lost out on Moncada.
The albatross contracts of A-Rod, CC Sabathia and Mark Teixeira have two or three more years to run, and until they expire, the Yanks are drawing firmer financial lines in the sand rather than following their long-held policy of “Get ’em at any price.”
True, but the title of this column is "On Day 1, Yankees find new reason to shun A-Rod." If it's about A-Rod, it leads.
So the Yankees were willing to offer Moncada $25 million with an indication they would go to $27 million. Thanks to a 100 percent penalty tax for exceeding the international signing pool, that $27 million sum would have actually cost the Yankees $54 million, and the Red Sox’s winning bid of $31.5 million will cost them $63 million.
For the difference of $9 million, the Yanks allowed the Red Sox to deepen what already is perceived as a far superior feeder system.
This is typical stupid, nonsensical sportswriting from a New York sportswriter. Joel Sherman seems to believe the Yankees are only competing with the Red Sox for the AL East or World Series title, so any move the Red Sox make must immediately be matched by the Yankees. Because the working assumption is that every big move the Red Sox make is a really, really smart move that will propel them to the top of the division. If the Red Sox get a deal with Gatorade, then the Yankees must spend more to get a deal with Powerade. This is how the brain dead New York sports media works. Beating the Red Sox at whatever game the New York media decides must be played is all that really matters.
After more than a year away, Rodriguez spent his first day back on Yankees soil treated with — at best — distance. The Yanks say that is because they weren’t expecting him. But they had several hours to audible into a more helpful posture to Rodriguez and never did.
They were probably still enraged that A-Rod showed up to camp early AND singlehandedly prevented them from signing Moncada by refusing to allow the organization to spend $9 million more to match the Red Sox bid. A-Rod now apparently controls the purse strings of the Yankees front office. Who knew?
Maybe it is because they still are issuing tough love for all the bile and lawsuits Rodriguez hurled at them last year, and because of his refusal to have a Yankee Stadium press conference before pitchers and catchers reported this year.
Yes, the tough love the Yankees are giving A-Rod from all the bile he's hurled at them. I forgot, was it A-Rod who was trying to take $61 million from the Yankees organization or was it the Yankees organization who worked hard to make sure they didn't have to pay $61 million to A-Rod? It seems Joel Sherman has forgotten too. I guarantee you if the "New York Post" was trying to take money from Joel Sherman's pocket, even for reasons that were Sherman's fault, he wouldn't consider the "Post" to be the victim. Again, logic goes out the window when A-Rod is involved.
Not one significant Yankees official attended his first workout in a team facility since his suspension. Can you imagine another player owed the money Rodriguez is owed who would not draw Joe Girardi or a major league hitting coach or general manager Brian Cashman or head of personnel Billy Eppler?
And of course, the Yankees refusal to watch the guy who they owe $61 million to and is singlehandedly holding them back from signing free agents is a knock on A-Rod. Logic wouldn't indicate that perhaps it is a fault of the Yankees organization that they won't invest time into making sure a guy they are paying $61 million to will contribute to the team. The refusal to attend A-Rod's first workout shows what an asshole A-Rod is and isn't at all an indication of how the Yankees may bitch and moan about A-Rod's contract, but they aren't willing to help him succeed either.
And can you imagine any other player the Yankees would let fend for himself with 35 reporters without sending even one media relations employee over to help at such a delicate time?
No, but again, the immaturity of the Yankees organization is the fault of A-Rod. Hey, maybe the reason A-Rod wouldn't have a press conference at Yankee Stadium is because he knows the Yankees organization would let the reporters have a field day asking him questions that they can use to bash him and they don't have his best interests at heart? Joel Sherman doesn't think about this. He's not smart enough to think, "The Yankees have left A-Rod to fend for himself, rightly or wrongly, so maybe that's why he won't do exactly as they say when it comes to talking to the press." It's another fault of A-Rod that he won't do exactly as the Yankees wish of him, while knowing they don't at all have his best interests at heart. He shouldn't look out for himself. That's just selfish.
Instead, A-Rod leaned against a parking lot gate outside the minor league complex and, with cars whizzing by on Himes Avenue, answered questions for eight minutes.
Any credit given for answering the questions? No? Great. Let's get back to blaming him for the Yankees being outbid by the Red Sox for Moncada.
Monday, when the Yankees learned A-Rod was planning to work out at the minor league complex around 11 a.m., they intercepted to say he needed to take a physical first across the street at George M. Steinbrenner Field.
Rodriguez — in his current pose as good employee — did just that. He arrived at the minor league complex around 1 p.m. and worked out for about an hour. If you did not know it was Rodriguez, his batting practice was a veteran prepping for the season. Nothing special.
A-Rod is an asshole for not holding a press conference at Yankee Stadium, yet he gets mocked for doing exactly as the team wants him to do otherwise. It's hard to win if the media keeps moving the goalposts.
If you wanted to try to apply meaning, he did hit a half-dozen over the fence, but his fly balls did not have the backspin from his prime that seemed to turn baseballs into golf balls and give them extra distance. Is that because it is the third week of February and it is a normal progression? Or is it because he is in the late December of his career?
I don't know, Joel. It could be because he's 39 years old. Derek Jeter hit 4 home runs last year in 581 at-bats when he was 40 years old. It's almost like age catches up with players later in their career...except for those players who are using PED's. Which of course, if A-Rod did hit home runs with the normal backspin of his prime then Joel Sherman would suggest A-Rod was still using PED's. Again, it's hard to win if the media keeps moving the goalposts.
He said he was not on any illegal performance enhancers and — asked how he could justify tarnishing a game he claims to love — Rodriguez responded: “No mistake that I’ve made has any good answer. There’s no good answer. It’s unexplainable. I’ve dug a big hole for myself. I paid a price.”
WHY DIDN'T ANYONE ASK HIM HOW IT FELT TO PREVENT THE YANKEES FROM IMPROVING THEIR TEAM?
Rodriguez has put on a fake face before to try to escape low moments. But we should think of him as the child in the team-player relationship, and the Yanks as the adult.
Okay, I can see that. A-Rod can sort of be a child. If the Yankees are the adult then they are the adult who tries to take money from the child and won't support the child when he is in need of support, while making a passive-aggressive attempt to ensure that child fails. That certainly sounds like an adult to me.
I understand the well-earned Yankees rage at this child, but now they should rise above it — remember they are the adults. A-Rod needs the organization’s assistance on the field and with media.
Yes, but the fact they won't provide this assistance shows they aren't the adult. Funny how the Yankees organization gets the benefit of the doubt from Sherman. Both sides can't be dipshits and in the wrong. Sides must be taken and Sherman has taken the Yankees' side.
At a crossroads moment, the Yankees decided not to spend $60 million-plus on Moncada. As for the $60 million-plus they already owe, the Yankees have to transition back to good cop and see if they can get the most out of this man-child.
Such a weak attempt to bring A-Rod's contract into the reason the Yankees didn't get Moncada. It certainly couldn't be the other contracts the Yankees have which prevented them from bidding $9 million more to match the Red Sox bid. Maybe the guy the Yankees are paying $15 million to this year who says his best years are behind him was part of the reason the Yankees wouldn't spend $9 million more on Moncada. The Yankees owe $30 million to a guy who can't stay healthy and admits he's not such a great player anymore. But that should be ignored in favor of trying to connect the Yankees missing out on Moncada to A-Rod's existence on the roster. There's definitely more correlation there.
Sunday, March 1, 2015
0 comments What A-Rod Has Done Wrong Today: He Showed Up Early to Spring Training
I don't really want to start writing about A-Rod more often (or more often than I already do, which is too often). It's too tempting to not start a chain of posts called "What A-Rod Has Done Wrong Today," which would basically be all the things A-Rod has no control over that he's getting blamed for or good things A-Rod has done which are being turned into bad things. I don't want to write about A-Rod more, but I like to post five times per week (which means shorter posts sometimes) and A-Rod is always good for some overreaction by the media. So a succession of posts about the things A-Rod has done wrong should go to show how insane the New York media is about A-Rod.
What A-Rod has done wrong today is that he showed up to spring training early, without telling the Yankees he was coming. It's just like A-Rod, always making his own rules. Most baseball players would publicly announce when they are coming to spring training to get extra work in, but A-Rod being the selfish asshole he is, chooses to just show the hell up and expect the media and Yankees to deal with it. A-Rod is early. No one likes it when a baseball player spends extra time trying to improve himself. It's unsightly.
With two strikes against him and little margin for error, Alex Rodriguez still managed to find a way to irritate the Yankee brass when he arrived at spring training Monday — two days earlier than expected.
TWO DAYS EARLIER THAN EXPECTED! If my employees come into work early in the morning, then I immediately slap them across the face and tell them to GET THE FUCK OUT OF THE OFFICE YOU COCKGOBLIN! I EXPECTED YOU AT 8AM AND IT'S 7:45AM! WHAT KIND OF AMATEUR BULLSHIT ARE YOU PULLING?
I don't even know what I would do if an employee showed up on Saturday. The death penalty would be in play though. Nothing is more irritating than an employee who shows up and tries to do improve themselves by putting more work in. Honestly, it's a fireable offense.
Wearing a green University of Miami workout suit, Rodriguez arrived in Tampa Monday morning, which was news to the Yankees, leaving Brian Cashman and the team’s media relations staff scrambling for answers.
What answers did they need? "He's here, yes." That's pretty much all they need to say and the Yankees have made it clear to A-Rod he's on his own in terms of dealing with the media.
The Yankees, who had expected him to show up on Wednesday, had no issues with A-Rod arriving on Monday, but team officials were fuming that he hadn’t alerted them to his plans.
"No issues" means that the Yankees weren't "fuming" when A-Rod showed up. If they were fuming, that's the exact polar opposite of having no issues with when A-Rod showed up to spring training. I ain't a writer like Mark Feinsand, but I do know if I'm fuming about something then I have an issue with that something. In an effort to paint A-Rod in the wrong, all logic must be thrown out the window in favor of insanity.
“He’s learned nothing,” said one baseball executive. “He’s the same old guy. He just did what he wanted to do.”
Did the other Yankees players tell the team when they would show up or did they just show up and do whatever they wanted to do? Why should A-Rod be different?
“I cringe sometimes when I look at some of the things I did, but I paid my penalty and I’m grateful that I have another opportunity,” Rodriguez said as he stopped to speak with reporters outside the team’s minor-league complex following a one-hour workout.
The Yankees have no issue with A-Rod speaking to the media, but they fuming that he spoke with the media. The Yankees were fine with A-Rod working out for an hour, but they are absolutely flabbergasted he didn't even check the schedule to see if a little league team needed the field during the time he rudely dominated the complex during his workout.
His early arrival did offset the expected media crush on Wednesday, as roughly 20 reporters and a handful of cameras were on hand at the minor-league complex to greet A-Rod, a fraction of what had been expected on Wednesday.
And here is the real reason the media will jump all over the "A-Rod was early to spring training story" as if it is some huge fault in A-Rod's DNA to arrive earlier than expected. That reason? They didn't get a chance to be there the day A-Rod walked in and create a circus, then write dozens of columns about the circus surrounding A-Rod. He prevented the media crush and avoided putting a huge spotlight on his arrival, which obviously shows his inherent selfishness. The media has it out for him, why can't he just play along?
According to a source, Rodriguez was planning to work out at the complex, something he’s done multiple times in the past without alerting the club. Once the Yankees requested he first take his physical, he complied immediately.
It's not even the first time A-Rod has shown up early to spring training. Wow, the selfishness and refusal to play a part in the media's games of circus really dominates A-Rod's thoughts. Maybe he's too focused on combating the media and not focused enough on baseball. Look for Mike Lupica to write the column broaching this subject in the near future.
Asked whether he thought the Yankees are on his side as camp opens, A-Rod seemed uncertain.
“I don’t know; you’d have to ask them,” he said. “I created a big headache for a lot of people, so I don’t blame whoever is mad at me. I understand.”
Wow, A-Rodis still not taking blame for what happ (changes narrative) is still uncertain exactly if the Yankees are on his side or not. Is he just dumb? Of course they aren't on his side, but it's because A-Rod doesn't realize he's created a big headache for a lot of peo showed up early to spring training. That's the ticket, that's why they are mad at him.
Rodriguez declined to answer many specific questions about his suspension, his role in the Biogenesis scandal or the apology letter he released last week.
Still hiding. He still won't answer the questions about the scandal or whether he is even using PED's at the present time. When will A-Rod answer that question? Is he is on PED's right now? He wouldn't dare answer though.
He did answer one drug-related question, when a reporter asked him directly if he was currently using any illegal performance-enhancing drugs.
“No,” Rodriguez said firmly.
Well, I mean, he's probably lying. So who would believe A-Rod when asked this question anyway? It's a dumb question and doesn't even really need to be asked.
Asked whether he was confident he could succeed without the drugs, the three-time AL MVP replied, “I’m confident that if I stay healthy, I can do some good things.”
The fact A-Rod is 39 years old and was getting injured prior to his year-long suspension. This is probably a bigger reason his performance could decline during the 2015 season, but I'm sure the media will ignore that A-Rod is almost 40 years old and claim he can't hit 40 home runs because he's not on PED's anymore.
A-Rod’s day marked the first time he worked out under the team’s watch since his historic 162-game suspension.
How did the Yankees watch though? THEY WEREN'T PREPARED FOR HIM TO SHOW UP TO SPRING TRAINING!
Making the team was a recurring theme during his eight-minute session, something A-Rod hasn’t had to do since he was a teenager coming up with the Mariners back in the mid-1990s.
A-Rod doesn't even expect to compete for the spot I would bet. He just wants it all handed to him.
“I love to compete,” he said.
Yeah, but he only loves to compete when he's using PED's.
“I’m here a couple days early to get a jump start. I love baseball. I just love to be in uniform and I’m so grateful to have an opportunity to be back in uniform.”
The fact A-Rod loves baseball and wants to show up early in order to compete and make the team is a TERRIBLE excuse for showing up to spring training early. He should think less about helping the Yankees on the field and more about helping the Yankees by telegraphing his every move to them. He's not getting paid to play baseball well, plus the media is terrified that A-Rod will come back and play well for a 39 year old while in his teammate's good graces. It would ruin all the narratives.
Rodriguez had planned to take part in his first workout at 11 a.m. Monday, but once the Yankees learned of his plan — Cashman said he heard about A-Rod’s plan from a pair of reporters Monday morning — the team requested he first undergo his spring physical.
A-Rod reported to the ballpark at 11:30 for his checkup, then headed for the minor-league complex around 12:45. He drove a white SUV into the complex shortly before 1, carrying his bats in through a back entrance.
A-Rod not only failed to alert the Yankees to his every move, but also drove his own car to the complex and carried his own bats while selfishly trying to gain attention for himself by entering through a back entrance. WHEN WILL THIS MONSTER FINALLY BE SATIATED WITH THE LEVEL OF DAMAGE HE CAN CAUSE?
He worked out from 1:30 to 2:30, playing long toss, throwing a medicine ball, fielding grounders at third base and shortstop and taking batting practice. He took 71 swings and hit six home runs.
He field baseballs at third base. Clearly A-Rod is delusional that he is going to be the starting third baseman in complete defiance of what the Yankees have said. They have stated repeatedly the third base job is Chase Headley's, but no, A-Rod has go and practice at third base just to stay sharp in case something happens to Headley.
Rodriguez will report to camp Wednesday with the rest of the position players, while the first full-squad workout is scheduled for Thursday.
A-Rod thinks he's a position player. How cute. He's a DH! KNOW YOUR PLACE A-ROD!
The New York media will whine that A-Rod can't ever earn his $61 million that is owed to him, meanwhile will criticize A-Rod for even trying to earn this money.
He has no plans to address the team as a whole, saying he “has a lot of good relationships” with players and staff members.
“Surprisingly enough, I feel very welcome,” he said.
Well, he's not welcome and the New York media is pretty sure they speak for the rest of the Yankees when saying that. Next thing you know, A-Rod will stay after the game to get some more at-bats and try to give hitting tips to the younger players in an effort to undermine Jeff Pentland and take over the hitting coach duties for himself.
What A-Rod has done wrong today is that he showed up to spring training early, without telling the Yankees he was coming. It's just like A-Rod, always making his own rules. Most baseball players would publicly announce when they are coming to spring training to get extra work in, but A-Rod being the selfish asshole he is, chooses to just show the hell up and expect the media and Yankees to deal with it. A-Rod is early. No one likes it when a baseball player spends extra time trying to improve himself. It's unsightly.
With two strikes against him and little margin for error, Alex Rodriguez still managed to find a way to irritate the Yankee brass when he arrived at spring training Monday — two days earlier than expected.
TWO DAYS EARLIER THAN EXPECTED! If my employees come into work early in the morning, then I immediately slap them across the face and tell them to GET THE FUCK OUT OF THE OFFICE YOU COCKGOBLIN! I EXPECTED YOU AT 8AM AND IT'S 7:45AM! WHAT KIND OF AMATEUR BULLSHIT ARE YOU PULLING?
I don't even know what I would do if an employee showed up on Saturday. The death penalty would be in play though. Nothing is more irritating than an employee who shows up and tries to do improve themselves by putting more work in. Honestly, it's a fireable offense.
Wearing a green University of Miami workout suit, Rodriguez arrived in Tampa Monday morning, which was news to the Yankees, leaving Brian Cashman and the team’s media relations staff scrambling for answers.
What answers did they need? "He's here, yes." That's pretty much all they need to say and the Yankees have made it clear to A-Rod he's on his own in terms of dealing with the media.
The Yankees, who had expected him to show up on Wednesday, had no issues with A-Rod arriving on Monday, but team officials were fuming that he hadn’t alerted them to his plans.
"No issues" means that the Yankees weren't "fuming" when A-Rod showed up. If they were fuming, that's the exact polar opposite of having no issues with when A-Rod showed up to spring training. I ain't a writer like Mark Feinsand, but I do know if I'm fuming about something then I have an issue with that something. In an effort to paint A-Rod in the wrong, all logic must be thrown out the window in favor of insanity.
“He’s learned nothing,” said one baseball executive. “He’s the same old guy. He just did what he wanted to do.”
Did the other Yankees players tell the team when they would show up or did they just show up and do whatever they wanted to do? Why should A-Rod be different?
“I cringe sometimes when I look at some of the things I did, but I paid my penalty and I’m grateful that I have another opportunity,” Rodriguez said as he stopped to speak with reporters outside the team’s minor-league complex following a one-hour workout.
The Yankees have no issue with A-Rod speaking to the media, but they fuming that he spoke with the media. The Yankees were fine with A-Rod working out for an hour, but they are absolutely flabbergasted he didn't even check the schedule to see if a little league team needed the field during the time he rudely dominated the complex during his workout.
His early arrival did offset the expected media crush on Wednesday, as roughly 20 reporters and a handful of cameras were on hand at the minor-league complex to greet A-Rod, a fraction of what had been expected on Wednesday.
And here is the real reason the media will jump all over the "A-Rod was early to spring training story" as if it is some huge fault in A-Rod's DNA to arrive earlier than expected. That reason? They didn't get a chance to be there the day A-Rod walked in and create a circus, then write dozens of columns about the circus surrounding A-Rod. He prevented the media crush and avoided putting a huge spotlight on his arrival, which obviously shows his inherent selfishness. The media has it out for him, why can't he just play along?
According to a source, Rodriguez was planning to work out at the complex, something he’s done multiple times in the past without alerting the club. Once the Yankees requested he first take his physical, he complied immediately.
It's not even the first time A-Rod has shown up early to spring training. Wow, the selfishness and refusal to play a part in the media's games of circus really dominates A-Rod's thoughts. Maybe he's too focused on combating the media and not focused enough on baseball. Look for Mike Lupica to write the column broaching this subject in the near future.
Asked whether he thought the Yankees are on his side as camp opens, A-Rod seemed uncertain.
“I don’t know; you’d have to ask them,” he said. “I created a big headache for a lot of people, so I don’t blame whoever is mad at me. I understand.”
Wow, A-Rod
Rodriguez declined to answer many specific questions about his suspension, his role in the Biogenesis scandal or the apology letter he released last week.
Still hiding. He still won't answer the questions about the scandal or whether he is even using PED's at the present time. When will A-Rod answer that question? Is he is on PED's right now? He wouldn't dare answer though.
He did answer one drug-related question, when a reporter asked him directly if he was currently using any illegal performance-enhancing drugs.
“No,” Rodriguez said firmly.
Well, I mean, he's probably lying. So who would believe A-Rod when asked this question anyway? It's a dumb question and doesn't even really need to be asked.
Asked whether he was confident he could succeed without the drugs, the three-time AL MVP replied, “I’m confident that if I stay healthy, I can do some good things.”
The fact A-Rod is 39 years old and was getting injured prior to his year-long suspension. This is probably a bigger reason his performance could decline during the 2015 season, but I'm sure the media will ignore that A-Rod is almost 40 years old and claim he can't hit 40 home runs because he's not on PED's anymore.
A-Rod’s day marked the first time he worked out under the team’s watch since his historic 162-game suspension.
How did the Yankees watch though? THEY WEREN'T PREPARED FOR HIM TO SHOW UP TO SPRING TRAINING!
Making the team was a recurring theme during his eight-minute session, something A-Rod hasn’t had to do since he was a teenager coming up with the Mariners back in the mid-1990s.
A-Rod doesn't even expect to compete for the spot I would bet. He just wants it all handed to him.
“I love to compete,” he said.
Yeah, but he only loves to compete when he's using PED's.
“I’m here a couple days early to get a jump start. I love baseball. I just love to be in uniform and I’m so grateful to have an opportunity to be back in uniform.”
The fact A-Rod loves baseball and wants to show up early in order to compete and make the team is a TERRIBLE excuse for showing up to spring training early. He should think less about helping the Yankees on the field and more about helping the Yankees by telegraphing his every move to them. He's not getting paid to play baseball well, plus the media is terrified that A-Rod will come back and play well for a 39 year old while in his teammate's good graces. It would ruin all the narratives.
Rodriguez had planned to take part in his first workout at 11 a.m. Monday, but once the Yankees learned of his plan — Cashman said he heard about A-Rod’s plan from a pair of reporters Monday morning — the team requested he first undergo his spring physical.
A-Rod reported to the ballpark at 11:30 for his checkup, then headed for the minor-league complex around 12:45. He drove a white SUV into the complex shortly before 1, carrying his bats in through a back entrance.
A-Rod not only failed to alert the Yankees to his every move, but also drove his own car to the complex and carried his own bats while selfishly trying to gain attention for himself by entering through a back entrance. WHEN WILL THIS MONSTER FINALLY BE SATIATED WITH THE LEVEL OF DAMAGE HE CAN CAUSE?
He worked out from 1:30 to 2:30, playing long toss, throwing a medicine ball, fielding grounders at third base and shortstop and taking batting practice. He took 71 swings and hit six home runs.
He field baseballs at third base. Clearly A-Rod is delusional that he is going to be the starting third baseman in complete defiance of what the Yankees have said. They have stated repeatedly the third base job is Chase Headley's, but no, A-Rod has go and practice at third base just to stay sharp in case something happens to Headley.
Rodriguez will report to camp Wednesday with the rest of the position players, while the first full-squad workout is scheduled for Thursday.
A-Rod thinks he's a position player. How cute. He's a DH! KNOW YOUR PLACE A-ROD!
The New York media will whine that A-Rod can't ever earn his $61 million that is owed to him, meanwhile will criticize A-Rod for even trying to earn this money.
He has no plans to address the team as a whole, saying he “has a lot of good relationships” with players and staff members.
“Surprisingly enough, I feel very welcome,” he said.
Well, he's not welcome and the New York media is pretty sure they speak for the rest of the Yankees when saying that. Next thing you know, A-Rod will stay after the game to get some more at-bats and try to give hitting tips to the younger players in an effort to undermine Jeff Pentland and take over the hitting coach duties for himself.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)