A-Rod Wants to Talk to Yanks Without Boras

Most Yankees fan had no trouble rooting for Roger Clemens...

I rest my case.

 

No - what makes it tough to root for A-rod is what has always makes it tough-- his inability to come through in post season clutch situations.

In this day and age fans have to accept the fact that players have the right to negotiate. Negations go on daily in any business setting but the just don't happen to be written and talked about 24/7.

In this negotiation it turns out that A-Rod / Boras came across a formidable opponent in the Yankees.

As far as World Series stuff in retrospect it was kind of funny. Maybe he was trying to stick it to the Red Sox and steal a bit of their thunder. He has not been the most liked player on his visits to Fenway.

 

Ken Davidoff, who's pretty quickly become one of the top handful of baseball writers since Jon Heyman left for SI, makes some salient points in today's Newsday:

http://www.newsday.com/sports/columnists/ny-spken155461799nov15,0,6836583.column

But really, the Yankees had already made out quite well on the A-Rod trade. In his four years in pinstripes, he earned a total of $98 million - $52 million from the Yankees and $46 million from the Rangers. They enjoyed the baseball equivalent of free cable for four years. For them to get all indignant, therefore, was a bit much.

Davidoff also notes the behind-the-scenes gamesmanship that was going on throughout the World Series.

t's easy to forget now, but on Oct. 27, the day of World Series Game 3, the Yankees leaked the offer that they wanted to make to A-Rod: a five-year extension for about $140 million, going from 2011 through 2015.

Davidoff's almost always got an interesting and well-thought-out point of view. Good read.

 

As a Yankee fan I'd root and cheer for him if he was on the Yankees and I'd boo the crap out of him if he was on any other team. The Yankees need a 3B and RH #4 hitter, so the Yankees could use Rodriguez.

Before Kareem was traded to the Lakers by the Bucks there were rumors in NY that he would go to the Knicks. As a Knick fan back in the day, I hated Alcinder with a passion, almost as much as I would come to hate Dave Cowens. But I would have welcomed him with the Knicks. However, as a Terp, I hated no basketball player as much as Pat Ewing, but when he came to the Knicks, I tried to root for him. But couldn't. I dropped the Knicks and fair weather fan that I am, became a Bullets/Wizards fan.

Alex Rodriguez isn't close to being the contemptuous bastard and over rated asshole that Ewing was.

 

I guess the bar for salience has been set much lower since Heyman's departure. Everyone sports talk host and his uncle have been yammering since Day 1 about what a bargain A-Rod was for the Yanks.

 

Well, you're keeping your record intact of bringing ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to the conversation. Davidoff's easily one of the best in the business and anyone around here who actually covers baseball would agree. But go ahead and make a fool of yourself if you wish.

Also noted in Heyman's column today is that Boras has, in fact, been negotiating with the Yankees on the new deal, which directly contradicts the Daily News source who apparently fed bad information to Mark Feinsand, Bill Madden and Mike Lupica.

"We will not negotiate with Scott Boras," a Yankees source said. "He cannot be in the room."

 

Part of me was looking forward to not having all the distractions surrounding the Yankees if ARod left/leaves, but let's be honest. How could any fan of any baseball team root against a guy that puts up numbers like ARod did last season?
Of course, I want ARod back on the Yankees. He solves their biggest need that was rumored to be filled by Mike Lowell or by trading the farm for Tejada or Cabrera. So, ponying up large sums of money to get ARod back is the best of both worlds. They keep the young pitching and solve a huge offensive hole.
Plus, by not having to trade for Cabrera, they now keep the arms to go after Santana.

 

Which is sensible, Angola. But plenty of Yankee fans are not sensible about Rodriguez. They go one about him not being a "true Yankee" and boo him at the ballpark. I just don't get it.

 

If he chooses the Yankees now, I think he will finally have won over the fans.

 

I don't think that Yankee fans do that, generally. I think there are some that do that and the radio talk shows play that angle constantly as do the tabloids.

No players of New York teams have had unconditional love from the fans, except maybe Lawrence Taylor, Willis Reed and Walt Frazier. Namath was loved but his injuries dampened the emotions in the end.

Jeter has heard boos, Rivera has heard boos. Simms got booed early and often.

 

Of those three, only Simms has heard them as loud and as often as Rodriguez, at least among star athletes in New York. It's not that small of a group doing it.

 

Rodriguez is loved compared to Pat Ewing, deservedly so.

BTW, I think that Rodriguez would be happier to play for the Yankees without Torre as manager than with him, so much so that it would have taken the Dodgers paying Rodriguez in Euros to get him.