Boras: Blame Rivera not Alex (John Harper NYDN column)

From The Daily News.http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/baseball/yankees/2007/11/01/2007-11-01_scott_boras_points_ridiculous_finger_at_.html

You just have to laugh sometimes when you hear Scott Boras speak. He must think everyone is as dumb as Tom Hicks, the Rangers owner he once convinced to pay Alex Rodriguez at least $50 million more than anyone else was willing to bid at the time.

Boras has made himself unusually available in the last few days, which means even he understands what a disastrous decision he made to upstage the World Series by leaking word of A-Rod's opt-out Sunday night.

Apparently he feels it's his duty to try to stem the flow of venom aimed at his client from baseball and media people all over the country. But yesterday he only inflamed the situation by insulting the intelligence of Yankee fans and anyone else who paid more than casual attention to A-Rod's trials and tribulations in pinstripes.

On ESPN's "First Take" show yesterday, Boras made the mistake of trying to defend A-Rod's failures in the postseason as some sort of twisted media perspective that needed correcting.

He even blamed Mariano Rivera as a cause for A-Rod's problems, which may be the height of desperation.

The question posed to Boras was why Rodriguez's regular-season numbers haven't translated to postseason success.

"That's a characterization that, when you look at the data, is frankly inaccurate," Boras said. "If you look at Alex's first season in New York, I believe he was 7-for-16 with two home runs and five RBIs going into Game 4 in Boston.

"The brilliant Mariano Rivera, probably the only flaw he's made in a historic career over the postseason, if he got those three outs (in the ninth inning of Game 4), Alex would have been in the World Series and he would have been held to have a great postseason.
"When you look at his records with Seattle - and even this year - you're talking about a player whose postseason records are really up there with many of the superstars of the game."

For some reason, the interviewer did not respond with some obvious follow-up questions. Like:

What about Games 5, 6, and 7 against the Red Sox, when even one clutch hit, particularly in Games 5 and 6, might have changed everything?

What about 2005 against the Angels?

What about 2006 against the Tigers?

What about Games 1 and 2 against the Indians last month, when the ALDS essentially was decided?

This isn't meant to dredge up all the old accusations against A-Rod and pound on him for what he didn't do as a Yankee. He's a deserving MVP who saved the Yankees from a wipeout season in 2007, and as arrogant and disingenuous as he comes off in opting out without even listening to the Yankees' offer, I don't believe he's a cancer to a ballclub or someone destined to go his entire career without winning a championship.

I made the case yesterday that I thought the Mets should sign him as the next best way to improve their traumatized ballclub if they couldn't acquire an ace such as Johan Santana, and I was surprised at the volume of e-mails I received in protest from Mets' fans.

That reaction just shows what a makeover A-Rod's image needs, but for now Boras can only make it worse by trying to make his client look like the victim of some media witch hunt.

It's not that he's wrong about Rivera in Game 4 of the 2004 ALCS. However, it's like someone saying that if A-Rod hadn't grounded into that ninth-inning double play in the deciding game against the Angels two years ago, Randy Johnson, in retrospect, would have been a hero for his relief work that night rather than a bum for his Game 3 disaster.

It's baseball. The best make errors and blow saves. With three more games to make an impact, Rodriguez went 1-for-12, his only hit an empty single in Game 6.

What, those games shouldn't count against A-Rod? If anything, they should register more because the great ones should be held to a higher standard of delivering when their team needs them most.

Same goes for the last three seasons, when the Yankees needed someone to save them from themselves, and A-Rod hit .159 (7-for-44) with one RBI, that on a seventh inning home run in Game 4 against the Indians last month with the Yankees trailing 6-2.

Can't blame Rivera for those numbers.

So Boras really needs to shut up on this subject, just as he should let his public apology for the Sunday night opt-out speak for itself, and not try to further insult people by claiming it was some sort of accident.

A-Rod did have a couple of good Octobers for the Mariners, which is why his career postseason batting average is a respectable .279, but that doesn't change what he did as a Yankee.

It's not as if A-Rod isn't going to get his $30 million a year anyway. Then again, maybe Boras is aiming even higher, interpreting numbers selectively in search of another Tom Hicks. Doesn't mean you should let him get away with it.

http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/baseball/yankees/2007/11/01/2007-11-01_scott_boras_points_ridiculous_finger_at_.html

 

Re: Boras: Blame Rivera not Alex

BorASS is the biggest cancer in baseball, and that says a lot when you have guys like Bud Selig running around.

 

Re: Boras: Blame Rivera not Alex

See I wouldn't characterize the following as "blaming" Rivera but I guess it helps sell newspapers.....


"The brilliant Mariano Rivera, probably the only flaw he's made in a historic career over the postseason, if he got those three outs (in the ninth inning of Game 4), Alex would have been in the World Series and he would have been held to have a great postseason."

 

Re: Boras: Blame Rivera not Alex

Please. That's passive-aggressiveness at its best (or worst). as sure as I'm sitting here typing, Boras is passing the buck for A-Rod's failures. Now we know where A-Rod gets it.

And as is pointed out, even if Rivera retired right there on the mound, the blown save in Game Four doesn't excuse A-Rod completely sucking in his next 12 playoff games.

 

Re: Boras: Blame Rivera not Alex

Boras doesn't need everyone to be as dumb as Tom Hicks, just one owner. And the pool of idiot owners, as we all know, is far larger than this.

 

Re: Boras: Blame Rivera not Alex

Why in the holy hell would any journalist, presumably interested in accurate information, EVER quote an agent??

Not only is it highly possible the agent is lying to benefit his client, in fact he would be derelict in his duty if he did not do so. Therefore anything and everything an agent says can be summarily dismissed as worthless bullshit.

Whenever I'm on the desk and I see a story with agent quotes, it's whack-whack-whack. Out, out, out.

 

Re: Boras: Blame Rivera not Alex

Then you would need to do exactly the same thing with general manager quotes, wouldn't you? Isn't it in their interest to drive the price down?

 

Re: Boras: Blame Rivera not Alex

Just a question about attribution...on a first post that long, I read it thinking it was 'yab's opinion. Until I got down to the link. Shouldn't we have a "From the Daily News" thing at the top or something? I was wondering why 'Yab was getting e-mails from Mets fans.

 

Re: Boras: Blame Rivera not Alex

I was in a similar process of thought, but I saw the link before I started reading. So when I didn't see any breaks, and when I got to the Mets stuff, I figured it was all from that link.

 

Re: Boras: Blame Rivera not Alex

How'd you see the link? It's three screens down on my computer.

 

Re: Boras: Blame Rivera not Alex

I scrolled down to see how long the post was.

 

Re: Boras: Blame Rivera not Alex

Time to upgrade