Verducci with a darn good piece about A-Rod

Dools, you're my dawg and all, but this argument is just as disingenious as anything you've accused us of the last two or three days. Ernie Banks and A-Rod played in entirely different eras. Who knows how the Cubs would have fared in a three-division NL w/four playoff teams?

A-Rod has come up small REPEATEDLY for multiple teams that have reached the playoffs in various ways. Again, his decent statistics do not tell the story of how he flunks every single big test. Every single one.

Are you going to tell me he's having a good year this season because his stats are solid and inflated by a monster September in which the Yankees have played exactly zero meaningful games?

As for Marino, he, too, is irrelevant here. Take him to the Manning argument we'll be having when he hacks it up again in January (and he will).

 

The point is, he's a great player no matter if he ever wins a title. If we judge by titles, why in the hell not put Gene Tenace in a Hall of Fame? Or Dave Semenko?

 

He has been a better postseason hitter than Jeter.

If the Yankees win it all this year and ARod piles up his postseason-average OPS of .935, he'll be in a much more positive light ... to the simpleton sports fans who let personal prejudices get in front of facts.

 

Player who has Malone's stats: I was good.

Player who has Horry's (or Simpkins') rings: I was lucky.

 

I think this sort of thinking is why Rodriguez will never be able to satisfy his critics. If he weren't having a good September, they'd be saying, "See? He can hit and pile up the stats in May, but he can't do it down the stretch, when the team is getting ready for the playoffs. He's so fragile that even the approach of October makes him choke." But now that he's playing well in September, they conveniently say that these games are meaningless. (So I guess Jeter's recent hitting streak, had it continued to the end of the season and run up to 40 or so games, wouldn't have been impressive, because it would have happened in September in a bunch of meaningless games. Right?)

Rodriguez did well in the Division Series? Well, it doesn't count, because we all know it's the ALCS that's really important. (I doubt that will stop people from criticizing him if he doesn't play well in the Division Series, though.) He played great in the LCS? That's nice, but it doesn't mean that much because Yankees are judged by World Series. (As if the same isn't true for every other player and every other franchise.) So he hit .500 in the World Series, with four homers, 12 RBI and the hit that won Game 5? He still sucks, because he struck out to end Game 7 and the Yankees lost. He doesn't perform when it really matters. Sheesh. Hell, if he got a hit to extend Game 7 but the next guy up made the final out, they'd probably still blame Rodriguez for not hitting the game-winning home run.

 

Grohl, the John Vander Wal/Lenny Harris of SportsJournalists.com posters.

Exactly the truth.

 

Good Grohl-lery there.
Well-played.
And dyepack, friend of the working class, is now my favorite SportsJournalists.com cartoon.

 

So Joe Q. would rather have billionaire Steinbrenner keep all the money than have Rodriguez or Jeter get any of it?

When you pay $20 or $60 or $100 or whatever to watch a pro sports team, are you paying to watch the players play, or to watch the owner own?

 

"Ohio State" was lame, lame, lame.

 

I don't mind these ad hominem responses, but I am wondering if there's something recent that prompted them. I've pretty much avoided your political ramblings for a while now.

 

I know the first thing I think of when talking about someone's postseason legacy is their OPS. Who cares if they take the pipe in pressure spots as long as that OPS is up there, that's all that really counts.

 

Both, at least the last time I went to a game. It was at PNC Park, which I had not been to.

That was the DH in which Rob Mackowiak had a magical night.