"Both teams played hard."

No, Ian O'Connor. Image isn't everything. Numbers are everything.

.321, 48, and 130 is everything.


But can ARod perform under pressure?:

"Alex Rodriguez might be the most talented ballplayer on the planet. But it's hard to belt a postseason homer, or even field a Little League bouncer in the Division Series, when you're more concerned with how people think you are performing than you are in performing."

Ian O'Connor does not understand how baseball works.

In the postseason, Alex Rodriguez has performed well. I know Ian O'Connor doesn't think so, but then Ian O'Connor is wrong.

In the postseason, ARod has hit .305 with 6 hrs and 16 hrs in 118 at-bats. The rbis are a little low, but he also has managed 19 runs, a .393 on-base% and a .534 slugging%. Those numbers are excellent and they're consistent with his HOF regular season numbers.


This is what Ian O'Connor doesn't understand:

(1) Given enought at-bats, every player in baseball history will hit a slump.

Every playoff superstar has choked in the playoffs if you choose to look at 10 or 15 at-bats. Mickey Mantle, Yogi Berra, Derek Jeter, Reggie Jackson, Manny Ramirez, Scott Brosius, anybody.

That is simply how baseball works.

If O'Connor wants to focus on ARod's last 30 playoff at-bats as proof that he can't handle pressure, then I can focus on his previous 30, which prove that he can. Those are hard numbers that ARod has generated, not the soft ARod image that O'Connor chooses to fabricate.


(2) When did ARod start becoming conscious of his image? When did this self-consciousness start to negatively affect his play on the field?

Because I don't think the Twins thought he was a Little League player when he singlehandedly bombed them in the 2004 ALDS.

But this is what Ian O'Connor is asking you to believe: ARod suddenly became conscious of his image and suddenly became unable to handle pressure starting in Game 4 of the ALCS vs. Boston. (Actually, it would have to be Game 5, because he hit a monster homerun in Game 4.)


It would be nice if ARod could let his numbers do the talking. But lazy columnists are going to ignore the numbers entirely and push the Choker angle, all the while claiming that ARod is oh-so image-conscious.

Rasheed Wallace had it right. From now on, every question should get the same response: "Both teams played hard."