Accuracy.

There's a self-perpetuating theory among the tabloid sportswriters that Steinbrenner craves the back page. Steinbrenner's going to panic if the Mets start getting to back page.

Well, the Mets just finished up a 9-1 road trip on the same day ARod hit a ball 500 feet. Negative ARod articles dominate the back pages. Do us all a favor and write an article about the Mets!

Bob Klapisch struggles with accuracy and logic in this sneering, reverse-psychology piece:

"Yes, says Alex Rodriguez, he knows what you think of him. He knows what goes through your mind when the Yankees are rallying and he brings that long, beautiful (and increasingly useless) swing to the plate."

He has slumped in May, but he is showing signs of breaking out of it. A whopping two-game hitting streak and a whopping 500-foot homerun.

When you say increasingly useless, it should mean increasingly useless.


"Whether it's self-pity or cool calculation, there's no arguing the indictments all stick now. Think A-Rod hits empty home runs? Sure enough, he blasted a 457-foot monster in the seventh inning -- when the Yankees were down by five runs."

So, the homer wasn't useless at all. Just because the Yankees ended up losing doesn't mean it was useless.

When the Yankees are down by five runs, the only way to get back is to start scoring runs. Then, when the game is over, you might score more than the other team. Which is how you win.


But this is all nitpicking before Klapisch drops this mathematical bomb on your head:

"Convinced he can't hit when it counts? A-Rod is ... 2-for-16 with runners on base in June, and even worse (1-for-8) with runners in scoring position."

A .125 batting average is bad in any context.

But a .125 batting average is not worse than .125 batting average.