"Steve Phillips was the general manager of the Mets when Alex Rodriguez first became a free agent. In the end the Mets didn't go after Rodriguez and one of the reasons Phillips gave, and people wanted to drop a safe on him because of it, was because he thought A-Rod was a '24-and-1' guy."
Yes, that's true, and Steve Phillips was lying the whole time.
Because Phillips instantly brought in Mike Piazza, and Piazza got his own luxury suites and private plane trips, or whatever.
A few years after that, the Mets brought in the biggest prima donna in baseball, who hasn't even lived up to his contract. Nobody complains because he's a great baseball player.
Great baseball players help your team win baseball games.
Oh, and by the way, I must have forgotten about all the Championship rings the Mets have won with Jose Reyes and Rey Ordonez.
"Meaning your team has 24 other guys and him."
Oh, is that what "24-and-1" means?
Thank you, Mr. Professional Baseball Writer.
I thought it was a football term that meant it was 24th down and 1 yard to go for a first down.
"Sometimes it seems as if there are three baseball teams in New York requiring full-time coverage, the Yankees, the Mets, and Alex Rodriguez."
Yes, it does sometimes seem that way.
It seems like the New York press follows him around wherever he goes and writes about everything he does, even when it is mindnumbingly uninteresting.
There is one guy in particular who seems oddly obsessed with Alex Rodriguez, in a negative way.
How do I describe this guy? Looks a little like Milhouse from the Simpsons; screechy voice; doesn't know what he's talking about most of the time; loves the Red Sox and Mets, hates the Yankees...
"By now there is no question that this guy isn't just the highest-paid superstar in baseball history or Yankee history. He is the highest-maintenance."
I wonder how true this really is.
The Yankees shouldn't care about his off-season bookstore appearances or his off-season interview demands. I personally don't care. I don't understand why the New York press corps follows him around like stray cats and then write columns where they say the New York press talks about Alex Rodriguez too much.
How high maintenance is Alex Rodriguez?
He's probably an arrogant snot, but that's too bad. You're paid $5 million to manage a $200 million payroll. Sounds like a gig the other 29 major league managers would gladly accept.
You put him at third base every day, you bat him fourth every day.
You get .300/.400/.550, 40 hrs, 20 stolen bases, 120 runs, and 120 rbis. You get a lot of strikeouts and, in 2006, too many errors.
ARod is seldom hurt and he seldom makes mental mistakes in the field or on the basepaths. He knows more about the opponent than you do, I can promise you that. He is the most well-conditioned player on your team, I can also promise you that.
Sounds like a tough job for a manager whose team wasn't mentally prepared to play the so-called "upstart" Detroit Tigers.
Maybe the fact that the manager allowed 95-win team to be perceived as "upstarts" is the problem right there.
Poor Yankees. Poor Joe Torre. Poor New York press.
They should get Mike Lamb to play third base and see what happens.
Third-place teams are so much easier to maintain, aren't they?
4 comments:
That Lupica still has a job is interesting to me.
You occasionally raise some valid points with statistics. But the constant screeching against the media is a tired act.
Go live in Milwaukee or Houston or Atlanta and see how much decent baseball coverage you get.
Nearly 8 million people attended baseball games in NYC last season and TV ratings were through the roof. That's why papers send writers to write stories on the players in the winter.
Get over it.
Since you don't like my blog, maybe you should start a blog where you criticize my blog. It would be a tired act criticizing a tired act criticizing a tired act.
I challenge you to read a year's worth of so-called baseball coverage in the New York tabloids and find a single article where you can find out what actually happened in a baseball game.
There are a multitude of potentially interesting stories involving the Yankees this off-season. Zero of them involve Alex Rodriguez's book.
ARod wrote a book. ARod took off his shirt in Central Park. ARod farted. ARod said "no comment." ARod returned my call. ARod didn't return my call. ARod said something. ARod said nothing. ARod has a tan. ARod signed a $252 million contract. $252 million, $252 million, $252 million, $252 million, $252 million, $252 million. I sure wish everybody would stop obsessing about ARod. Can you believe all those other people who keep obsessing about ARod? Gosh, ARod is so high maintenance, isn't he? I wish ARod would stop being so high maintenance.
Along the same lines, I'm anticipating a string of articles which ponder why Bernie Williams has been so underrated in his 16-year career. By the same people who say that ARod gets too much attention.
Who.
Are.
The.
Same.
People.
Who.
Write.
The.
Articles.
Whose fault is it that Bernie Williams has received relatively little recognition by the press?
Where were you for 16 years?
I wasn't ignoring Bernie Williams. I knew the whole time how great Bernie Williams was. I think most fans knew the whole time, in contrst to most sports writers, who are simply more concerned with personal agendas.
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