"It started in the old days with the old man, George (Boss) Steinbrenner, who could work the phones himself the way Alex Rodriguez’s flacks were working them this week, peddling their ridiculous version of things, starting here:
Alex was healthy enough to play and the Yankees wouldn’t let him. . . because they don’t really want to win!"
The theory is not so much that the Yankees "don't really want to win." (Though I'm glad we're all in agreement than a deteriorated ARod is still probably a better baseball player than Luis Cruz, Travis Hafner, Alberto Gonzalez, Reid Brignac, David Adams, etc.)
The theory is that the Yankees are waiting for MLB to suspend ARod so the Yankees are relieved from their contractual obligation.
The more expansive theory is that the Yankees want to buy out ARod's contract. Without any leverage, the Yankees would have to pay, I dunno, 90 cents on the dollar. With the pending threat of a lifetime ban (imposed by MLB, not the Yankees), maybe ARod would accept, I dunno, 50 cents on the dollar.
"But Hal Steinbrenner had nothing to do with embarrassing the Yankees this week. Randy Levine, president of the team did not, nor did Brian Cashman. The manager had nothing to do with this, nor did any of the other Yankee players. There was one guy turning the Yankees back into a Bronx Zoo, even from out of town: Alex Emmanuel Rodriguez, who still has this amazingly stupid idea that he is smarter than everybody else."
In a recent article about Alfonso Soriano, I noticed that Mark Teixeira was quoted.
Why is the press even talking to Teixeira? Teixeira is on the DL.
Jeter is in the dugout with the same injury as ARod. ARod is exiled to Tampa and intentionally kept away from the team.
The Yankees are embarrassing ARod on purpose.
Did ARod make his own bed? Of course. But this is a team with a vast history of steroid cheats, including a lot of players on its current roster. So this is a player the Yankees have decided to publicly reject. This is noticeably unusual behavior for the team that embraced Howe, Strawberry, Gooden, Giambi, Hafner, etc.
As for embarrassing the Yankees this week, CC Sabathia took care of that already.
Yesterday, the entire Yankee lineup managed two baserunners in an important game vs. an AL East rival. In the postgame press conference, the ever-optimistic (i.e., delusional) Girardi said that his team's offense hit some balls hard, but, unfortunately, the Tampa fielders caught the hard-hit balls.
Hughes vs. Moore today as the Yankees try to avoid the sweep.
That's the Yankees' Week in Embarrassment right there.
One hundred million stupid WFAN PR campaigns from a player on the DL can't possibly embarrass the organization as much as their performance on the field.
"So once A-Rod’s flacks found willing partners all over the airwaves, it no longer mattered that it was Rodriguez who first complained about leg problems in the minors; Rodriguez who chose not to show up in Tampa for a rehab game, whether that game got rained out or not; Rodriguez who didn’t want to go to Buffalo and wasn’t ready to play the Texas Rangers at the start of the week."
Right.
I don't understand the whole thing with the doctors. An ill-advised, hypocritical, and pointless attempt to turn public sentiment against the Yankees.
ARod is not an intelligent person. His stupid behavior is often misinterpreted as narcissism or arrogance or PR phoniness. If you really listen to the words that come out of this man's mouth -- especially when he's forced to be spontaneous -- he's really quite ignorant and stupid. A lot of what he says is simply incoherent.
"I wrote about all this on Wednesday, chapter and verse, and was the first to wonder why someone this wronged and this mistreated, one who is having his flacks and handlers and star-struck doctors suggest that he was the victim of an outrageous medical fraud perpetrated by his own team, didn’t file a grievance with the Major League Baseball Players Association.
When A-Rod finally responded to that, because you knew he would, he said he didn’t know he could file a grievance. Really? We’re supposed to believe that a guy who has a lawyer with him on a conference call with the Yankees, who has been working with a lawyer who represented Ryan Braun, isn’t aware of his rights?"
Oh my freakin' God.
Mike Lupica "was the first the wonder why ARod didn't file a grievance." The first person in the whole world was Mike Lupica.
"When ARod finally responded to that, he didn't know he could file a grievance."
I don't know how to break it to Lupica, but ARod doesn't read Lupica's column.
Lupica is not steering this storyline in any way.
ARod was not responding to Mike Freakin' Lupica.
I was actually listening to Francesa's show when Francesa asked ARod about the grievance. ARod's response was something like, "I'm gonna jump off the phone." ARod said that about 20 times. The kind of thing a stupid man says when caught off guard and asked to think for himself.
But you know the primary reason I just might believe that ARod isn't aware of his right to file a grievance?Because ARod is preternaturally unintelligent.
"Suckers buy into a narrative like that, into the poor-Alex narrative, into the conspiracy narrative, and about how this is only about his love for the game and not about establishing a legal position to hold on to as much of his money as possible."
Well, once again, I think Lupica is fighting a non-existent enemy. You'd find almost zero people who buy into the "poor-Alex" narrative. He's guilty.
Having said that, a lot of people are not buying into the "poor-Yankees" narrative or "poor-Selig" narrative.
If someone points out that a lifetime suspension for ARod above all other steroid cheats seems unfair, it's because it absolutely is unfair compared to all other steroid cheats.
If someone points out that the Yankees' outrage regarding steroid cheats seems hypocritical when compared to other steroid cheats -- and this moral outrage is undoubtedly tied to the remaining contract dollars rather than a "love of the game" -- it's because that is also obviously true.
I don't think this stance qualifies as "pro-ARod" or "poor-ARod." It's just the Yankees are 54-50 and 8 games out of first place. Until the suspension is official, let's get this lying, cheating, stupid bat back on the field as soon as possible. A stupid cheating liar will fit right in with American pro sports teams.
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