The other night I was probably one of a handful of people not living in New York or California watching the ACLS. During the game I heard one of the announcers say something that caught my attention “A-Rod’s teammates really seem to like him this year.” They like ARod the same way we liked the fat kid in Little League. Whether you are playing for 100 million dollars or trying to bat through the line-up in one inning to earn a trip to Dairy Queen, teams are playing to win. Now that comment deserves some context before you counter me with the Chicago Cubs (not playing to win). When you are the New York Yankees and you have a payroll that could pay for universal health care and you have not won a championship since the year 2000, just going to the playoffs is not acceptable. So it would be fair to say they are trying to win. Back to the fat kid analogy, as everyone should remember, a kid like this in little league dominated that level of play. His girth was mistaken for strength and the combination of short fences and short base paths couldn’t hold him. Now we really didn’t like him because he would give all his teammates purple nurples in the hallway at school. However, he was tolerated because at 40 miles per hour, pitching did not expose the hand eye coordination he lacked. A couple years later, the pitchers’ arms got stronger, the fences got pushed back and the bases paths were extended. Now the former Little League monster couldn’t catch up with pitching, and when he did his 140 foot homers from Little League were innocuous fly balls to shallow left field. And if he ever was able to reach bases, taking an extra base on a ball that went to the backstop was adventure so you could pretty much forget about asking him to tag up, trying to bunt or having anything that ever made it past the outfielder being anything but a stand up single. Suddenly, the fat kid wasn’t needed anymore to win, but sadly this was not the death knell for purple nurples as he found them to be hilarious well into adulthood.
A-Rod’s playoff travails have been well documented. His struggles seem to be an inverse of the fat kid paradigm. A Rod came to the Yankees in 2004. He came with a quarter of billion dollar price tag. Just to put A-Rod’s playoff struggles into perspective, dating back to 2004 in ACLS he has 61 at-bats with 38 runners in scoring position. He has stranded every one of them. 38 runners in scoring position and he went 0-29. That is why Jeter, Mariano and the rest of the Yanks didn’t like A-Rod. Sure he is probably a jerk but Gandhi would have become unlikeable going 0-29 with RISP in the world’s most pressure laden city. But maybe he is being picked on as he surmised in this interview with Sports Illustrated. “When people write [bad things] about me, I don’t know if it’s [because] I’m good-looking, I’m bi-racial, I make the most money or I play on the most popular team.” No one that ever says something like that is likeable no matter what anyone says. The media has pontificated that ARod admitting steroid use was cathartic for him and has allowed him to relax. He was backed in a corner after his name got leaked and completely lied about the amount and frequency he used PED’s. So if he is overpaid, a liar and obviously self absorbed, how all of a sudden did A-Rod become likeable? Well, against the Twins had he had 2 RBI singles with 2 outs in game one. In game two he had an RBI single in the 6th and hit a game tying home run off Joe Nathan in bottom of the ninth. In game three he hit another game tying home run. He hit his third game tying home run in game two of the ACLS in the bottom of the 11th against Angel closer Brian Fuentes. He is hitting .429 in the series with three jacks and six RBI’s. Most importantly the Yankees are going to the Fall Classic. ARod’s teammates do not like him because they discovered all of a sudden he is underpaid, a nice guy and is very humble. They like him because he is going to help them win the World Series. Not unless that fat kid, Joba Chamberlin screws it up.