PUBLIC OPINION COURTHOUSE – Please, please, please don’t let any of Alex Rodriguez’s allegations against the Yankees and Major League Baseball be true. If anything A-Roid is saying is true, Major League Baseball and its biggest franchise will be left with Texas-sized black eyes. And it wouldn’t really matter what the arbiter decides about the 211 game suspension. Even if the suspension stands, the league and the Yankees will have to deal with the lawsuits and grievances that may or may not have some substance to them. All parties already look bad and things will only get worse.
A-Roid’s plan so far has worked perfectly. He hasn’t really answered as to whether he used PEDs or not. While dodging questions about his behavior, he has dragged MLB and the Yankees front office into a war of words over a supposed witch-hunt against Rodriguez. And while Rodriguez has looked no better in the whole mess, he has made the other parties look worse. Baseball and the Bombers haven’t really helped themselves any. Every time A-Rod’s lawyer, Joe Tacopina (who has never represented an innocent person) put a line in the water, the Yankees and MLB have taken the bait, in the false hope that they’ll be able to get A-Rod to admit to using PEDs. It’s made everybody look bad and thats probably exactly what Rodriguez wanted. At this point I just want everything and everyone to go away so I can get back to enjoying baseball. But there’s no chance of that happening any time soon.
On the field, the Yankees just keep winning. Buoyed by having Rodriguez in the lineup, the Yankees are suddenly hitting again. Of course, having Soriano and Granderson has been a big part of the Yankees success of late. Soriano went on a tear last week, no doubt helped by having a guy with over 600 career home runs batting behind him. His pitch selection has gotten a lot better and with A-Rod behind him, he’s getting a lot of good pitches to hit. The Bombers have been getting some good pitching of late, also. And they’ve been winning the close games. They took two of three from the Rude Sox in Boston and just completed a four-game sweep of a lifeless Blue Jays team (too many former Mets in their ranks?), to move just 3.5 out of the wild card.
The Yankees can probably thank Ryan Dempster for his part in rallying the team and a few fans around A-Rod. Nobody can fault Dempster for wanting to throw at A-Rod. Even though Rodriguez is playing under a stipulation in the CBA that Dempster, as a player representative for the MLBPA, had a hand in instituting. And he had his chance to hit Rodriguez and missed. Throwing at him again was just silly. And Joe Girardi was right to lose his sh*t when Dempster wasn’t tossed from the game.
I understand that the Yankees didn’t retaliate because they need to win every game and can’t afford to lose CC for any period of time. But it would have been nice to see Sabathia put one in David Ortiz’s ribs. In the end, A-Rod and the Yankees had the last laugh. Rodriguez hit a bomb to straightaway center and did a little Big Papi Jesus Point when he touched home. And the Yanks won the game and the series. Now the Yankees are fired up and firing on all cylinders. If the Yankees manage to make the playoffs, it will be just another big F.U. from A-Rod to Major League Baseball.
Preacher Collins, tomorrow.
