For once, Mike Lupica is right on calling out Jason Giambi for having the gall to criticize anybody (in this case A-Rod). Then again, I didn’t realize A-Rod was now playing the race card (hasn’t he ever heard of Derek Jeter?). Face it, when people look at A-Rod, the only color they see is green; the man had few energetic detractors in Seattle, and he is hated today almost entirely because of the money he makes. Everything else that gets thrown at him is rationalization for that hatred. But that doesn’t make calling his detractors racists is at all justifiable.
9 thoughts on “Pay-Rod”
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Maybe Giambi pumped too much HGH into him the day SI came calling.
Giambi is an absolute clown for opening up this can of worms.
A-Rod is guilty of many things, ego, stats hog, etc. But for the most part A-Rod is a model citizen.
Giambi will have a stigma that is far worse. STEROID USER, CHEATER, LIAR, are some of those labels that will follow him well after his career is over.
A-Rod’s legacy to baseball is far more acceptable.
People don’t hate him because of the money. Manny makes $20 million and Boston pretty much loves him. Of course he hit .300 in the post-season against the Yankees and was the World Series MVP. A-Rod’s last 9 post-season games? 4-33 (.121), 9Ks, 2 RBIs and the Yankees are 2-7 including the worst choke in sports history. Yankee fans hate him because he gets paid a lot and does not pruduce in the clutch. Mariner fans, now that’s a different story. They still break out the Pay-Rod signs when he comes to town. The guy has a reputation as a pretty boy loser and until he actually does something to change that perception he is going to be the guy with the big contract and the soft game.
I don’t know if A-Rod still has “energetic detractors” in Texas anymore; the heat (and the general cloud of mediocrity over the franchise) in Arlington sort of takes the starch out of you after awhile. But I don’t see green when I look at A-Rod. I see the treadmarks from the bus he threw his Rangers teammates under.
I am not a big A-Rod lover, but, if the Yankees will pay at least half of his salary, the Royals will trade ever injured Mike Sweeney and Reggie Sanders for A-Rod’s soft .300/35/125.
He’d be great in KC. No pressure to win, no pennant race. Just put up big stats for a last place team.
KC isn’t going to be last much longer. 6-7 studs in the high minors including the AA player of the year. The Royals are coing.
I’ll tell you one of the player who is not an “energetic detractor” of ARod — Michael Young. When he first came to Texas, ARod put in a lot of extra work with Michael and he’s a better player for it. So are some of the younger players who were around then.
Sure, ARod gets booed in Arlington — it’s the the thing to do you know, all the hip fans are doing it. But when he was a Ranger, he was pretty much a model player. Most of us chalked up his Bronson Arroyo judo-chop to the pressure of playing in NYC. Not a valid excuse whatsoever, but we never saw that side of him in Texas.
My wife thinks he’s a “Jonah.” I think he’s starting to believe it too.
A-Rod has an aura of phoniness about him, and I’m not going to spend anytime sympathizing with a guy making a quarter of a billion dollars, but the way he has been treated is so over the top absurd it’s almost a parody. As for Giambi, the guy would put his head down and keep his mouth shut for the rest of his career if he had any class.