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New York Yankees

Meet the World’s Loneliest Baseball Player

    As the MLB Trade Deadline enters its final hour, we have already been exposed to a plethora of trade possibilities. However, some questions still loom, including the futures of Nationals’ MVP candidate Alfonso Soriano and Philadelphia’s overpaid Bobby Abreu. While the fate of these trades may surge one team into the playoffs, it is the issue of Alex Rodriguez that appears to have the whole league talking.    Since arriving in New York two years ago, Rodriguez has been placed under the microscope of public scrutiny. A-Rod was summoned to the biggest market in all of sports for one reason: to win. It had been four years since the Yankees last were kings of October, and despite his $250 million price tag, Rodriguez was believed to be the superstar that could save a team already full of superstars. So here came Alex with a career .300 average, 300 home runs, two gold gloves, and one MVP already in his resume.
    Shortly after Rodriguez’s arrival, he was thrown into the craziness that is the Yankees-Red Sox rivalry. Having never tasted playoff baseball to this magnitude, A-Rod was asked to lead his team to victory in the American League Championship Series. In addition to hitting more than one hundred points under his career average, Rodriguez is best remembered for swatting the baseball out of pitcher Bronson Arroyo’s glove in a desperate attempt to reach first base. As the Yankees lost the series, it wasn’t Derek Jeter and his $20 million salary nor Gary Sheffeild and his $10 million salary that were denounced. The player singled out was Rodriguez, for he was making $25 million in that one-year and $84,000 per out. Forget the fact that the Yankees’ payroll was over $200 million, the largest in history. A-Rod was there to win and he didn’t. The following year, the Yankees suffer another early exit. In that same year, Rodriguez wins Most Valuable Player and even saves a young boy’s life by rescuing him from a busy Boston street. For most, that would be a career year. Instead Rodriguez earns questions about his character and ability to perform in the clutch.
    This year, however, Rodriguez has finally reached the bottom in New York. He has hit a measly .280 and managed to only be in the top 15 for home runs and RBI’s in his league. Consequently, he receives more jeers from disgruntled fans at home than he does on the road. At one point Rodriguez even had the audacity to strike out four times in a game, joining a class filled with rejects including Barry Bonds and Ken Griffey, Jr. Again, his character is questioned by newspapers and television stations, for a game had passed where a home run was not hit and the Yankees had not won. Some local papers printed unflattering headlines, some fans called for his head, and some analysts called for a trade. In retaliation, Rodriguez could have followed so many and demanded a move, bashed the organization, and even blame his teammates. Instead he has said some days are better than others, and carried on.
    In San Francisco, Barry Bonds is cheered despite impending perjury and tax evasion indictments. In Los Angeles, Kobe Bryant is heralded despite committing adultery. And in New York, Alex Rodriguez is loathed for only winning one MVP and no World Series in three years. When Rodriguez makes a fielding error, it is easy to forget that this man switched his position to accommodate another star in Derek Jeter. And when Rodriguez fails to get a hit on any given day, it is easy to question his character and forget he saved a life. When a player makes 698 times the average American salary, it is often easy to single him out. However, this trade deadline will pass and Alex Rodriguez will still be a Yankee. He will still get questioned and his failures will outweigh his successes. And until he leads his team to a World Series victory, he will be the brunt of his town. Till then, Rodriguez will continue to work and succeed in front of closed eyes as the world’s loneliest baseball player.

4 replies on “Meet the World’s Loneliest Baseball Player”

having never tasted playoff baseball? A-Rod was a key figure on playoff teams in 1997 and 2000 with the Mariners. They never reached the World Series. He was pretty decent average wise in the postseason until his last two series against the Red Sox and Angels.

Still, 16 RBI in 118 total postseason AB is not cutting it for perhaps the most talented player ever. I still don’t think he deserves the daily bashing he gets just because of his contract, however. But that’s NY I guess.

ur right i meant to say,”Having never tasted playoff baseball to this magnitude.” good catch

Great — Great article…it hit every point I throw at my buddies, anti-ARods..Couldn’t have been better.

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