We are 24 hours removed from arguably the second most embarrassing Yankees postseason series of this current era (the Red Sox coming back from 0-3 in 2004 was worse), and while the wound remains fresh for the Bombers and their fans, particularly concerning Alex Rodriguez, I ask this question:
What if we’re overreacting?
What if the Yankees don’t need to blow up this team and trade away Rodriguez, who has hit the majority of his 647 career home runs in pinstripes? What if he fell victim to a team-wide slump and has become the scapegoat for his teammates’ shortcomings?
It’s our job as members of the media, especially here in New York, to overreact to an extent, to drive the conversation, so in that sense, Rodriguez deserves every bit of criticism he is taking.
I’ll also mention that I root for Rodriguez to do well, he’s one of the greatest players I have ever watched and no matter what team you root for, you cannot deny when you watch greatness. Make no mistake, this past postseason aside, Rodriguez will go down as one of the greatest hitters in baseball history.
That being said, Rodriguez does not help himself out by doing things such as hitting on females in the stands after getting pinch-hit for in the ALCS. Sometimes he needs to be reminded that he is Alex Rodriguez and that Joe Girardi and the thousands of Yankees fans should be the ones he’s worrying about, not pretty blondes behind the dugout.
Rodriguez played awful, but his remarks following last night’s game really speak volumes as to why exactly he may have been struggling more than usual and about his future in pinstripes. Rodriguez said everything right, letting the world know that he wants to remain a Yankee, that “if I’m playing my game, Joe has no choice but to play me,” and that baseball is ultimately a team game.
The intricacies of a lineup are a lot more complicated than many people think. With Rodriguez being surrounded by players who were not hitting either, the slumping slugger would not get pitches to hit. In the six games he started, Rodriguez hit in front of Robinson Cano three times, Nick Swisher twice and Curtis Granderson once. The combined statistics of those three players were 11-for-100 (.110) with one home run, six RBIs and 32 strikeouts. Pitchers could simply just throw junk to Rodriguez (who would swing at it and could not catch up to fastballs) and not have to worry about putting a runner on base.
Rodriguez’s quote about Girardi having to play him if he’s playing his game is also telling. The slugger hinted that he will return, whether or not it is with New York remains to be seen, with a chip on his shoulder.
“I have a lot to prove, and I’ll come back on a mission.” Rodriguez said to reporters on Thursday night. “I sat in this room in 2006. Some of you guys were here. There [were] a lot of doubters. I said I was going to get back to the drawing board, and I came back with a vengeance in ’07. I’m looking forward to hopefully doing the same.”
Rodriguez won his third MVP award in 2007, a year after he was dropped to eighth in the lineup by then-manager Joe Torre. Rodriguez’s torrid 2007 also led the Yankees to give him the 10-year $275M contract that so many are critiquing now.
He also came back with a vengeance in 2009, following his admission that he used performance enhancing drugs during the 2001-03 seasons with Texas. That postseason he had six home runs and 18 RBI in 15 games, so there is some precedent for Rodriguez rebounding when the fans are against him.
Part of the problem is that Yankees fans as a whole are numbed to any excuses and being some of the most passionate fans on the planet, accept nothing less than a World Series ring year-in, year-out. The players, fans and organization need not look 10 feet to Rodriguez’s left and see Derek Jeter, the player that never would fold under pressure like Rodriguez has seemingly done throughout his Yankees tenure.
Kobe Bryant, a friend of Rodriguez, made these comments earlier this week.
“I just say to him, ‘You’re Alex Rodriguez. You’re A-Rod. You’re one of the best to ever do it,'” Bryant said. “I think sometimes he kind of forgets that and wants to try to do the right thing all the time.”
The right thing now is for him to remember that he is not the player we have seen over the past four weeks, or six months for that matter. Rodriguez needs to use this experience to motivate himself to get into shape this offseason, reinvent himself as a player who shoots gaps rather than one who is expected to hit 35 home runs a season, and turn away all of the doubters just as he did in 2007 and 2009.
asulla-heffinger@nypost.com