TAMPA – I watched Derek Jeter take batting practice yesterday and this thought kept popping into my head over and over:
What if, when Jeter is ready to discuss Alex Rodriguez’s banned-substance confession, he says what is exactly on his mind? No spin. None of the careful calibration that define Jeter’s standard comments.
MORE: Joel Sherman’s Hardball Blog
MORE: Complete Yankees Coverage
Jeter would have to admit Rodriguez exemplifies everything he dislikes in a person and that he feels a certain amount of glee that A-Rod’s fraudulence has been further exposed with the revelation that the slugger used steroids from 2001-03. However, Jeter also would have to concede something else: If he intends to win any championships on the back-nine of his career, he needs Rodriguez to be a great player for the Yankees.
And in that way Jeter is representative of an entire organization. Sure the Yanks would love to get out of the contract. Sure his teammates hate the zoo created as A-Rod fumbles through life. Sure Jeter wishes he never has to say another word – much less a nice one – about Rodriguez.
But everyone around the Yankees has to sanitize their language; in most cases, has to outright lie. They know Rodriguez is the most expensive and talented person in their realm, and there can be no visits to the Canyon of Heroes without him being great, and it will be near impossible for him to be great without some comfort in his life, and there can be no comfort in his life unless his Yankees “family” works to deflate some of the tension A-Rod brings along with his skills.
“We have to get him to where he is comfortable on the field,” manager Joe Girardi said.
And here is the scary thing for the Yankees: They are tied to Rodriguez through 2017, longer than any other team is tied to any other player. As bizarre as it might sound considering current events, A-Rod actually has more job security than anyone in baseball.
So the Yanks are going to have to continue to put on this theater in which they pretend to be glad that they bestowed that 10-year contract last year. What choice do they have? They did business with the drug-tainted Jason Giambi and Andy Pettitte, so there is no way a judge or arbitrator is going to let them get out of this $275 million monstrosity. The Yanks know it. Thus, they now have to act like it never even has crossed their minds that they want out.
They will have to celebrate, perhaps as early as this year, A-Rod’s march toward 600 homers both in a countdown at the new Yankee Stadium and on YES as if the chase is untainted. More theater.
Teammates will rally around him in public proclamations to the press, many of them delivered with mock anger or incredulity as if to say, “Of course we support Alex, he is part of the team.” Many of the people who will say this will conveniently forget all the off-the-record daggers directed at Rodriguez over the years.
I even suspect that when Jeter finally does talk, he will support Rodriguez a little more than he ever has. He knows how it has played publicly that he has so strongly defended steroid-stained teammates such as Roger Clemens, Giambi and Pettitte while being tepid in language when endorsing Rodriguez. So Jeter, I believe, will prioritize winning, and be more kind and protective of A-Rod.
What choice does Jeter, or anyone else with the Yanks, have? Rodriguez, after all, is both cure and cancer; the most skilled player and the most likely to distract the team from its purpose. So the organization will try to minimize the cancer and enhance the cure. The Yanks will embrace him during this spring training and await the next tsunami. Don’t forget Selena Roberts’ book about A-Rod is due out in May, so the bombshells will keep on coming.
This is life with Alex: He seduces with the talent and reduces with the carnival that is his life. The Yanks will put on the best show they can – a fraud, perhaps – to help evoke the talent.