Big Bats, Bigger Stage

Since the sixth inning of the Yankees’ regular season game against the Tampa Rays, when Alex Rodriguez hit two home runs and drove in 7 RBI to bring his season total to 30 home runs and 100 RBI, respectively, I’ve been texting my friends every time A-Rod hits one out or drives in another run. It’s starting to get expensive. 

So far in the postseason, A-Rod has five homers and 11 RBI. With three more hits last night, including a monster home run into the left field bleachers, Rodriguez is now batting .407 in the first two rounds of the playoffs.

The man is on fire.

Believe it or not, though, A-Rod is, arguably, only the second best player of the 2009 postseason. That honor might just go to Ryan Howard, who’s driven in an amazing 14 in eight games, more RBI than he had in 17 playoff games over the past two years. Although he’s only homered twice, compared to A-Rod’s five, Howard does have four doubles and triple, while batting a cool .379, with seven runs scored.

This after a regular season in which he launched 45 home runs, drove in 141, while batting .279, his highest average since 2006, when he hit .313 on way to picking up the National League Most Valuable Player award.

Both Rodriguez and Howard are putting on a display, matching Lou Gehrig’s postseason record of driving in at least one RBI in eight straight playoff games. Not too shabby, that. 

If the Yankees meet the Phillies in the World Series, a match up that suddenly seems inevitable, Major League Baseball will get to showcase, on its biggest stage, two of the sports biggest-- and most prolific-- sluggers.

Play ball. 

Cut A-Rod?

Bill Madden seems to think so. I don't know. That's a lot of money, even for the Yankees. And then what? Slide Robinson Cano to third and take your chances with Cody Ransom or Doug Bernier as your everyday second baseman? Or sign Orlando Hudson to play second? Neither scenario, I'm afraid, is very likely. Let's face it: the Yankees are most likely stuck with this creep through 2017, like it or not. 

For about an hour yesterday afternoon, I started wondering if this controversy could actually help Rodriguez in the long run. I know it's crazy, but Rodriquez, as we all know, has always tried just a little too hard--from his frosted tips, to his exposed socks--to be the best. Maybe, I allowed myself to think, as of Sunday morning, with his worst nightmares finally realized, his fraudulence and perfidy finally brought to light, that maybe, just maybe, he'd be able to show up at the ballpark 162 times a year and just play baseball, just as he did as a 16-year-old, without the burden of being A-Rod, the greatest player of his generation, if not in the history of the game. Maybe, with everything he ever worked for now spiraling helplessly down the toilet, he could concentrate instead on grinding it out, hitting to the opposite field, moving runners over. In short, letting his natural talents take over. No longer having to worry about being A-Rod, he wouldn't have to try to smack the ball 425 feet over the fence every time he stepped to the plate. With nothing left to lose, he would come into his own as a ballplayer and, finally, find some solace playing the game he's always loved. 

But then I remembered Alex has the emotional makeup of a 14-year-old anorexic girl. There's no way he's going to come out of this unscathed.    

The more I think about Madden's suggestion, the more I like it. Or the Yankees could choose to go a different route this Spring Training. 

UPDATE: Rodriguez has admitted to taking performance-enhancing drugs. He also apologized. He's also still a giant tool, and a member of the Yankees through Obama's second term. Pitchers and catchers can't report to Spring Training fast enough. 

The Needle and the Damage Done

According to a report in Sports Illustrated, Alex Rodriguez tested positive for two different types of anabolic steroids-- Primobolan and testosterone-- in 2003, the year he won the American League Most Valuable Player award, and his final season with the Texas Rangers. 

This is bad. Real bad, and it goes a long way of explaining A-Rod's cryptic statement last year that he was "tested nine or 10 times" during the 2007 season, which would mean, as reporters speculated at the time, that he had failed a previous test. Rodriguez, under advisement, later claimed he was exaggerating, probably to protect his image and/or legacy, because in 2003 Major League Baseball didn't penalize players who tested positive. (It is unclear from the article if A-Rod has since tested positive a second time, but Roberts and Epstein point out that Rodriguez was allegedly tipped off about an upcoming test by Gene Orza, the chief operating officer of the players' union in 2004, when Rodriguez was playing third base for the Yankees).  

Rodriguez was one of about 1,200 players tested as part of a sealed MLB internal survey to figure out if (irony alert!) testing was even worth the effort, according to SI reporters Selena Roberts and David Epstein, who write:   

The results of that year's survey testing of 1,198 players were meant to be anonymous under the agreement between the commissioner's office and the players association. Rodriguez's testing information was found, however, after federal agents, armed with search warrants, seized the '03 test results from Comprehensive Drug Testing, Inc., of Long Beach, Calif., one of two labs used by MLB in connection with that year's survey testing. The seizure took place in April 2004 as part of the government's investigation into 10 major league players linked to the BALCO scandal -- though Rodriguez himself has never been connected to BALCO.

Rodriguez is signed with the Yankees through 2017, during which time he is widely expected to pass Barry Bonds, also linked to steroids and various performance-enhancing drugs, for the all-time home run total, which means this story ain't going anywhere anytime soon. For years, fans, reporters and players have speculated about A-Rod juicing, but this morning's article is, as far as I know, the first corroborated report of the so-called greatest baseball player of his generation cheating. I think it's pretty safe to assume, then, that chants of "A-Fraud" will echo throughout major league ballparks this season, including the new one in the Bronx.

Et tu, B-Cash?

Former Yankees skipper Joe Torre is still less than pleased with the way his tenure with the club ended. According to Bill Madden of New York's "Daily News," in his new book, The Yankees Years, which was co-written by "Sports Illustrated" writer Tom Verducci, Torre lashes out against Alex Rodriguez and General Manager Brian Cashman.

While discussing the complicated talents of Rodriguez, Torre reportedly reveals that a number of Yankees referred to A-Rod as "A-Fraud," and writes that Rodriguez was "obsessed" with his rivalry with Derek Jeter. No big surprises there. Rodriguez's tenuous relationship with Jeter and his other teammates is already pretty well-documented, most notably in this damning "Sports Illustrated" profile of Rodriguez, which was written by, yep, Tom Verducci prior to the Yankees' first-round loss to the eventual World Series champions Detroit Tigers in 2006.  Anyone who follows baseball knows that A-Rod is fragile, to say the least. The fact that the 30 or so guys who spend approximately two-thirds of the year with him are also aware of Alex's fragility should come as little or no surprise.  

Torre also goes on to cast a startling light on how Yankees owner George Steinbrenner goes about his shadowy business, reportedly keeping a close tab on Torre via strategically placed spies in every corner of the clubhouse. According to Madden, Steinbrenner already knew about Torre's prostrate cancer diagnosis before Torre even had a chance to inform him of the news. Super creepy, even if, again, not particularly surprising.

What is surprising, however, is Torre's public outing of Brian Cashman as a traitor. Since Torre left the Yankees to manage the Los Angeles Dodgers, the official line has been that Hal and Hank Steinbrenner wanted Torre out, while Cashman fought unsuccessfully for retaining Torre, the skipper who guided the Yankees to four championships, six American League pennants and 12 divisional titles in each of his 12 seasons managing the club. Not the case. Torre claims Cashman betrayed him on "several fronts."

I'm sure much of this is Torre just wanting to set the record straight about what really went down during his tenure with the Yankees, and the majority of the book probably deals with the team's many successes. Torre simply doesn't burn bridges or hardly ever talks out of school, and any controversy surrounding the book's publication, which is slated for February 1, should die down before Spring Training. 

Still, this new insight into the inner workings of the Yankees organization is sure to rub longtime Yankees fans the wrong way, especially those of us who hold Torre in the highest of regard.

UPDATE: According to ESPN's Buster Olney, Torre called Brian Cashman yesterday afternoon to clear the air. Cashman told Olney that he holds no hard feelings and that he still considers Torre a friend, saying he is "very comfortable with my relationship with him."  

Meanwhile, Tom Verducci told "Sports Illustrated" that context is everything. He says:

I think it's important to understand context here. The book is not a first-person book by Joe Torre, it's a third-person narrative based on 12 years of knowing the Yankees and it's about the changes in the game in that period. [...] Joe Torre does not rip anybody in the book. The book really needs to be read in context.

Anybody who knows Joe, especially during his time in New York, knows he's a very honest man and he is very honest in the pages of this book. People also know Joe Torre doesn't go around ripping people and he doesn't do that in the pages of this book. There is a lot of information in this book over a tremendous period of baseball history. It's been reported out by me as well as informed by Torre's own insights into that period.

So there you have it. It is interesting, though, that neither Torre nor Verducci, when given the chance, didn't exactly back down from what Torre reportedly said about Cashman.