I completely agree with Vecsey. I can't fuckin' believe they are even talking to him, asshat Boras there or no. A-Rod is a great player, but he's fuckin' demanding baby with a ridiculously frail ego. All those HRs just aren't enough to deal with his demands and I still think the Yankees should tell him to go fuck himself.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/15/sports/baseball/15vecsey.htmlSports of The Times
Yanks Should Treat Rodriguez the Way He Treated Them
Kathy Willens/Associated Press
Scott Boras, with Alex Rodriguez in 2003, announced that Rodriguez was opting out of his contract during Game 4 of the World Series.
By GEORGE VECSEY
Published: November 15, 2007
Let’s think this through.
On Baseball: Weeks Later, Rodriguez Comes to His Senses (November 15, 2007)
Rodriguez Talks to Yankees Without Agent (November 15, 2007)
Even if Alex Rodriguez prostrates himself in front of the Yankees’ owners — which he just might have done yesterday — that does not mean they have to take him back.
Even if he fires his agent, Scott Boras, or plays him in a cage, that does not mean the Yankees should want A-Rod back.
Rodriguez had a monster season, but the Yankees could not get out of the first round of the playoffs, yet again. He is an enigmatic figure in their clubhouse, clearly not a player who improves his team.
This is the Yankees’ big chance to take whatever money they had penciled in for him and spend it on pitching and power and first base and a reasonable approximation of Scott Brosius at third base.
The Yankees’ management was cold-blooded about Joe Torre, making him twist for days, then finally forcing him to fly down to Florida to try to save his job. They should be no less cold-blooded toward Rodriguez.
He dumped on the Yankees and on his business by passively allowing Boras to drop An A-Bomb! From A-Rod! — John Sterling’s cloying call, used 54 times last season — during the final game of the World Series. The midnight bombshell was that Rodriguez was opting out of his contract with the Yankees, as was his legal right.
Fifty ways to leave your ball club — with apologies to Paul Simon. Let Scott handle it.
That’s what agents are for. I remember a beautiful evening in Seattle, when Rodriguez was dumped at second base and crumpled down, holding his knee. A few rows from the field, a clearly distraught man leapt to his feet and made his way to the railing. Why, it was Scott Boras, no doubt worried that his client’s impending free agency had just caved in.
As it turned out, A-Rod missed a few games and resumed his slippery path out of town, telling people in Seattle it wasn’t about the money, a tale he has subsequently told people in Texas and now the Bronx.
The Steinbrenners graciously allowed Rodriguez and his wife, Cynthia, to pay a social call yesterday in Florida, with Boras nowhere in sight, unless he was driving the car, to amortize his percentage.
This was the same Mrs. A-Rod who wore a profane and probably expensive little white tank top to a Yankees game last July, an eye-opener for the kiddies, telling the world off quite graphically. Presumably, she did not wear that shirt yesterday for the conservative Steinbrenners.
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In his own gauche way, A-Rod has offended the Yankees, which may only now be dawning on him.
“Cynthia and I have since spoken directly with the Steinbrenner family,” Rodriguez said in a statement released on his Web site (arod.com) yesterday.
“During these healthy discussions, both sides were able to share honest feelings and hopes with one another, and we expect to continue this dialogue with the Yankees over the next few days,” he added.
The Yankees should imitate Vince Lombardi, when his Super Bowl-winning center, Jim Ringo, had the audacity to hire an agent for salary negotiations. According to legend, Lombardi left his office for a few minutes and came back and informed Ringo that he would have to negotiate with the Eagles, because he had just been traded. Ringo and Lombardi denied that scene, but Ringo did hire an agent, and he did get traded, in very short order.
Nowadays, of course, athletes have every right to hire an agent, but they need to be aware of the impact. Boras went too far, and Rodriguez did not seem to understand any of the implications of putting the squeeze on the Yankees. Whatever vision of El Dorado Boras painted, the response from other clubs has been underwhelming.
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This is a good sign. It shows that even baseball owners can learn. Back in the mid-1980s, the owners openly committed collusion by not pursuing free agents, a mistake that eventually cost them money and embarrassment. This time, most of the richer clubs just shrugged — but separately — when Boras peddled his newly liberated client.
“We know there are other opportunities for us,” Rodriguez said yesterday. “But Cynthia and I have a foundation with the club that has brought us comfort, stability and happiness.”
In other words, Boras tossed and lost — with A-Rod’s image. Rodriguez has never justified himself to Yankees fans, having driven in nine runs in 24 postseason games since joining the Yankees with that huge contract in 2004. Even in the highly individualistic sport of baseball, there is a foxhole mentality. The players know Rodriguez works hard, but they also know he has not come through in the postseason.
Alex Rodriguez let his agent opt out for him, right during the World Series. Now the Yankees should opt out on him.
E-mail: geovec@nytimes.com.
