SU is on record that for this year’s Yankee team, the only and I mean only excitement and interest for me comes from A-Rod’s at bats. I am a life-long, diehard fan and I no longer watch games all the way through. Brian Cashman has worked hard and he has finally put together a collection of players that can put me to sleep. He did some pilots the last couple of years – Andruw Jones; Travis Hafner, Vernon Wells – to see just what a Yankee fan could truly tolerate. And now he has doubled down to give us Stephen Drew and Chase Headley. Admit it: when you watch this team, who do you wait to see come to the plate? For SU, it’s only A-Rod.
I must say the boos this year are much less hateful than what we have seen in past years for him and much less than what I would have expected (except for the Red Sox fans who are hypocritical when it comes to PED users (see your DH)). A-Rod has done and said all the right things this year. His approach, behavior and mindset are 180 degrees different from the last few years. And the fans have forgiven him in New York. SU says it shows how fans are willing to forgive and forget especially for their own and especially if they produce. They do it in every sport time and time again. It’s also why athletes like Barry Bonds, Sammy Sosa, Mark McGwire, Pete Rose, etc. would all have been better served to just come clean and admit the truth in the beginning. SU would even put Roger Clemens in that category although not for me – he is the worst of the worst in that regard.
The American fan wants to forgive – plain and simple. SU says it is also why all MLB players who used PEDs should declare a day of amnesty and as a group, admit what they did once and for all. There would be an uproar for a few days in the media and then we all move on as we always do.
SU will tune in tonight to hopefully see A-Rod’s hit #3,000 and will be happy for him. He is a cheater, a knucklhead, vain and makes the worst decisions, but he also has a great swing and brings some excitement to a very vanilla team (and I do mean vanilla).
Your thoughts?
Sports Update Intergalactic 
Fans are given no choice. We pay a lot of money to sit and watch our favorite team’s laundry. When you watch that team you have no choice but to root for whoever is wearing the uniform and you end up cheering for them when they’re helping the team. You can say otherwise but I would find it nearly impossible to boo a person who is contributing to your team’s success. If ARod was hitting .180 it would be another story. After all he put the fans through, he would be getting booed more than the typical .180 hitter (yes, on the Yankees there is such a thing). But he’s hitting and we will all love him until he stops.
Seth, as the saying goes, “He’s an a-hole but he’s our a-hole.” There is certainly something to that. It’s also funny that the numbers he is putting up this year probably have him batting 7th on the 2009 team or any of the teams in years past. The bar is so low now in baseball offensively that a player batting .280 can lead the team. Of course, Stephen Drew is setting new standards regarding what will be tolerated. He is clearly a visionary.
It is almost unbelievable how A-Rod has finally picked the right set of advisors and stayed on message the whole year. What would have been really interesting, in terms of the fans’ reaction, is if he had remained this humble but had a terrible year.
He still has a chance to be terrible this year, but I don’t see it happening. A-Rod has a lot of natural talent and I believe the year off helped his body and his head recover. I believe it was Howard (SU) who stated that his success this year could be attributed to no longer having Jeter on the team, and I agree with that.
Having a “terrible year” on the Yankees this season has a much lower threshold. Even if he was hitting .220, he would still be batting 5th in this offensively challenged line up. He’s lucky that Beltran has been awful as Carlos would surely benefit from some days at DH. Playing right field is wearing him down and he has become a liability. A-Rod is actually starting to hit toward right field now and I would expect to see an uptick in the number of homeruns to the opposite field with all the home games coming up.
I agree with that, Pete. He has said that he really enjoys this team in the clubhouse and a lot of that has to do with not having Jeter there judging him all the time. It’s funny: if you can get your ego out of the way, it’s just not that hard to play in NY. Be a little humble, do the right thing and be vanilla in your comments (Jeter made a career out of that). A-Rod has also avoided the Yankees’ not paying him the milestone bonuses despite the media baiting by guys like Bill Madden of the Daily News. And in the stadium, they don’t even acknowledge that he’s at 2,998 or 2,999 on the message board. And still A-Rod won’t bite. You have to give him credit for that.