Time for Yankees to Say Goodbye to A-Rod
Baseball engenders great nicknames, and the New York Yankees, the most storied franchise in all of sports, certainly have had their fair share. There's the Babe, Joltin' Joe, Mr. October, and Bitch Tits.
That's right, according to a new book by esteemed writer Selena Roberts, Alex Rodriguez's teammates on the New York Yankees gave him the nickname "Bitch Tits" when his chest started to grow because of his alleged steroid use.
It is believed that they chose "Bitch Tits" over other possible nicknames for A-Rod: "Mrs. October" and "Joltin' Jugs."
Now, I'm not one to pick on a person when they're down. A-Rod has been beaten up by the media for awhile now, since it became clear that he was a steroid user, but lied about it, and since he accused the highly regarded reporter Roberts of stalking him. He also went through a very public separation and divorce from his wife when he was caught with a man-ish looking stripper, which did him no favors with men (why isn't he dating Jessica Biel?) or women (why is he cheating on his wife in public?).
But let's get past that. He's a great baseball player, right? And the Yankees traded for him, after the rival Red Sox nearly had him, and A-Rod will probably break the home run records before all is said and done, which will result in reams of publicity for the Yankees.
Yet the truth is that the Red Sox suffered for nearly a century from the Curse of the Bambino, when they traded Babe Ruth to the Yankees. And now the Yankees are suffering from the Curse of Bitch Tits. They'll never win the Series with this guy.
Here's why: his teammates seem to barely tolerate him. Here you have an all-time great player, but his teammates act as if they'd rather have Idi Amin at third than A-Rod on their team. It's partially because A-Rod's teammates think he's phony. It's also because he may be suffering from unbelievable narcissism.
An aside: I wish we lived in a world where people could go to Narcissism Rehab. The truth is, that's what a lot of famous people need. I don't believe Lindsay Lohan is an alcoholic. I do believe she's a narcissist. This is where the problem lies for the famous and the people who want to be famous.
A-Rod's narcissism manifested itself, according to the writer Roberts, when he played for the Texas Rangers. There, if the game was a blow out, A-Rod would get tipped off to pitches by his opponents, in order to boost his stats. He would likewise, according to Roberts, tip off his opponents to pitches as a "thank you." This is pure narcissism.
And it's A-Rod's view of A-Rod that has him in a bad spot with the baseball Gods. For there are two things that turn baseball from mere sport into religion.
One is statistics. Baseball fans follow stats with a cultish zeal that would make Jim Jones blush. I myself was a stat fanatic as a kid. Stats make for a baseball history. Roger Maris's 61 homers, Babe Ruth's 714 career homers, Reggie's three home runs in one World Series game. Stats connect generations of baseball fans in a way that does not exist in other sports.
If you mess with the stats, you are never forgiven. The entire steroid era may end up with an asterisk. Steroids have ruined stats, at least temporarily. It's hard to connect Mark McGwire's home run record to George Foster's 52 home runs in a conversation with my nephew because Foster was not using steroids. Without steroids, an argument would ensue: who was the better single season home run hitter? With steroids, there's no argument, nothing to discuss. And A-Rod, at least when he was on Texas, was a steroid user.
The second thing that turns sport from religion is the integrity of the game. Pete Rose, one of my favorite players as a kid, is forever banned from the Hall of Fame because he bet on baseball as manager of the Cincinnati Reds.
Here, again, A-Rod may be guilty. If he essentially "threw" at-bats, he was messing with the integrity of the game, just as Pete Rose did when he was managing. There's no evidence that Rose threw a game because of a bet. But it didn't matter whether it got that far; what mattered was the appearance of impropriety. Once you mess with the natural order of the game, you lose the game's soul.
So A-Rod, as a steroid user and as a suspected cheater, may be 0-2 on baseball's two most important, integral parts of the game.
Now, I'm saying A-Rod is a horrible human. I'm not walking in his shoes, and the pressure on him to produce is enormous. Pressure he brought on himself, by the way, by taking the contract from Texas that was the largest in sports. But regardless, whether A-Rod is saint or sinner, he is Bitch Tits, and how in the world do you recover from that?
You don't. It is high time that the Yankees cut their losses and say goodbye to their third baseman. Let someone else have him. Trade him. You're the Yankees. You'll sign some other third baseman in the off season. True, the player you get won't have A-Rod's mind-boggling stats. But that player also won't have A-Rod's mind-boggling boobs.
Don't force the fans into a position where they have to root for A-Rod because he is a Yankee. Let him go. It's not worth it.
If you are going to keep him, than the Yankees need to admit they do not care about the integrity of the game. Which is fine - if that's what you are, say it proudly. Brian Cashman, GM: Do the Yankees care about the integrity of the game? Do you?
Yankees fans root for the player because he wears the uniform. Don't put fans in a position where they have to root for A-Rod. It's time for the Yankees to move on from the Bitch Tits Era.
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Let me just say, that from day 1 on the Yankees, I got the impression
A-Rod was more concerned with the cameras, than with winning the game.
Couldn't help notice he was glimpsing at every camera aimed at him.
His every action, in the field, and at plate, appears orchestrated.
If great clutch hitting and post-seasons were a part of that, like Reggie,
who annoyed me also, I wouldn't say a word. But he's a bigger hot-dog
than Reggie ever was. Jackson loved October, A-Rod seems to fear it.
Furthermore, having a guy like this in the clubhouse has got to be bad news.
Winning attitudes are contagious. Anyone who's played sports knows that.
There are two types of players I've known. Team players, and "me" players.
Record breaking numbers are his goal. Winning? yeah, sometimes, maybe.
My daughter is a fourth generation Yankee fan, but I gave up on them when they went after this juiced up phony. He is symbolic of pro sports today- a spoiled,obscenely overpaid primadonna who has no loyalty to his team, his fans or his sport-- and regrettably the team my family rooted for for ninety years with Steinbrenner at the helm, is a big part of that downfall.
I know not many people will cry for me when I say this, but it's not easy being a Yankee fan. I know all the guff they get, for throwing money around to "buy a championship", but as stated by many already on this thread, that in itself is its own curse; especially when it doesn't work.
I grew up enthralled by the likes of Mantle, Berra, Skowron, Turley, Boyer, Richardson, Cerv, Slaughter, Kubek, Bauer, and to balance things off a bit, the joy of throwing Hector Lopez into left field. Growing up in Connecticut surrounded by Red Sox fans, in my neighbothood, I could make stellar deals trading a lousy Frank Malzone for just about any Yankee I wanted. Being a Yankee fan was akin to being born Italian, as far as I was concerned. Proud of it, and wouldn't change it if I could.
Steinbrenner, and now his sons, make it tough, although at times there was great joy. You've got to admit, Billy Martin was worth every dime. "The Bronx Zoo" made for some of the most interesting baseball drama you could possibly want. You couldn't wait to read the next installment in the "Daily News". Thems were the days !!
But "Bitch Tits"? He needs to go. It was hard enough to swallow Clemens. Johnny Damons, not so much. He at least has human qualities, but I digress.
The sooner they get rid of A-Rod, the better. He's sullying Jeter's career.
"The Mambino."
Oh those poor, poor Yankees. It just proves that you cannot buy a winner. When they won those World Series they had home grown, hard working, team players. Over the last few years their lineup looks like an All-Star lineup, but what do they get? $2400 seats to help pay for a bloated payroll. They have a lot of good players, but a bad team. So I say let them keep him. I would hate to see him go to the Red Sox or any other team for that matter. If he breaks the records, good for him. So did Bonds and who is talking about him right now. The game is sick and A-Roid is just one example of the disease. It used to be the American Past-time. Now winning at all costs is the American Past-Time.
Let's not pretend that those Yankee championship teams of the late 90's were put together on a shoestring budget. They had the highest payroll back then and they have the highest payroll now. Of course we can say that perhaps they spent their money more wisely back then, but let's also remember that the 2009 season is only in its infancy. Lots of baseball to play.
As for winning at all costs, I guess only the Yankees "buy" a championship when they win. Forget the fact that the championship team with the highest payroll in baseball history is the 2007 Boston Red Sox. But I guess they didn't "buy" that title, and they didn't do everything they could to win at all costs. Like pay $51 million dollars just to TALK to Dice-K and make an offer to him. Yeah, those Yankees sure are evil. Whatever...
Don't confuse the Yankees of today with the excellent teams put together by GM Gene Michael. Michael did it the way it should be done-from the bottom up. His farm league teams of the early 1990s- which included players like M.Rivera , Bernie W., Jeter and Pettitte were all young kids, unknowns who loved the game and whose teams set all kinds of records for Triple AAA ball. The Yankees under Steinbrenner- Cashman have been a pathetic joke. Sorry to say you don't know what you're talking about.
To agree with an earlier post , I wholeheartedly agree this is childish and petty.
Ideals are something you learn as a child. If you are lucky , your ideals stay with you for a lifetime. They can not be taken from you , you must give them up.
And integrity is a petty thing. The slightest affront drives it away
I am sad that Pete Rose is not in the HOF , but it is right.
Here's a match made in heaven for you all....
A-Rod and Miss California..............phoniness and narcissism at it's finest!!
From the time A-Rod came to the Yankees, that team has been cursed. It's the rotten apple theory of life. He just exudes a nasty tone that is impossible for other players to ignore. I've worked with people like that, and you spend a lot of time and energy "ignoring" the digs, the put-downs, the self-obsessed lies and claims. It takes away from the team rather than bringing anything there.
This was obvious about A-Rod way back in Seattle, when he (almost) wanted the billboards to be written up like some B-grade Vegas lounge act: "Alex Rodriguez and the Mariners." Wasn't he quoted as saying "People just don't like me because I'm so talented and so good looking." People who make comments like that are either obnoxious or clueless, and either is a detriment to any organization.
Dump A-Rod.
Jealousy is such an unbecoming character trait, and I include the writer of this column. Do all of you negative commentors have any idea how childish and petty you sound? I don't think so, because if you did you wouldn't write this garbage.
Gotta love the locker room. "Hey, Bitch Tits!"
Reminds me of Lou Johnson in Ball Four. Somehow he was missing a portion of one ear. Some guy on the other teams yells "Hey, Half Ear!"
Don't forget the two seasons when the owners were found guilt of colluding NOT to sign free agents. Each owner decided that rather than improve my team, I'll take a pass on this player. No different than the whites-only era. At least steroids was an attempt to play the game better.
Everyone in baseball is guilty of allowing the steroids era. Not until 2003 did they even do the anonymous test. And the thinking on that was 'we'll show that less than 5% of all players are using, and therefore we won't need to implement testing or punishments'. How delusional!
A jock buddy of mine saw the Phillies play in 1993. He said 'Dykstra is juicing'. (Dykstra had bulked up considerably that winter and was hitting tons of HRs compared to previous seasons). I asked him what 'juicing' meant. So as early as 1993, dumb old me knew what was going on.
a.rod, clements two who love themselves like no other
your right,fans love stats, heres a few. aroid played three years with texas averaging 52 homers per year. texas finished last each year. the year after he left, texas had there first winning season in five years..the year after he left seattle, they won a major league high 115 games. in his last 15 post season games with yankees, roid has only one r.b.i. the yankees won four world series between 1996 and 2000. in those four championship teams, they did not have one player who hit more than thirty home runs. as casey stengel used to say, you can look it up. i agree with author, i can't ever see team being a success as long as he remains such an enormous distraction.and it is obvious that he has an obsene love affair with himself. the real problem are the fans. the fans who hate barry bonds and mark mcguire for cheating have no problem cheering for the home town hero. fans have always practiced the art of selective indignities. its easy to understand when you remember that the word fan is short for fanatic.....
You could also look up the phrase that you can make statistics say anything you want them to. Yes, Texas had a winning record in 2004. They also finished in 3rd place that year and have STUNK ever since. Seattle did indeed win 115 games in 2001. They also had a couple good years after that, but haven't won their division or made the playoffs since those 115 wins. They've also STUNK the past several years. But I guess that was all A-Rod's fault, too.
As for those last 15 playoff games, you're correct, he hasn't done much of anything. Neither has the rest of the team, but I digress. I'm wondering why you neglected to include his first 8 post-season games as a Yankee. Probably because he batted .395, was 15 for 38, 11 runs scored, 8 rbi and 4 home runs. But I get it. What have you done for me lately and all. Fact of the matter is the reason the Yankees haven't advanced in the playoffs since he's gotten there is because of their PITCHING. It wasn't A-Rod's fault that Chen-Mieng Wang couldn't get anyone out in the playoffs two years ago. Kevin Brown? Javier Vazquez? Jon Leiber? Jaret Wright? Carl Pavano? And you're gonna lay this all on A-Rod??? Please.
Did you know that Bernie Williams was a career .208 hitter in the World Series and Ted Williams only batted .200 in the World Series? CHOKERS!! Hey, statistics are FUN!
Ultra-classy Yankee fans have a long-earned reputation for chanting to attractive young women in the stands at Yankee Stadium, "SHOW US YOUR T**S!" (Seriously -- that's been going on for at least 20 years there.) Considering A-Rod's new nickname, there might be an interesting new chant rising from the stands when the Yankees are on the road. I, for one, cannot wait!
The commish blew this. Not A-Rod but the steroid era. There have been issues in baseball before. The one I liken to the steroid era is whites only baseball until the 40s. Every stat that was white only is suspect. So what do we do with them, we give those stats a pass. And the reason we do it is that baseball asked us to. They should have given an amnesty 3 years ago. They should have said, "What went on before we had a specific rule about steroids is irrelevant. I grant a general amnesty for all suspect behavior. But going forward, anyone who tests for steroids is given the death penalty. It will treated as though they gambled on the game. They will never set foot in a MLB part again." That does two basic things It ends the madness about the past, and it sets up a strong deterrent for future used. It clears the game and ends the years and thousands of stories.
J
"Every stat that was white only is suspect. So what do we do with them, we give those stats a pass. And the reason we do it is that baseball asked us to."
No one wants to talk about this little nugget. I can't take baseball writers seriously.
Not just the commish but the Players Union - they cheated every player who was not using steroids and allowed the McGuires and Sosas and Bonds of the sport to juice it up - BTW - don't forget that the commissioner is simply the hired hand for the owners of baseball. There is enough blame here to go around for all concerned.
I live in Texas and when A-Rod was here, no one could stand him then either. Check out ESPN Classic some time when they're running a ball game from the 70's. The first thing you'll say to yourself is, "They're so skinny!" You can always tell someone who's using steroids because they look like they've been inflated. Check out Jason Giambi now, and Pudge Rodriguez. They look nothing like they did a few years ago.
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