By Mike Rifkin
This past weekend the New York Yankees honored the 2009 World Series Championship team (the last one they won). One member of that team has yet to be honored with a plaque in monument park and thinks he deserves it. That is Alex Rodriguez, but let me ask this question is A-Rod an all time Yankee, or was he an all time me guy? When I think about all time Yankees I think of Mantle, Berra, Mattingly, Jeter, Rivera, etc…
A-Rod definitely had the regular season stats to be considered an all time Yankee. In his 12 seasons as a Yankee Rodriguez hit 351 homers and drove in 1,096 RBI’S and scored 1,012 runs in 1,509 games played with a slash line of .283/.378/.523. Rodriguez won two of his three MVP’S with the Yankees as well. But to judge a Yankee, it doesn’t matter what they do in the regular season, it matters what they do in the playoffs. In the Playoffs Rodriguez had 10 homers and 33 RBI and a slash line of .240/.363/.431 in 61 games played. And if you take away that 09 team the numbers are just not there.
Then there’s the other side to Rodriguez and that’s the distraction part or the selfish part as I call it. Remember during the 2007 World Series where he announced he was opting out of his contract only to become the highest paid player in the game. Now to Yankee fans they’re ok with that because it tried to overshadow the Red Sox winning their second World Series in four seasons, but to a baseball fan to overshadow the world series. Then prior to the 2009 season Rodriguez admitted to using steroids during his Texas seasons after repeatedly denying the allegations. While the Yankees did win the world series that season, this could have been a massive distraction ( it didn’t hurt that the Yankees that they signed CC Sabathia, Mark Teixeira and AJ Burnett). Then there was the biogenesis scandal that had Rodriguez suspended for 211 games. Was that a witch hunt on the part of MLB? Sure, but that was the final straw for an individual who has already lied for his usage of PED’S.
Rodriguez can try to clean up his image, as an analyst and think that changes his story. It shouldn’t, the New York Yankees are supposed to be the biggest franchise not just in Baseball, but in sports as a whole. While the Yankee fan may embrace A-Rod, there’s something about putting him among the All time greats who wore the pinstripes and even just all time greats that bothers me. Even if he winds up in Monument Park, he shouldn’t sniff Cooperstown. Yes, the numbers are there but if we’re not embracing the steroid era at all (and we should) he lied about it. Rodriguez was one of the most gifted players to play the game, but at the end of the day he ruined it for himself.
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