Alex Rodriguez

[BigStellyPADRES4LIFE]

There have probably been a few ARod threads here, what im noticing is this guy is the best all around player in baseball today. Why the hell does he not get support from his fans in NY??? He is 10 times the ball player Jeter could ever be, he has 28 HR right now and its still a few weeks away from the all star game. Dude do you Yankee fans have any respect for talent this guy is unreal but yet you think Jeter is still the great part of the yankees, face it without ARod they would already be toast.

So my question is why dont you give ARod the respect he deserves?

[EdmondsFan#1]

So my question is why dont you give ARod the respect he deserves?

Because he says alot of dumb things.

[ChrisLDuncan]

Well some Yankees fans are jackasses to be quite honest...some even think Joe's doing a good job with the pen.


That and sports fans in general are superstitious, there's nothing dumb about that, and some people think A-Rod's bad luck. When he left Seattle the next season they had their best year ever, when he left Texas they had the best year they've had in a while, and when he gets to NY the unthinkable happens. Coincidence? Perhaps, but some people would rather not take the chance. A-Rod is like the SI and Madden cover at this point to some.

[Mattingly]

In the tri-state area, there is NY, NJ and CT. Each of these states have far more than 55,000 fans. From 2004-06, I'd say that many Yankee fans booed Alex Rodriguez. Even after he'd gotten a GWH, he'd be cheered in his first AB, but if he hit into a DP or dropped a foul ball, out came the boo-birds again.

This season, he's gotten much better and the Yanks don't seem to be winning at the rate they'd done in the past. He's been getting more cheers and far fewer boos, so perhaps the small number of fans at Yankee Stadium (which I don't believe are representative of all Yankee fans) have smartened up. Oh yeah, every game has visiting fans, so especially when division rivals like Boston or Baltimore are in town, you'll find many visiting fans there also.

While Jeter certainly does his part in having his approx .340 BA, I believe it's Alex Rodriguez that's the major offensive support of the 2007 team. Hopefully, the boo-birds don't just read whatever the media tells them to do and continue booing at every opportunity (like spoiled children).

[mwb]

I don't know if A-Rod is capable of carrying his team. Sure he puts up great numbers but they don't translate into more wins. I think his teammates throughout his career wait for him to get the big hit. That explains why after he leaves a team, the team gets better. Also, when a team pays $25 million a year for him, they expect too much out of him plus they tend to surround him with lesser talent because they can't afford a solid cast around him (other than the Yankees).

[GotMelk?]

I'm a diehard Yankee fan and I love Jeter, but I would never boo a player maybe except for Fransworth and Pavano. I never once booed A-Rod. His swing is a work of art. Plus he really wasn't booed this year.

[RubeBaker]

I'm a diehard Yankee fan and I love Jeter, but I would never boo a player maybe except for Fransworth and Pavano. I never once booed A-Rod. His swing is a work of art. Plus he really wasn't booed this year.

He was booed on opening day before he hit his first homerun.

I've never quite understood why fans would loathe him so much. I guess when he's the most visible player on the most visible team, he's going to catch a lot of flack when things are going wrong.

I also think that the NY media has a lot of influence in fan perception. How else can someone go from being the MVP to being unfit to play in a Yankee uniform? What's more, when things are going well for A-Rod, they start attacking his personal life. It's completely irrational.

[Lucifer]

I don't know if A-Rod is capable of carrying his team. Sure he puts up great numbers but they don't translate into more wins. I think his teammates throughout his career wait for him to get the big hit. That explains why after he leaves a team, the team gets better. Also, when a team pays $25 million a year for him, they expect too much out of him plus they tend to surround him with lesser talent because they can't afford a solid cast around him (other than the Yankees).

What more could he possibly do this year? So far, at least, he's done more than one man's duty and carried the team pretty far. He's got something like 7 9th inning home runs, yet has been known as not being the clutch player.

Personally, I love A-Rod, im amazed at his talent and think his swing is an absolute masterpiece. I don't boo him, ever, I never have, but I can see why a lot of Yankee fans do so. We want our team to win, badly, prolly more-so than any other team's fans (Sox prolly at the level), and we put all our trust into these guys when it's on the line, right or wrong. So when they don't come thru it's devestating.. problem is, we put too much into the Yankees lol

[Matt1901]

He would get more respect from me if he didn't slap at the ball running down the baseline, elbow a second baseman in the groin sliding into second and yell something at a third baseman on a pop-up in the infield.

While Jeter certainly does his part in having his approx .340 BA, I believe it's Alex Rodriguez that's the major offensive support of the 2007 team. Hopefully, the boo-birds don't just read whatever the media tells them to do and continue booing at every opportunity (like spoiled children).A-Rod had a slump in May and Jeter was red hot, but A-Rod's production is staggering. He leads the Majors with 77 RBIs and 72 Runs.

[Lucifer]

^I agree on the slap, and somewhat on the slide. Someone on the Sox had slid hard into Jeter the previous inning (maybe 2 innings before), and its a Yakns-Sox game, you always try to break up the play at 2nd and a million guys go in hard. I didn't have much of a problem with that slide. As for the screaming while running to 3rd I see nothing wrong with that and wouldn't if it was a Sox player that did it either

[natsnsoxfan]

The guy is going to go down as the best player to lace up a pair of cleats and most Yankee fans still hate him. He has a legitimate show at having 90-100RBI's before the all star break. He will likely have the career homerun record when he retires, and has a legitimate shot at the RBI and run records too. He may even make a run at Pete Rose's hit record, even if he doesn't he will probably end up with 3,800-4,000+ hits.

[Lucifer]

Most Yankee fans hate him? That's not true. Maybe a lot of people that attend games dislike him and boo him, but to say most Yankee fans hate him is just completely inaccurate. And if they do, it's cause he's the best regular season player, and one of the worst postseason players.

[Honus Wagner Rules]

As a non-Yankees fan this is my $0.02. Derek Jeter is a career Yankee. He came up through the Yankee system and since he has arrived the Yankees have won six AL pennants and four World Series titles. He was/is considered the lead guy on all those championship team. Of couse there were several other players that were key players as well. And Jeter has florished under the New York spotlight. Jeter never seems to complain or cry when things don't go his way. The perception seems to be that Jeter just "sucks it up" when things go wrong. A-Rod simply doesn't have this preceived persona. He's obviously more gifted as a ballplayer than Jeter but A-Rod has never won a World Series and is perceived as a bit of a whiner and a person who is not able to "suck it up" in crunch time. Jeter is looked as a true Yankee and A-Rod simply isn't and probably never will. Yankees fans know way more that I do about the nature of the relationship between fans, Derek Jeter, and A-Rod. I'd like to hear more from Yankees' fans.

[Lucifer]

You're completely right^, from a Yankees' fan.

[rdonahue]

I alway found booing him rather odd. Like others have said he's getting less boos this year which is good. I'm not a Yankees fan so I don't really know everything. People have said he says stupid things so maybe that's part of it. I just don't boo my team (not in person at least, if I'm watching on TV that's different). The only way I'd ever boo a person would be if they said something like this:

Interviewer: So, Mr. Whoever, what did you think about today's loss?

Player: Well, we lost but it wasn't my fault. Yeah, I was 0-5 with 5K's and I made 4 errors but it's the team's fault. This is the sorriest groups of guys I've ever seen. It amazes me that the fans would even support these guys. They're all total losers, I tell you what. Think how bad they'd be without me.

I might boo that guy, but not always. If Raymond "Buddy" Parker (former Detroit Lions football coach) was still alive I'd cheer him:

Days before the start of the 1957 he gave a press conference and said the following before quitting:
"This is the worst group of players I have ever been associated with. They are incapable of working as a team and will be lucky to win even one game". They won the 1957 NFL Championship (none since) so maybe that was just the spark they needed.

[mwb]

What more could he possibly do this year? So far, at least, he's done more than one man's duty and carried the team pretty far. He's got something like 7 9th inning home runs, yet has been known as not being the clutch player.

He's had a great year. I was giving on overall assessment of what appears to be his impact on a team from afar since I don't follow the Yankees regularly.

I think he's a tremendous player but he's kind of an enigma. He's never won anything & he doesn't play well in post-season. Plus the game looks so easy to him that it makes it appear as though he doesn't care even though he's probably playing as hard as everyone else.

[Mariano_Rivera]

There have probably been a few ARod threads here, what im noticing is this guy is the best all around player in baseball today. Why the hell does he not get support from his fans in NY??? He is 10 times the ball player Jeter could ever be, he has 28 HR right now and its still a few weeks away from the all star game. Dude do you Yankee fans have any respect for talent this guy is unreal but yet you think Jeter is still the great part of the yankees, face it without ARod they would already be toast.

So my question is why dont you give ARod the respect he deserves?

Because Yankees fans are stupid

[Lucifer]

^I often question if you're even a Yankees fan.

mwb, you're right in that he's never won anything (other than MVP's) and doesn't play well in the post-season, but until he was on the Yankees he didn't have much chance to do that, and now our team isn't a WS caliber team, not his fault, especially this year. And you're gonna say it looks too easy to him? That's a compliment to him, it's cause he's worked at it so much and is so talented, what about that is negative

[ChrisLDuncan]

Well Lucifer, there are some Yankee fans that feel that Joe Torre is doing a bang up job...so some are dumb.

[Lucifer]

Is a bang up job good or bad? And dumb how? And what does this have to do with A-Rod?

[natsnsoxfan]

^I often question if you're even a Yankees fan.

mwb, you're right in that he's never won anything (other than MVP's) and doesn't play well in the post-season, but until he was on the Yankees he didn't have much chance to do that, and now our team isn't a WS caliber team, not his fault, especially this year. And you're gonna say it looks too easy to him? That's a compliment to him, it's cause he's worked at it so much and is so talented, what about that is negative

Ask any Red Sox fan how much he killed them in the first 3 game of that 2004 ALSC series, plus he owned the Twins in the ALDS that year, in fact, if I'm not mistaken he had the series winning hit against them. He has been in the playoffs before he got to the Yankees, by the way, and he was dynamite when he did hitting .313 in '97 with the M's and then .308 in '00. Hes been pretty awesome in the post season before his last 2 trips, in which he only got 29 AB's combined between the 2 of them by the way, to the postseason. He hit .421 in the '04 postseason and somehow hes bad in the postseason?

[Lucifer]

Those M's teams didn't give enough chance for him to win. You can't win a ring by yourself. And with the Yankees, overall, in the playoffs, cant get these number compiled but by year

2004:
ALDS .421/.476/.737
ALCS: .258/.378/.516
2005:
ALDS: .133/.381/.200
2006:
ALCS: .071/.071/.071

In 79 at bats, 19 hits, 13 runs, 6 doubles, 3 home runs, 8 RBI's, 16 K
.240 BA with the Yanks in the postseason

Are you serious?

[ChrisLDuncan]

Is a bang up job good or bad? And dumb how? And what does this have to do with A-Rod?

Well a bang up job is good, something that Torre is not, and they are dumb because they listen to people like Mike Lupica and Steve Phillips and think that they are smart

[natsnsoxfan]

Those M's teams didn't give enough chance for him to win. You can't win a ring by yourself. And with the Yankees, overall, in the playoffs, cant get these number compiled but by year

2004:
ALDS .421/.476/.737
ALCS: .258/.378/.516
2005:
ALDS: .133/.381/.200
2006:
ALCS: .071/.071/.071

In 79 at bats, 19 hits, 13 runs, 6 doubles, 3 home runs, 8 RBI's, 16 K
.240 BA with the Yanks in the postseason

Are you serious?

Did you even watch that ALCS? He destroyed us at times during that series. Here are his lines for every game during that series

Game 1: 2-5 2R 0RBI
Game 2: 1-4
Game 3: 3-5 5R 3RBI HR BB
Game 4: 1-5 1R 2RBI HR
Game 5: 0-4 2BB
Game 6: 1-4
Game 7: 0-4

The only game he didn't reach base was Game 7. Thats not a half bad playoff series.

[Lucifer]

He hit .258 man what are you talking about. 2 for 17 in the last 4 games of the ALCS, you just proved my point.

[Stumanji]

Jeter never seems to complain or cry when things don't go his way.

Didn't he refuse to move to 2B when a superior SS joined his team? Seems like A-Rod was the bigger guy there, and moved to 3B to accomodate Jeter.

I particularly loved the highlight last season, when A-Rod was positioned for several seconds under an infield flyball, and Jeter tried to crowd in and take it himself. A-Rod's ball by all rights, and Jeter causes them both to drop it... did Jeter say, "My bad?"

Nope. Just glared at A-Rod. Didn't even run after the ball that was rolling towards the outfield grass. Just stood... and glared...

I loved that moment.

I'm, obviously, not a big fan of Jeter. I think he's the most over-celebrated player in the game (not the most overrated - just the most over-celebrated). I love to cheer against him.

[Lucifer]

Jeter moving from SS wasn't even an option. That was a condition along with ARod comin over, he knew that.

[PeteF3]

Jeter moving from SS wasn't even an option. That was a condition along with ARod comin over, he knew that.

Why was that not an option?

[Lucifer]

Because he's Derek Jeter, the Captain, SS and face of the Yankees who helped us win 4 rings. There's no reason he should move if we could just put A-Rod at 3rd.

[PeteF3]

Because he's Derek Jeter, the Captain, SS and face of the Yankees who helped us win 4 rings. There's no reason he should move if we could just put A-Rod at 3rd.

So being the Captain means refusing to change positions even when it would help the team by putting a superior SS in place?

[Lucifer]

No, it means that he's not even asked to move from SS, because he's earned that spot.

[Captain Cold Nose]

Or simply A-Rod was better suited to move than the inferior Jeter. Second was Cano's, so that wasn't going to happen.

[Lucifer]

^True. Very true

[hellborn]

At least publicly, the Yanks approached ARod only as a 3B to replace the injured Aaron Boone. Who knows what happened behind the scenes, but I'd be willing to bet that management never asked Jeter about changing positions...would have had a high potential to really PO one of their best and most popular players, and forcing him to change would have been really bad PR. The Bosox' very public pursuit of ARod to replace Nomah surely led to a really bad attitude by the latter in '04.
Interesting to think about how things may have been different if Boone hadn't hurt himself that offseason...maybe ARod ends up in Boston after all, Nomah gets traded earlier, no OCab in Boston, etc. Maybe the Bosox lose in the playoffs and ARod takes major heat from the Bosox fans for it. Maybe they win the WS with him and his statue is erected in Govt Center.

[Lucifer]

Maybe ARod blows it and they don't come back in the 04 ALCS :)

[Honus Wagner Rules]

So being the Captain means refusing to change positions even when it would help the team by putting a superior SS in place?
Didn't the Yankees need a third baseman anyway? And what do you with Cano if Jeter moved to second? :shrug:

[maximum jack]

Slightly off topic, but I like the idea of moving Jeter to CF and A-Rod over to short. I think the Yanks would be much more solid up the middle that way. Of course, Bernie was still patrolling CF when the A-Rod trade was made.

As for the the thread. It all has to do with winning when it comes to NY fans. As soon as A-Rod gets a ring as a Yankee-- no matter how he fairs in that particular post-season-- he'll be beloved.

[Lucifer]

^Very true. The ONLY reason we don't love him already is cause he has no ring. All the MVPs in the world can't change that for Yankee fans.

[Captain Cold Nose]

I think it would be quite different if A-Rod had spent all or even the majority of his career with the Yankees, even if they had not won anything. All Don Mattingly has on his player resume is a division title, and that was in his last season after his star had faded. Of course, their personalities are a bit different, but the heat would not be there as much as it is now.

[Lucifer]

True. We brought him in for the sole purpose of getting us over the hump, back into the WS ways.. and we've been declining since then. When you need someone to put the blame on, a 252 million dollar 3B is a good option.

[natsnsoxfan]

He hit .258 man what are you talking about. 2 for 17 in the last 4 games of the ALCS, you just proved my point.

I proved my own point. I said that he killed us early in the series, which he did.

[Lucifer]

So that means he had a good playoffs? Or even a good series? He didn't.

[natsnsoxfan]

Or simply A-Rod was better suited to move than the inferior Jeter. Second was Cano's, so that wasn't going to happen.

Even though that was far before Cano was close to being with the big club.

[natsnsoxfan]

So that means he had a good playoffs? Or even a good series? He didn't.

He hit well over .300, maybe even .400, against the Twins before that series. That was one of his better playoffs, and it was a good one until the final 2 games of the LCS.

[Captain Cold Nose]

Even though that was far before Cano was close to being with the big club.

Not really. One whole year is not far, and they certainly knew Cano would be their second baseman of the future.

[Lucifer]

He hit well over .300, maybe even .400, against the Twins before that series. That was one of his better playoffs, and it was a good one until the final 2 games of the LCS.

What's your point? A-Rod doesn't perform in the postseason, that's a statistical fact... you're trying to refute that? Im not sure why