Another A(ss)-Raping from A-Rod

Our good friend, and sometimes unreasonable, yet knowledgeable Yankee fan, Ted Kramer just expressed his astonishment to me over A-Rod's decision to opt out.

My response to him was a simple: Why?

I, personally, was not one bit shocked about his decision to opt out, or release the breaking news for that matter.

Yeah, Ted has the foundation for a good argument of why the man that is "bigger than the game", in his own mind, shouldn't even bat an eyelash at the opportunity to jump ship to another franchise. The Yanks have the talent, the money, the exposure, the location, the SPOTLIGHT, the history, the future. The whole scenario gives A-Rod a chance to transcend, gulp, the Yankees themselves.

Who are we dealing with though? Does anyone really know what kind of person Alex Rodriguez is? Outside of MAYBE a few guys that share a clubhouse with him, and his immediate family the answer has to be a resounding, No. All we know is that he is the best player, with the deepest pockets, and is represented by the best agent. We know he left the Mariners for the loot, and they got better. We know he was begging to get traded out of Texas (to the Sox) and when he ultimately went to the Yankees, the Rangers got better and the Yanks failed to make it back to the World Series since. All while the Red Sox have won their 2nd championship in four years. I mean, how much baggage really comes with this guy? Is this dark cloud nothing more than perpetual coincidence? It seems pretty evident that we are going to get another team to add to our sample size of the A-Rod Curse. Questions will be answered, but when and at what cost?

Ive been listening to a lot of different perspectives all morning and they have all been based around one thing, Scott Boras MUST have another pretty freakin good offer out there. If not, this could seriously blow up in his face, because its just good business to have the New York Yankees' checkbook as a negotiating tool. Scott Boras is too good at what he does to basically exclude the teams with the two biggest payrolls without something tangible in his back pocket.

While not shocking, it was very bothersome to me the manner and timing in which this decision was delivered. Scott Boras released statements saying it wasnt meant to come out and a lot of other happy horseshit. The guy is a genius when it comes to his work. Hes the best. No doubt. If they wanted this to become public this morning or Tuesdee morning after the Red Sox had done all their celebrating, then thats when it wouldve become public. Now I cant be certain about A-Rod (although I have my opinions), but Scott Boras DEFINITELY wanted this to come to our attention via Ken Rosenthal in the middle of a deciding Game 4 of the World Series. One in which the Yankees arch-rival, and one of the few teams that can afford his number one client, is about to clinch their second World Series in four years. The fact that Theo Epstein, John Henry and David Ortiz had to address questions about A-Rod opting out minutes after the culmination of a triumphant ending to a post-season where they trailed 3-1 in the ALCS just 11 days ago is absolutely obnoxious. I cant put into words how little respect for the game of baseball the dynamic duo of BorA-Rod showed last night.

Then again, what do you expect, he's bigger than the game. The same guy who hadn't accrued a single RBI in 54 consecutive post-season at bats had the testicles to let the world know that he would be listening to offers once again while the sport's biggest event was potentially coming to a close. For a guy who seemed he might prefer being out of the spotlight (2006 season) reassured us that he NEEDS to be in the spotlight, just doesn't want the spotlight to consist of boos.

Boras tried to say all the right things: the door with the Yankees is still open on our end, we need to have some direction on where this team is going (Pettitte, Posada, Rivera, manager), and how much Alex loves New York. When all the smoke cleared, he looked at the Yankee offer (somewhere around 4-5 years and 140 mil) and deemed it laughable.

We will see what happens in the coming days, weeks or months and any possible situation you can think of will surface in one way or another. We are 15 hours into A-Rod Saga: The 2007 Edition and Ive already heard teams as obscure as the Reds and Marlins mentioned. Nothing will seem too far-fetched. Ted seems to think he wont be getting the 10 year 300 mil that Boras talked about, and that is a legitimate stance to take. Some teams flat out cannot afford to pay him the money it will take to hit homeruns in front of their fans. But for those teams that MIGHT have the resources to sign Alex Rodriguez, can they afford not to? After all, he IS bigger than the game.

Da Govna