I don’t like to get on to the topic of A-Rod too much, because he tends to piss people off and make everyone act irrational and stupid no matter what they think of him, but I feel that the anti-clutchiness that is him has to be acknowledged. Before that, let me make one thing clear: A-Rod is an absolutely stellar baseball player. He is one of the all-time greats and I really do hope that he breaks that home run record so that we don’t have to cringe whenever we talk about it, and I know that he’ll do it. But honestly, would it kill him to get a useful hit? He has wonderful numbers, obviously, and he gets plenty of hits and homers in early innings or laughers, but lately it seems like it’s impossible for A-Rod to provide help when it’s actually needed. It’s gotten to the point where, during close games, I pretty much give up if I see A-Rod in the on-deck circle and hope that, if there is another inning, someone else will do some damage (try Giambi or Johnny…ooh, or Nady). For some people it gets to the point where they say that A-Rod just plain sucks, which is not true. But in the clutch? Yes, lately, he really does suck.
And some seem to be confused as to why A-Rod’s screw-ups get so much more attention than, oh, say, Jeter’s. Maybe it’s because Jeter is, well, Jeter, and he has never given us any reason to dislike him or really wish he would go away, which is more than can be said for A-Rod. Yes, Jeter did kind of fail miserably in the postseason last year, but frankly, so did most of the rest of the team. But fans will always like Derek Jeter more than A-Rod for many reasons. A-Rod hasn’t won a World Series yet, which obviously means that the Yankes haven’t since he’s been on the team, which is, of course, completely and only A-Rod’s fault (not). Jeter…well, I think everyone pretty much knows about his postseason career. A-Rod also opted out of his contract last year and Jeter is basically going to be a Yankee (at least at heart) until he drops dead.
Frankly, I think A-Rod deserves the boos. Each of his at-bats costs $50,000 and too many of the important ones are wasted. I’m not going to melt into a puddle of ”good old Yankees” nostalgia, but I would rather have some random guy who gets big hits when we need them (*points giant neon flashing arrow at Aaron Boone, shakes fist at his stupidity and apparently sucky basketball playing*) than a superstar with obvious issues in the clutch (like A-Rod).
