Last night during the Yankees-Blue Jays game, Alex Rodriguez ran by Blue Jays third baseman Howie Clark as he was planted under a pop-fly waiting for it to land in his glove for a big out. As Rodriguez ran by, he yelledsomething (his mouth was wide open, and I doubt he was yawning) at the Clark which caused Clark to step to the side. I saw it live on TV, and it definitely seemed like he moved because he was called off by the shortstop (who had the “right-of-way”). The ball dropped, and the Yankees scored an important run.
This is a good article citing A-Rod’s past transgressions, to include a questionable slide to break up a double play and deliberately slapping the ball out of a pitcher’s glove as he was running toward first base to tag out Rodriguez.
So here are the questions…
Is he dirtier than the average player? If not, is it just that stupid or more brazen? Or is he just under a brighter spotlight?
My opinion is that he’s an unprofessional turd. He’s never acknowledged any of these as being unsportsmanlike, and he’s never apologized.
To Rodriguez’s teammates and fans, he “plays hard.”
To the teams he plays against and their fans, he’s a “bad sportsman.”
Personally, I hate the Yankees (Mets 4 Life!), but you can’t deny that Alex Rodriguez is one of the greatest players ever and that he’d be thought of even better if he didn’t play for the Evil Empire.
I love the Yankees but despise A-Rod. He’s an embarrassment to the game. He has enormous talent, especially during regular season games, but it’s hard to like him with the shenanigans he pulls.
He’s definitely one of the best players out there, talent-wise, sure, and his statistics are mind-boggling. But I can’t really say, because of the salary he commands, that he’s someone I’d want on my team, especially in a clutch situation.
There are three situations above, and I’ve seen all three. They were crappy plays, and under no one’s definition could they reasonably be categorized as “playing hard.”
When I think of “playing hard,” Pete Rose, Jim Edmonds (when he was younger), and Ryan Freel come to mind…
Last nights issue is a joke. If you think that is bad sportmanship there is a problem. I guess you would have been completely unable to watch baseball in the 70s and before when they did play harder than these day. He grunted out one word. He claims it was “Hot”. No matter what he said, this stuff is not anything new or unsportsman like.
The questionable slide, has some merit. He is not alone in these acts. However, again, how wimpy is the game suppose to be today?
The deliberately slapping the ball out of a pitcher’s glove was lame. He should have done it old school. Lower your shoulder and run over the little pitcher in his pig tails. Nettles sure as hell would have. It was a dumb play, he should have knocked Arroyo into the next day.
Last night was a good baseball play that tricked a stupid shortstop and led to some insurance runs desperately needed by a team on the skids.
Pete Rose was the ultimate dirty base runner. He would have run over a pitcher in the base path. I loved the way he played, but ask Met fans about how clean a player he was. I am not sure you remember the same great ballplayer I do.
1970s baseball is not 2000s baseball. Even still, A-Rod’s plays, by 1970s standards would have been weak.
(A small detail, but he claims to have said, “Hah!”)
Jeez – how about conceding the out? You’d rather see someone physically injured (especially when they’re not expecting to be drilled)?
Did you cheer when Albert Belle leveled Fernando Vina?
Okay, I guess then “I got it” needs to be replaced with codewords. We’ll call them A-Rod codes. I thought this was professional baseball, not some over-30 league full of balding has-beens?
In the 1991 World Series the Second Baseman and Shortstop for the Minnesota Twins (Chuck Knoblauch was the shortstop, but I cannot remember the second baseman’s name) pulled off a fake double play on a ball hit into the gap. Lonnie Smith of the Braves was on first and should have scored easily, but wasn’t following the ball and was fooled into stopping his run for a second or two, which meant he had to stop at third base. He never scored and the Twins went on to win the game 1-0 and with it the Series.
I have never heard anyone claim that was unsportsmanlike, how is what A-Rod did any different?
I said great, Charlie Hustle was a great Baseball player. I liked the way he played. He is a screwed up individual but he was great baseball player.
BTW: Yes, if the pitcher were in the base path of a runner going to first, I would rather see my teams runner put him in the hospital then lose a game 7. The slap however was foolish and dumb looking.
I had no huge problem with what Albert Belle did. It was a little much, but hell I remember losing my All-Star Short Stop to an over zealous Catcher who was not “willing to Concede an out” a few years back. Was that okay, because it was done to a Yankee?
Baseball is still suppose to be played hard or is that completely gone now?
A-Rod’s a bitch. He trots out this 6-year old bullshit when the going gets rough. He doesn’t panty-slap Arroyo if things are going well for him, and he doesn’t bush-league the Blue Jays last night if the Yanks are in first place.
One of these days, a second baseman is going to drop his arm and plant some horsehide in the middle of arod’s bitch forehead.
Putting on a fake catch like the ball is coming in is an honored part of the trickery of the game, along with a curveball or the hidden ball trick.
Yelling “I got it” or “mine” when you’re running the bases is on the end of the spectrum with stepping on the first baseman’s foot, or stealing bases when you’re up by 10 in the 8th inning.
No, there’s no book on the subject. These are the unwritten rules of baseball, and A-rod consistently comes down on the side of breaking them.
Knoblauch was probably the second baseman, unless he switched at some point after 1991.
A-Rod’s play can be bush league (hey, at least he ain’t throwing broken bats at the runners), bordering on unsportsmanlike. Stuff like that puts your teammates in an awkward position.
You don’t concede any outs in a playoff game…you shouldn’t even due it in regular games. That’s why Torre was furious when Abreu got rung up on a pitch 6" off the plate for the final out of a game.
There is obviously a fine line between acceptable “fake outs” and non-acceptable “fake outs”. The dink of Lonnie Smith in the 1991 Series is a “fair play” while calling off a fielder camping out under a fly ball is not (whether or not A-Rod said “Mine!” or “Hah!” is immaterial). What’s the difference? I think the major difference is that there is a real risk of injury if fielders can’t trust who is yelling “Mine!” when chasing down a fly. Faking out a runner on the basepath doesn’t carry the same risk. Furthermore, “sliding hard” to break up a double play is acceptable strategy, but do it “too hard” (Belle on Vina) and that’s a breach of etiquette. The fine line there is again, doing an action with that may lead to an injury…a good “hard slide” doesn’t involve barreling over a player, but just brushing them enough to throw them off balance.
And, my post was in response to you calling A-rod’s play a “good baseball play”.
What professional did I consult? Here we go. . .I talked to a majority of members of the baseball writers association of America, National and American league umpires, Bud Selig, and interviewed numerous current professionals to come to the SDMB and argue this case.
There are plenty of baseball ‘greats’ from the golden age of baseball who would make sure to go into a base ‘spikes high’ to send a message. Bob Gibson made a career out of the brushback and hit batsman (he considered those two of the pitches in his repetoire, just like a fastball and curve). And while the losing team may be upset when a team steals with a 10-run lead late in the game, many managers (I don’t know who was first) reply that they’ll stop trying to score runs when the other team does the same. If the pitcher/first baseman give you the opening, take the base. If they’re holding you on, stealing is a riskier play, health-wise, and it isn’t worth it with a 10-run lead.
Rodriguez said that players in the dugout do things like that all the time, and I think that’s true just because I think cheating and questionable sportsmanship are so deeply ingrained in baseball culture. That’s not much of a defense for Rodriguez, but it’s not supposed to be.
I dislike the Yankees and anything involved with them, and Rodriguez is no exception. I thought that slap in the postseason was pathetic. But if we’re gonna get mad, get mad because he spikes a shortstop during a double play (I assume that’s what happened, I missed this slide everyone’s talking about), don’t get mad because he made a noise while running the bases. This is baseball, not golf. That’s a fair play. I mean shit, there were 20,000 doing the same goddamn thing.