The New York Daily News
May 11, 2006
They booed Alex Rodriguez last night at Yankee Stadium, still mad about the night before. They booed Rodriguez before they saw how he and the Yankees were going to rock Curt Schilling and the house, booed A-Rod because they couldn't boo Randy Johnson anymore, because A-Rod had made two errors in the first game of this series and the Yankees had ended up losing that one, 14-3. Everybody gets booed here eventually, and that includes Rivera and Jeter. You can go broke trying to bet on who might get it next from Yankee fans, or when, or why. Last night it was A-Rod's turn. Sometimes the place isn't nearly as cool as we make it out to be, or want it to be.
They booed Alex Rodriguez last night and he responded by hitting the home run that put his team up for good. Then later, in front of his locker, he was as good as you can be. You don't have to always like everything he says. I sure don't. But say this: He stands in there, and did last night in all the important ways.
"If I was up there, I would've been booing, too," Rodriguez said in front of his locker.
"You're judged here for what you do in October," he said. "I know what I have to do."
They asked him again about being singled out by the owner after Tuesday night's game and he said something he has said before: "No one feels worse when I don't do well than me."
Finally somebody asked him about being judged too harshly, by the fans and everybody else, and Alex Rodriguez said this, as plainly as you can:
"I'm judged the way I should be judged. I make a lot of money and I'm a talented guy."
As talented as the Yankees have had since Joe DiMaggio, certainly the best they've had since Mickey Mantle was in his prime. Somebody who could end up hitting more home runs than anybody in history before he is through. Yankee fans know all that. They just want him to win it all. Somehow he is the face of all the new guys the Yankees have brought in since they last won it all. More than Jason Giambi, more than Mike Mussina, who pitched like a star last night. More than Randy Johnson.
A-Rod struck out looking his first time up against Schilling last night. The second time up he fouled out to first after Giambi had just taken Schilling over the wall in right-center with Jeter on first, tying the game at 3-3. The Stadium, empty by the last out Tuesday night, way too quiet for a long time before that, was right back up in Boston's face now.
Only then A-Rod made a weak swing right after that and the ball ended up in Kevin Youkilis' glove and the Stadium let him have it. He is the reigning MVP of the league. There are those who think he is the best player in baseball now that Barry Bonds is breaking down. But he has not won yet. He was hired to win those 11 games in October Reggie Jackson is always talking about.
"I've done everything in the regular season you can do," Rodriguez said last night.
Now it was a regular-season game on the 10th of May at Yankee Stadium and he had gotten booed in the third inning of a tie game. Now it was the fifth inning and Schilling had just struck out Jeter and Giambi, sat them both right down. A-Rod again. A-Rod with just six home runs for the season at a time when Giambi had twice that. Schilling went right after him, against the Alex Rodriguez who crushed one into the left-field seats, and the Yankees weren't going to lose their third in a row this season to the Red Sox.
Now they cheered A-Rod at Yankee Stadium.
They didn't ask him to come out for a curtain call the way they had when Giambi hit his home run. No worries, he wasn't coming out, anyway, and not because he had a case of hurt feelings. "It was 4-3 in the sixth inning," he said later. "It wasn't the time." But he had changed the game for good, hit Schilling hard, hit the Red Sox hard. A couple of batters later, Jorge Posada hit a two-run home run and it was 6-3 for the Yankees. Game, set, match.
"Yesterday you look bad," A-Rod said. "Today you look okay."
There is this idea that he always plays against the Red Sox the way he did Tuesday night. He doesn't. In fact, in the '04 and '05 regular seasons and in the two games the Yankees and Red Sox had played this season before last night, Rodriguez had hit .279 against the Red Sox. Derek Jeter had hit .221. Rodriguez had nine home runs and 20 RBI and 30 runs scored. Jeter had four home runs and 13 RBI and 22 runs scored. In the '04 ALCS, A-Rod hit .258 with two home runs, five RBI, eight runs scored. Jeter hit .200 with no home runs and five RBI and five runs scored. It is just always easier to blame A-Rod, because he doesn't have four World Series titles in the books the way Jeter does, easier to blame him against the Red Sox and everybody else.
So they blamed him early this year, booed him last night before they cheered him. The guys who've won here, they love them all the time.
They only love the new guys when they deliver, even if one of the new guys is Alex Rodriguez, as good as they've had at Yankee Stadium since DiMaggio, the lord of everything in baseball except the rings.
No comments:
Post a Comment