A-Rod Update: Yanks Show Their Colors

Photo by Keith Allison on flickr

Hoo-Boy! The Yanks and A-Rod are providing $300M worth of entertainment value, unfortunately off the field rather than on. It’s turning into a farce of Shakespearean proportions.

When last we left this story Alex was rehabbing in the minors, we said not to expect to see him in pinstripes, we don’t know what the Yanks strategy is but they have one.

By now apparently they were hoping that MLB would take them off the hook with a lifetime ban on A-Rod. That is not imminent as of today. So the Yanks took the sore quad excuse that Alex used when he missed his rehab game to send him for an MRI exam and declare him injured.

The farce really ramped up yesterday when Alex found this Dr. Michael Gross to read his MRI and come on WFAN to declare Alex fit to play.  Only Alex could throw a dart at the Yellow Pages and score a hit on a doc who has been professionally cited for improperly dispensing steroids. Once again, hoo-boy!

Alex’ “people” have been leaking innuendo to various reporters about how the Yanks are keeping him off the field. Of course that’s true. The animus between Alex and team brass is most apparent as evidenced in the photo at right…Alex’ reaction when asked his opinion of Brian Cashman (we don’t really know that for a fact but it could have been).

Which brings us to the Yankees’ hand in all this. What’s most apparent is that the Yanks do not want Alex and would do anything to get off the hook for nearly $100M remaining on the contract, whether by an MLB lifetime ban or insurance reimbursement. No surprise. Reportedly the policy on Alex’ contract wouldn’t begin paying until he was disabled continuously for a full year. Thus Alex is driving Cashman and Yankee brass nuts…if he gets activated the disability clock resets.

While A-Rod is in no way a sympathetic figure, neither are the Yanks. First, they -re-signed Alex knowing he was a PED cheat and knowing the circus that follows in his wake. They made their own bed.

Next, as a fan I don’t care how they blow their money, I want to see a competitive team. The bottom line here with the Yankees has truly become ‘the bottom line’. Competitiveness has completely taken a backseat to profitability.

You’ve got a guy with 647 HR’s who wants to play and says he’s fit. The 8 players they’ve used at 3B have been historically inept. How many times have they let Jeter talk his way back onto the field? What’s the worst thing that can happen, he goes 0-4 and gets re-injured?

The only plausible explanation at this juncture is that it’s about the money. Alex’ maniacal attempts haven’t gotten him on the field but they have effectively called attention to this point.

You never would have seen this under George Steinbrenner’s stewardship. Winning took precedence over everything and money was no object. And to George winning was good business. George was a ‘sportsman’.

The current crop of Yankee stewards including Hal and Hank, Randy Levine and Lon Trost are showing their true colors in this whole episode. Mitigating the financial damage of the A-Rod contract is now of paramount importance and if that means the Yanks are compromised on the field then so be it. Profitability is good business. Hal, Hank, Randy and Lon are not ‘sportsmen’.

We certainly understand the profit motive in business. What is most galling is how this crew wants to trade off of Yankee tradition (and George tradition) to get we fans to pay ungodly amounts to enter their publicly-financed mausoleum, pay $15 for a beer and watch MLB castoffs hitting .150. And we don’t even know if the fading A-Rod has anything left or whether he’d embarrass himself (wouldn’t that be entertaining?).

I hate to be a sucker. Even worse, I hate to be taken for a sucker by this lot of Yankee brass.