Options
God, I love Honest Players
megatron
Posts: 955
in Sports Talk
Not being sarcastic, either. I truly love honesty in a world full of fakes.
Here is A-Rod on his contract:
"I love being the highest-paid player in the game. It's pretty cool. I like making that money," he said. "I was poor and broke when I grew up. I didn't have that type of money to help out children. Now I get a chance to help out children. Whatever you say is important. People listen to you. That's pretty cool. Nobody used to listen to me before."
- Great for you A-Rod.
- Don't let the jealous losers get you down.
- Come to the Cubs after this year to get some real love (although I love the Yanks, too)
Here is A-Rod on his contract:
"I love being the highest-paid player in the game. It's pretty cool. I like making that money," he said. "I was poor and broke when I grew up. I didn't have that type of money to help out children. Now I get a chance to help out children. Whatever you say is important. People listen to you. That's pretty cool. Nobody used to listen to me before."
- Great for you A-Rod.
- Don't let the jealous losers get you down.
- Come to the Cubs after this year to get some real love (although I love the Yanks, too)
Remember these Chuck Norris Facts
1. When Chuck Norris does a pushup, he isn't lifting himself up, he's pushing the Earth down
2. According to Einstein's theory of relativity, Chuck Norris can actually roundhouse kick you yesterday
3. There are no such things as lesbians, just women who have not yet met Chuck Norris
0
Comments
I will start the season rooting for ARod. As a Yankees fan, I hope he doesnt let me down. Good luck in 2007, ARod!
<< <i>Not being sarcastic, either. I truly love honesty in a world full of fakes.
Here is A-Rod on his contract:
"I love being the highest-paid player in the game. It's pretty cool. I like making that money," he said. "I was poor and broke when I grew up. I didn't have that type of money to help out children. Now I get a chance to help out children. Whatever you say is important. People listen to you. That's pretty cool. Nobody used to listen to me before."
- Great for you A-Rod.
- Don't let the jealous losers get you down.
- Come to the Cubs after this year to get some real love (although I love the Yanks, too) >>
Why didn't you mention the main point of the article?
Link
A-Rod admits friendship with Jeter has cooled
Posted 2/19/2007 11:44 AM ET
TAMPA (AP) — On the first day of his fourth season with the New York Yankees, Alex Rodriguez finally acknowledged his relationship with Derek Jeter has cooled.
After insisting for three years that they remained close, Rodriguez said it was "important" to him to publicly confirm what others have said since he joined the team.
"People start assuming that things are a lot worse than what they are, which they're not. But they're obviously not as great as they used to be. We were like blood brothers," Rodriguez said Monday. "You don't have to go to dinner with a guy four, five times a week to do what you're doing. It's actually much better than all you guys expect, but I just want to let the truth be known."
Jeter, the Yankees' captain, has distanced himself since a 2001 Esquire article in which A-Rod said "Jeter's been blessed with great talent around him" and "he's never had to lead."
"You go into New York, you wanna stop Bernie (Williams) and (Paul) O'Neill," A-Rod was quoted as saying. "You never say, 'Don't let Derek beat you.' He's never your concern."
Sitting in jeans and a black sweat jacket in the first-base dugout at Legends Field after his physical, Rodriguez did three rounds of interviews: English-language television, Spanish-language television and print reporters. He addressed his relationship with Jeter in all three.
"We were best of friends about 10, 13, 14, years ago, and we still get along well. We have a good working relationship. I cheer very hard for him. He cheers hard for me. And most importantly, we're both trying to win a world championship," Rodriguez said.
What's changed? He made it sound as if they had just grown apart.
"The reality is there's been a change in the relationship over 14 years and, hopefully, we can just put it behind us," Rodriguez said. "You go from sleeping over at somebody's house five days a week, and now you don't sleep over. It's just not that big of a deal."
During the offseason, former Yankee Darryl Strawberry said Jeter needs to "embrace" Rodriguez. A-Rod said he didn't feel Jeter needed to support him more.
"I'm a big boy. I'm 31 years old now, so I should be able to help myself out there," he said. "I care about what he thinks about me on the field. I think it's important for us to be on the right page. And we are. We're here to win a championship together."
When he was first asked about Jeter, Rodriguez said this would be the only time he would address the topic.
"Let's make a contract: You don't ask me about Derek anymore, and I promise I'll stop lying to all you guys," A-Rod told reporters.
While Rodriguez won the AL MVP award for the second time in 2005, he is 4-for-41 (.098) without an RBI in his last 12 postseason games dating to 2004. He got just one hit in last year's playoff loss to Detroit.
"I stunk. And when you stink, sometimes, you have to call it," he said. "I went 1-for-14 last year with an error and that's pretty lousy."
He was dropped to eighth in the batting order for the first time in a decade as the Yankees were eliminated in Game 4.
"It was very disappointing," he said. "Yes, I was embarrassed."
While Rodriguez maintained he wants to remain with the Yankees for the rest of his career, he didn't rule out exercising the clause in his record $252 million, 10-year contract that allows him to opt out after this season. Rodriguez would forfeit the $72 million owed in the final three years and could use that to become a free agent or pressure New York for an extension.
"I want to be a Yankee and I understand my contract. I understand my options. I understand the interest," he said.
He doesn't mind that his contract has made him a target.
"I love being the highest-paid player in the game. It's pretty cool. I like making that money," he said. "I was poor and broke when I grew up. I didn't have that type of money to help out children. Now I get a chance to help out children. Whatever you say is important. People listen to you. That's pretty cool. Nobody used to listen to me before."
All that was IMO was damage control and another attempt by Arod to say what he thinks people want to hear.
For the sake of the Yankees I hope he has a stellar season. Other than that he means zip and will always be a fake and a flake.
-- Yogi Berra
Link
Celizic: A-Rod must learn it’s not about getting along
Fans, Yanks only care about winning, not his relationship with Jeter
OPINION
By Mike Celizic
Updated: 11:20 p.m. CT Feb 19, 2007
Alex Rodriguez thinks it’s important that he and Derek Jeter don’t get along. As he said in his first interview in Yankee camp, relations are so strained that the two superstars, who were once fast friends, don’t even do sleepovers any more.
Sleepovers? The word conjures up visions of little A-Rod’s mom calling little Derek’s mom to arrange a play date. It does not conjure up visions of two adult buds crashing on each other’s sofas at the end of a long night of painting the town.
It must be a big deal to him, because A-Rod admitted he’d been lying when he kept saying during his first three years in pinstripes that there was nothing wrong with his relationship with Jeter. He wanted to come clean, set the record straight, get his big hurt out on the table where everyone could poke at it until they got tired of the sport and wandered off to find something more interesting to do.
You have to feel sorry for this enormously talented man who was abandoned by his father when still a boy and still wears the scars of that betrayal. He wants everybody to like him, from the Yankee captain down to the guys who sell the peanuts and programs in the stadium. He tries and tries and tries to be perfect, so that there is nothing not to like. He even bares his fragile soul, just to set the record straight.
And you know what? Nobody cares because it isn’t a surprise.
It’s been obvious that Jeter felt betrayed when A-Rod was still in Texas and said that Jeter wasn’t the leader of the Yankees and implied that he, A-Rod, had a tougher job of carrying a team, that Jeter was just one of a great collection of players.
A-Rod may think it’s significant that the two highest-paid players on the highest-paid team in American sports don’t have play dates, but Yankee fans sure don’t. All they care about is whether both players get a lot of hits and make big plays in the field and win another World Series, which would be Jeter’s fifth and A-Rod’s first.
Lou Gehrig and Babe Ruth, the two greatest players on the first Yankee dynasty, didn’t speak to each other, and the Yankees just kept on winning titles. In the 1960s, most of the Dodgers had no use for Don Drysdale, but none of them called press conferences to whimper about it.
More recently, Thurman Munson, the Yankee captain in 1977, couldn’t stand the newly arrived free agent, Reggie Jackson, whom Munson thought was an arrogant jerk. The feeling was pretty much unanimous in the Yankee clubhouse, but that team won the team’s first World Series in more than a decade, and, when Jackson hit three home runs in three at-bats in the deciding game against L.A., his teammates decided that he did have some good points after all.
These are some of the more famous examples of great players not getting along with teammates, but they’re not the only ones. Every athlete who’s ever played a game realizes that there are going to be teammates who aren’t going to like each other. Everyone would love for every team to be one, big happy family, but it’s not as important as winning.
Players ultimately judge each other on performance. Mariano Rivera’s popularity in the Yankee clubhouse isn’t unrelated to his extraordinary talents as a closer. Jeter’s stature depends to a degree on an easy-going personality and a fierce vein of competitiveness, but he’s the captain not because of his oratory skills — he doesn’t really have any — but because of the way he plays the game.
A-Rod’s stature is born of the same reality. If his teammates tend to be annoyed with him, it’s not because of how much he makes — they all make plenty — but because he doesn’t come through nearly often enough in the clutch.
You could imagine them rolling their eyes at this latest confession by their third baseman and wishing he’d just forget about his image and go out and pound the baseball. That’s all anyone’s ever wanted from A-Rod — performance. He may think it’s important to be slick, but none of his teammates do.
What’s funny is that A-Rod has the reputation for being slick, but it is Jeter who is slicker than snot on a doorknob. The difference is that with A-Rod, slickness comes off as an artifice. Jeter, on the other hand, was born that way.
A-Rod tries desperately to say the right thing; to make everyone like him. Jeter never gives the feeling that he cares what you think about him. He’s never turned a phrase worth repeating, never really said anything that’s deeper than his shadow, never given away even a 10th of what he’s really thinking. But dodging questions and issues comes naturally to the Yankee captain; A-Rod has to work at it.
And as hard as A-Rod works at it, he never gets it right. Jeter meanwhile, seems incapable of getting it wrong.
You could see where that could get annoying, especially when Jeter repelled every invitation last year to say something nice about his neighbor on the left side of the infield. A captain, it has been suggested, ought to defend his teammates from the outside world, but Jeter hasn’t done that. It’s as if he feels that since A-Rod thinks Jeter’s got it so easy, he can fend for himself.
There’s something to that. None of the Yankees ever leap to A-Rod’s defense, and as long as he keeps nursing his little hurts in public, they’re not going to. These are grown men and hardened professionals. They don’t want to hear about sleepovers.
What they want is for A-Rod to hit the ball when it counts. They don’t care what he does or doesn’t say, as long as he does his job, which is to get big hits in big games, to carry the team when it’s down, to forget about his image and use his enormous talents to take the game by the throat and not let go.
They don’t care about stats or all-star appearances or endorsement deals. And they absolutely don’t care about his feelings.
They care about what the fans care about — performance.
When Reggie hit those three homers in ’77, Munson was one of the first guys to hug him in the clubhouse. And from that day on, the Yankees stopped noticing how annoying Reggie was. He still was called up for sleepovers, but he was fully a part of the team.
There’s a lesson for A-Rod in that.
© 2007 MSNBC InteractiveMike Celizic is a contributor to MSNBC.com and a freelance writer based in New York
he is so scrutinized and criticized. Keep complaining Yankee fans, maybe he'll opt out of his contract next year so
he can come back and haunt you.
Arod is the man.
Peace
45% complete.
<< <i>Whatever you say is important. People listen to you >>
Did you say something, Alex? Sorry, I wasn't listening.
maybe during the regular season, though those numbers werent up to his usual this past season
he certainly isn't "the man" during the post season. The yanks haven't won the World Series during his tenure with them.
give me the good old days.
Takes a team to win a world series.
I agree Arod has underperformed in the World Series, but that's one week out of the season.
Peace
45% complete.
<< <i>I agree Arod has underperformed in the World Series, but that's one week out of the season. >>
Perhaps you meant A-Rod has underperformed in the playoffs.... And you know, the regular season means squat compared to when it really matters.
“From Day One I’ve said I support Alex,” he said. “The only thing I’m not going to do is tell the fans what to do. ... I don’t think it’s my job to tell fans to boo or not to do.”
<< <i>Keep complaining Yankee fans, maybe he'll opt out of his contract next year so >>
Yeah, god forbid this guy goes to another team and we have to face him in the playoffs. He's a machine in the playoffs! unstoppable! dominating! an absolute hitting and fielding machine! and clutch as hell!!!!!!!!!!!!!
this is classical psychoanalysis, just not sure of the proper term for this condition....
ps...AROD should have never brought of the "CONTRACT NOT TO TALK ABOUT JETER" cause that pissed Jeter off even more....
i really believe JETER HATES AROD....Arod once said in an interview for a magazine that Jeter was not clutch and no team fears Jeter....In Reality, Arod was describing himself, only he projected his feelings towards Jeter....
Arod is actually a very sad and unstable individual, he craves acceptance and praise---like some people on this board....
I'm sure the other players lose just because they don't want Arod to get a ring.
That is unbelievable.
I just don't understand the hatred for Arod.
Peace
45% complete.
<< <i>Yanks will never win another world series with AROD..plain and simple.....the other players on the team (who already have a ring) hate AROD so much, that subconsciously they dont want AROD to get a ring also, therefore they will fail in the playoffs because they dont want it 150%....something inside makes them "not care" if they lose---cause they dont want AROD to win... >>
Just when you thought that you had heard it all..
<< <i>
<< <i>Yanks will never win another world series with AROD..plain and simple.....the other players on the team (who already have a ring) hate AROD so much, that subconsciously they dont want AROD to get a ring also, therefore they will fail in the playoffs because they dont want it 150%....something inside makes them "not care" if they lose---cause they dont want AROD to win... >>
Just when you thought that you had heard it all.. >>
I must admit - even I am scratching my head on this one.
But this isnt a normal group of people. This is a pretty ridiculous theory.
<< <i>Yanks will never win another world series with AROD..plain and simple.....the other players on the team (who already have a ring) hate AROD so much, that subconsciously they dont want AROD to get a ring also, therefore they will fail in the playoffs because they dont want it 150%....something inside makes them "not care" if they lose---cause they dont want AROD to win...
this is classical psychoanalysis, just not sure of the proper term for this condition....
ps...AROD should have never brought of the "CONTRACT NOT TO TALK ABOUT JETER" cause that pissed Jeter off even more....
i really believe JETER HATES AROD....Arod once said in an interview for a magazine that Jeter was not clutch and no team fears Jeter....In Reality, Arod was describing himself, only he projected his feelings towards Jeter....
Arod is actually a very sad and unstable individual, he craves acceptance and praise---like some people on this board.... >>
ISO 1978 Topps Baseball in NM-MT High Grade Raw 3, 100, 103, 302, 347, 376, 416, 466, 481, 487, 509, 534, 540, 554, 579, 580, 622, 642, 673, 724__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ISO 1978 O-Pee-Chee in NM-MT High Grade Raw12, 21, 29, 38, 49, 65, 69, 73, 74, 81, 95, 100, 104, 110, 115, 122, 132, 133, 135, 140, 142, 151, 153, 155, 160, 161, 167, 168, 172, 179, 181, 196, 200, 204, 210, 224, 231, 240
This thread just keeps getting better and better..
<< <i>Id take Arod in a Sox uniform anyday but not for that money. Kudos to him for being fairly honest, any ballplayer that says "its not about the money" is a total liar IMO >>
Don't be so sure of that. For most players, the whole quote is, "it's not about the money; it's about getting the ring". After all, even a last place, low market team can pay you more money than most people would know what to do with, but only one team a year can win a championship.
Dimes: 54S, 53P, 50P, 49S, 45D+S, 44S, 43D, 41S, 40D+S, 39D+S, 38D+S, 37D+S, 36S, 35D+S, all 16-34's
Quarters: 52S, 47S, 46S, 40S, 39S, 38S, 37D+S, 36D+S, 35D, 34D, 32D+S
74 Topps: 37,38,46,47,48,138,151,193,210,214,223,241,256,264,268,277,289,316,435,552,570,577,592,602,610,654,655
1997 Finest silver: 115, 135, 139, 145, 310
1995 Ultra Gold Medallion Sets: Golden Prospects, HR Kings, On-Base Leaders, Power Plus, RBI Kings, Rising Stars
"A World Series ring doesn't feed my family."
Well, you gotta admit, $15,800,000 does by a lot of groceries; shoot, you could probably buy all three Owensboro Kroger stores for that much!!
Dimes: 54S, 53P, 50P, 49S, 45D+S, 44S, 43D, 41S, 40D+S, 39D+S, 38D+S, 37D+S, 36S, 35D+S, all 16-34's
Quarters: 52S, 47S, 46S, 40S, 39S, 38S, 37D+S, 36D+S, 35D, 34D, 32D+S
74 Topps: 37,38,46,47,48,138,151,193,210,214,223,241,256,264,268,277,289,316,435,552,570,577,592,602,610,654,655
1997 Finest silver: 115, 135, 139, 145, 310
1995 Ultra Gold Medallion Sets: Golden Prospects, HR Kings, On-Base Leaders, Power Plus, RBI Kings, Rising Stars
<< <i>Fan
I'm sure the other players lose just because they don't want Arod to get a ring.
That is unbelievable.
I just don't understand the hatred for Arod.
Peace >>
It's never made any sense to me either. He's never been brought up in the steroid talk, he's an elite player, he appears at least to have some understanding of what it means to be a world citizen... and yet he's continually vilified.