Aim Rod

[BuckFoston]

When the Red Sox were weighing in daily to defile Alex Rodriguez, their most common harangue was that he “was not a true Yankee.”

Actually, nobody in baseball more defines the Yankees of the Twenty-first Century as well as Rodriguez.

He has the most talent, makes the most money and, because of that combination, is the biggest target.

“He is a microcosm of us,” GM Brian Cashman said.

“Unfortunately he is held to a higher standard because of the money, just like us.

We are lightning rods and he is a lightning rod.

Sometimes the criticisms are fair, sometimes they are not, but they always come with the territory.”

Rodriguez says he has a better feel for all of this now. In his second season as a third baseman, Yankee and bull’s-eye, he insists he has calluses now over the wounds.

His profile has diminished this spring training and he has more cautiously parceled out his time to the

media. He even has been able to outlast those initial days in February when he was a pinata to whichever Red Sox had verbal diarrhea.

That storm, like all storms, passed. The Red Sox were at Legends Field earlier this week, and the Rodriguez issue felt as dated as the Ben-and-J-Lo stories.

Old news.

Been there, ripped that.

“It’s part of being in New York, too, for a year,” Rodriguez said. “If that happened a calendar year ago, I would have been thinking, ‘When is this ever going away?’ You do think it is never going to end and you put too much thought into it.

It would have bothered me last year. Now it doesn’t.”

Whether it really does or doesn’t, Rodriguez should be bracing for more hostility in the coming days.

There are storm clouds forming again. The Red Sox are coming to town, which means The Rivalry will be renewed at real speed, the games will count, emotions will seethe and A-Rod will do something on the field — like breathe — that irks The Idiots.

“I’m an easy target,” Rodriguez agreed.

“Other guys do movies and books and nothing happens.” A-Rod did not mention names, but interestingly Johnny Damon has a part in the film “Fever Pitch” and just had his autobiography come out.

Can you imagine the backlash if, for example, Rodriguez shed his meticulous nature and did not take a haircut all year? “It is silly and trivial to focus so much on one person whomever that person may be,”

Rodriguez said.

Well, attention (good and bad) is like salary: it rises with talent. Rodriguez went for the dough in Texas, and this is the price. His manner and mannerisms will be dissected. His failures will be magnified beyond those of others while success is expected.

Again, he embodies the Yankees in all these areas.

Would he have been so representative of the Red Sox? It is easy to forget now that he was so agonizingly close to being Nomar Garciaparra’s replacement last offseason. Would Rodriguez have been a championship Idiot?“Remember this is a rival that spent all its time and energy last winter to make [Rodriguez] the focal point of its organization,” Cashman said.

“Now they act like they didn’t want him. Whatever is going on now, they are a smart organization and they were smart to want him as the focal point.”

Cashman believes this because — like so many in the game — he expects Rodriguez’s greater comfort with third base, New York and the craziness of The Rivalry to translate into a more dynamic season in 2005 than is uneven 2004. Joe Dimaggio’s righty team homer record of 46 in 1937 and a Gold Glove are possible for Rodriguez this season if he is at peace, not just saying it because it sounds like the correct spin for the oment.

Rodriguez shuns the stats, the honors and says all that obsesses him now is winning. In that way he also exemplifies the Yankees of the Twenty-first Century — they both yearn for rings to validate big wallets and deep reserves of talent. http://www.nypost.com/sports/yankees/41939.htm

[RockSports17]

Nice article.

Red Sox was always wanting everybody Yankees wanted, and vice versa. It's been that way for years now. I think A-Rod is a true Yankee. I hope he's a Yankee for the rest of his career. A-Rod is one of the first players that come to mind when I think modern day Yankees.

Glad that he's wearing the pinstripes and wish him good luck this season.