Mr. Rodriguez, Welcome To Your 15 Minutes of Not Being Totally Despised By New York

[nyjunc]

Non-Yankee fans will never get it, he can hit 80 HRs in the reg season but he has to come through in October. reg season #s are great but w/o postseason success they are meaningless. NY WANTS to love ARod but we are tired of seeing him fail time after time in big spots. Hopefully his hot start will continue and he'll bring it to October- if not he'll be hated again.

[missionhockey21]

I agree with you junc and that's what I was trying to accomplish somewhat with this article. That A-Rod's debate doesn't come down to salary or regular season performance, but playoff ability to hit in big moments. I find the psychology of players to be fascinating and despite what Rodriguez can do during the regular season, I don't think he has the nerves to handle the pressure like a Jeter might be able to. He has had playoff success before, even in New York, so hopefully his hot start will keep the fans and New York media tamed down, or maybe even praising him, and he could make 2005/2006 look like anomaly.

His homerun swing has looked picturesque this year too. Last year it seemed like occasionally he would really start lunging for the ball, trying to do too much at times. And while I have only seen one Yankee game (meaning more than just the homerun highlights), what I have seen should be very encouraging.

[GiantsFanatic]

Non-Yankee fans will never get it, he can hit 80 HRs in the reg season but he has to come through in October. reg season #s are great but w/o postseason success they are meaningless. NY WANTS to love ARod but we are tired of seeing him fail time after time in big spots. Hopefully his hot start will continue and he'll bring it to October- if not he'll be hated again.

Bull ****ing shit, Jorge Posada hit into a world series ending out in game 6 against the Marlins in the 03 WS, he never got ****ing booed once. Your great closer Mariano Rivera gave up a GW single against the D'Backs in the 01 WS. He never got booed once, they never gave him the same treatment like they gave to Arod.

Also when you sign a contract, your contract is for what you do in the REGULAR season, because not that many players get a chance to play in the playoffs, so whatever you do in the post-season is considered extra credit. And techinically you have to do good in the regular season in order to make it to the playoffs to begin with. Also you cant blame a failure of one team on a single player, I have said this before and I will say it again if I have to.

And also this is not the first time NY fans have booed players, they ****ing booed Giambi the 1st week when he was with the Yankees, Mets fans booed Tom Glavine durring his 1st start, this is the crap that pisses me off, because your(NY FANS) GMs are spending money so your team has a chance to win and contend and you boo them? What kind of a logic is that? If you bought a a brand new car and your family and friends are spitting on it, how would you feel?

[nyjunc]

Bull ****ing shit, Jorge Posada hit into a world series ending out in game 6 against the Marlins in the 03 WS, he never got ****ing booed once. Your great closer Mariano Rivera gave up a GW single against the D'Backs in the 01 WS. He never got booed once, they never gave him the same treatment like they gave to Arod.

Also when you sign a contract, your contract is for what you do in the REGULAR season, because not that many players get a chance to play in the playoffs, so whatever you do in the post-season is considered extra credit. And techinically you have to do good in the regular season in order to make it to the playoffs to begin with. Also you cant blame a failure of one team on a single player, I have said this before and I will say it again if I have to.

And also this is not the first time NY fans have booed players, they ****ing booed Giambi the 1st week when he was with the Yankees, Mets fans booed Tom Glavine durring his 1st start, this is the crap that pisses me off, because your(NY FANS) GMs are spending money so your team has a chance to win and contend and you boo them? What kind of a logic is that? If you bought a a brand new car and your family and friends are spitting on it, how would you feel?

As usual you are mistaken. Posada, mariano, jeter have ALL been BOOED- every one of them. Posada has had a ton of great moments in postseason for the Yanks, Jeter and Rivera a million great moments in postseason and yet all have been booed when they played poorly in the reg season. ARod has had good reg season #s but has been a disgrace in postseason, when he comes through for us in big games he'll be cheered but he needs to come through.

[nyjunc]

I agree with you junc and that's what I was trying to accomplish somewhat with this article. That A-Rod's debate doesn't come down to salary or regular season performance, but playoff ability to hit in big moments. I find the psychology of players to be fascinating and despite what Rodriguez can do during the regular season, I don't think he has the nerves to handle the pressure like a Jeter might be able to. He has had playoff success before, even in New York, so hopefully his hot start will keep the fans and New York media tamed down, or maybe even praising him, and he could make 2005/2006 look like anomaly.

His homerun swing has looked picturesque this year too. Last year it seemed like occasionally he would really start lunging for the ball, trying to do too much at times. And while I have only seen one Yankee game (meaning more than just the homerun highlights), what I have seen should be very encouraging.

We'll see, I agree he swing has looked great. He hasn't looked as mechanical as he has the past few years, maybe he knows he has fallen as low as he can go here and doesn't care anymore and is just playing. He'll be celebrated in the reg season but it will quickly turn to boos if he doesn't come through in october. We don't have to win the WS but if he plays to his capabilities in October he'll get the fans on his side for good.

[GiantsFanatic]

But not to an extent like Arod, what has/did Randy Johnson, Mike Musina, Gary Sheffield, and Jason Giambi have done in the playoffs since they were signed? You guys never booed any of them, they were all signed after your last WS championship, but your going to single out Arod.

[nyjunc]

But not to an extent like Arod, what has/did Randy Johnson, Mike Musina, Gary Sheffield, and Jason Giambi have done in the playoffs since they were signed? You guys never booed any of them, they were all signed after your last WS championship, but your going to single out Arod.

What are you talking about? Johnson, Mussina, Sheff, giambi were all booed alot. ARod gets more b/c he is supposed to be one of the best players in the game and has never come through for us in a big spot. His postseason perfomances the last 2+ years have been a joke. Since Game 5 of the 2004 ALCS(12 games) ARod has gone 4 for 41(.097) w/ ZERO RBI. 12 games w/o an RBI, 4 hits in 12 games- can you begin to understand why the fans have been hard on him?

[Dry1313]

But not to an extent like Arod, what has/did Randy Johnson, Mike Musina, Gary Sheffield, and Jason Giambi have done in the playoffs since they were signed? You guys never booed any of them, they were all signed after your last WS championship, but your going to single out Arod.

Johnson-booed all last year when he had like a 5.41 ERA to start the year.
Mussina-hasn't really been booed, he's been our most consistent pitcher anyway.
Sheffield-when he didn't hit, which was on occasion, we could usually blame his arm. Booed his ass nonetheless.
Giambi- You must be kidding me. He was horribly booed even last year, simply because of the likelihood of steroids, something a Giant fan wouldn't get.

Playoffs/Clutch- Randy was one of the best all time. You could never pin any loss on Mussina, he's too damn consistent. Check out Sheff's #'s in clutch and w/ RISP. He's a beast. And Giambi is still one of our most clutch hitters.

Keep going through, everyone but ARod has either postseason success or smacks in the clutch in the regular season. Or, in Randy Johnson's case, we aren't worried, he's done it. Everyone else has been booed, save for Mariano I guess. We booed Jeter when he started like 1-41 a few years back. It's impossible to boo Mariano, he'd have to blow like 4 games in a row.

[nyjunc]

Mariano was booed, I think it was 2 years ago when he got off to the bad start.

[realmofotalk]

Randy Johnson is 2-8 with an ERA of 4.85 in the League Division Series. Before he and Curt Schilling carried the Dbacks to a World Series championship, the knock against Johnson was that he couldn't dominate a postseason game as he would a regular season game.

[nyjunc]

Randy Johnson is 2-8 with an ERA of 4.85 in the League Division Series. Before he and Curt Schilling carried the Dbacks to a World Series championship, the knock against Johnson was that he couldn't dominate a postseason game as he would a regular season game.

Randy is a strange case, he has been awful in LDS play but great in LCS and WS play. Outside of the '95 ALDS against the Yanks(of course) he was awful in the LDS as you posted the #s. In LCS play he is 2-1 w/ a 1.72 ERA and in the WS against the Yanks(of course) he was 3-0 w/ a 1.04 ERA. Unfortunately Randy never got to pitch in an LCS or WS w/ the Yanks and alot of Yankee fans just remember 1995 and 2001.