By Rich Mancuso
BRONX, NEW YORK, AUGUST 10- Fans at Yankee Stadium Friday night waited 52-minutes because of a rain delay before they could let Alex Rodriguez know how they felt. He was introduced as a part of the starting lineup. The reaction appeared to be mixed. Then the famed row call from the “Bleacher Creatures” was heard.
A-Rod heard his name, and the reaction was also mixed, though at one point it sounded like he was getting booed out of the building. A-Rod gave his wave to the creatures in the right field bleacher area.
It was the second part of the Alex Rodriguez Hollywood script that finally landed back in the Bronx. It ended with a successful Yankees win in 10-innings that made them feel a little better about themselves.
Some will say all of the attention Alex Rodriguez is receiving overshadows the problems his team is confronting. The Yankees, with 50-games left on the schedule, are as far away from playing October baseball as the Rodriguez decision on his appeal that is pending with Major League Baseball.
Also, don’t believe that the entire membership of the Major League Baseball Player’s Association is in the corner of Alex Rodriguez. A prominent player with the Tigers said before the game, when asked if A-Rod was a fraud, “That’s being nice. He is a disgrace to the game of baseball.”
He added that that the sentiment of membership has to be tolerant with this sensitive issue. There does though, need to be a line drawn. “Take the suspension and go," he commented.
A-Rod, the 211-game suspension abusing, baseball’s anti doping policies continued the Hollywood script. Nobody does it better, another reason why the Yankees had only their fourth sell-out this season. Perhaps the model athlete, Miguel Cabrera of the Tigers, spoiled the script with a two-out- ninth inning two-run home run off the great Mariano Rivera.
However, A-Rod was not around to see it. His night was over after going 0-for-4, striking out three times.
“It’s probably 50-50 tonight and maybe more cheers,” said the manager Joe Girardi about the crowd reaction in this latest script revolving around a ballplayer that knows how to write a perfect script for himself, that being Alex Rodriguez.
"It’ something he has to put out his mind,” added Girardi. “He’s had to deal with stuff before.” Indeed, A-Rod has dealt with this before, and like the legendary Frank Sinatra said, “I did it my way.”
That way, spring training, Tampa Florida in 2009. A-Rod said he would not disappoint fans and the game of baseball again. The script would continue with an MVP type performance of a post season, a fraud because it was done once again using performance enhancing drugs. All the evidence without a jury makes it look that way.
And with an Alex Rodriguez Hollywood script, that would be the first case scenario.
The start of a three-game series against the Detroit Tigers, a team coming in with a 12-game winning streak was also put on the side because of more A-Rod theatre. The Yankees came back to the Bronx Friday night having lost four straight, at 57-56, and one game over .500.
Yes, Alex Rodriguez was more important as the Yankees try to find something to get back in the pennant race mix. The Yankees crowd saw the return of Curtis Granderson. He has not made much of an impact since returning from the disabled list last Friday night in San Diego.
But, he was also overshadowed because this was the return of Alex Rodriguez to the Bronx, a ballplayer who can write a script as good as they come in Hollywood.
There were some signs in the crowd. “Welcome back A-Rod” and “We are behind you 100 Percent.” That is expected, because Alex Rodriguez is that type of ballplayer who gathers that attention, whether you love or hate him.
This entire Biogenesis fiasco of a scandal has become Alex Rodriguez drama, as it always is. It has not centered on the other 12- players that were suspended and did not appeal. The drama continued with his first time back in the Bronx since being benched last October in the ALCS that the Yankees lost to the Tigers.
And surly the drama will continue. Because this is a script Alex Rodriguez has created that belongs in Hollywood when his farce of a career is finally over.
Comment Rich Mancuso: Ring786@aol.com/ Facebook.com/Rich Mancuso
No comments:
Post a Comment