“1st day of ST and ARod is on my very last nerve.

Posted by: redbug at February 19, 2007 04:24 PM

Last nerve? Listen to the audio on Pete’s blog, and then get back to me.

If anything, this is refreshing coming from Alex. It sounds candid rather than canned. It’s also the first time he’s appeared to know how to handle the New York media.

Posted by: The Sporting Brews at February 19, 2007 04:32 PM”

You asked that i get back to you….

I posted my “very last nerve” comment AFTER I listened to the audio.

I wish the Yanks had gotten ARod to agree to a trade last Oct when he was his most vulnerable. Instead, he’s had the winter to consider how best to re-start the ongoing soap opera that is ARod everyone must love me. If they don’t, it must be their fault.

How about his comments later in the interview, “Whatever you say is important. People listen to you. That’s pretty cool. Nobody used to listen to me before.”

The man can’t stand not being in the spotlight. It’s too bad it hasn’t been as a result of hitting when it counts.

Yeah Raf, I’d agree with that, but that is not what I walked away with from that quote. And that is not how that guy referred to other batters.

The AL NYY 2005 MVP is a streak hitter and a streak fielder…good to know.
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EVERYONE’S a streak hitter/fielder, to a degree. The key to having a productive season is to have the good streaks last longer than the bad streaks.

The AL NYY 2005 MVP is a streak hitter and a streak fielder…good to know.

The best words and images on this, probably objective
were by George Vecsey (NY Times, 9/21/06), some taken from the Verducci/SI–I never read this without laughing:
“Instead of becoming a pariah for his involvement in the Balco drug scandal, Giambi has become the sergeant-at-arms of the Yankees’ clubhouse, the man who does the dirty work when dirty work needs to be done.

According to Tom Verducci’s compelling sounds-right-to-me article in the current issue of Sports Illustrated, it was Giambi who took Alex Rodriguez out behind the barn late last month in Boston and told him to shape up. Even the subsequent closed-door lecture in Seattle from Manager Joe Torre sounded less intimidating than Giambi’s warning to get with it.

Since then, his ego mussed up, his spotless uniform symbolically muddied, A-Rod has been playing significantly better. He had helped the Yankees close to a game of clinching their ninth straight division title going into last night’s game in Toronto.

But it took the pigpen personified, Giambi, to spatter some realistic glop on A-Rod’s self-image.

Profanely punctuating his lecture, Giambi told Rodriguez that walks and bleeder hits were not the reason he was being paid $252 million over 10 years by the Texas Rangers and the Yankees. A-Rod is being paid for power. So be powerful, Giambi urged him, in much stronger words than that.

Right now, Giambi has a sore wrist that makes him slightly doubtful for the postseason, but he has shown himself to be a major player in the Yankees’ hierarchy.”
* A brief word on Arod v Jeter from Vecsey:

“Then they took vastly different career paths. Jeter is real, taking emotional and educational lessons from his parents, showing a swagger that helped win four World Series. A-Rod is a phantom, a smile and a shoeshine, to use Arthur Miller’s words for his salesman Willy Loman. Now he is in New York, a streak hitter, a streak fielder, a will-o’-the-wisp in a cold clubhouse. His aloofness became so bad that A-Rod found himself being lectured by Jason Giambi. He has to survive and produce, like Jason Giambi, who is no angel, yet earned the right to lecture A-Rod.” from George Vecsey’s article, NY Times, 9/21/06

Wow, Steve, you wrote a while back that you hope the newspaper blogs don’t do to you what blockbuster did to mom and pop video stores, and I thought Never. You keep it mostly real, but this a low for you, equivalent to a Lupica piece.

Thanks for the link to the audio Jen, it was really straight forward. Whoever that ass was hounding Alex about renouncing his opt out, he needs something.

Last nerve? Listen to the audio on Pete’s blog, and then get back to me.

If anything, this is refreshing coming from Alex. It sounds candid rather than canned. It’s also the first time he’s appeared to know how to handle the New York media.

1st day of ST and ARod is on my very last nerve.

BTW, Peter Abraham has audio of the entire interview, unedited.

http://yankees.lohudblogs.com/2007/02/19/alex-rodriguez-interview-audio-from-today

Let alone any “regrettable comments” these two guys lived in different cities for a long while, one is married with kids and one lives the wealthy bachelor life, they’re both alpha males who regard themselves highly …. why wouldn’t their friendship have changed over a decade?

You know, I’m embarassed I actually spent the 30 seconds it took to think about that and write it, I think I’m taking a break from baseball until April. My home country is playing England at Croke Park this weekend if any of you want to experience the pinnacle of exciting sporting atmosphere fire up BBC radio on Saturday and tune in!