Tresh Fan wrote:

On the subject of cliques I have often heard that Mariano Rivera is the leader of the Latin contigent on the Yankees.

RELEASE HIM!

@EVERYONE:

Why do cliques even matter? Whether you believe in the concept of team chemistry or not, most observers would agree that the members of this team enjoy eachother’s company and that they have “chemistry” (whatever that means). If players further break down along racial, ethnic, or geographic lines, what difference does it make?

On the subject of cliques I have often heard that Mariano Rivera is the leader of the Latin contigent on the Yankees. Before each game his locker is surrounded by a crowd of Hispanic players busily dicussing items of interest. I’ve also heard that this is not unusual; that every MLB team has such a Latin clique gathered about one or two leaders.

If it were the case that it was only the Spanish speaking players in said clique, then wouldn’t only they participate in the prank?

@ YankCrank:
Awesome! Thanks for posting, I really enjoyed watching that.

Steve Lombardi wrote:

But, he organized it for Ramiro Pena, on his first career HR. Would he have also organized it for Joe McGillicuddy, on his first career HR, just as quickly?
Again, I’m just floating this out there – to offer that, MAYBE, there’s another side to it.

Let’s suppose for a moment that you’re right, then what? You do special things for your friends. If Alex considers Pena his friend, then he organized a prank on his friend and wouldn’t be expected to do the same to Joe McGillicuddy, who may not be his friend. It would be up to Joe McGillicuddy’s friend to do the same.

The mere fact that you raise this for Alex but not for any other player really speaks volumes to how Alex is never judged fairly. I’m mean, seriously, we’re now talking about how Alex organizing a prank on a teammate of Latin origin has some implicit meaning that maybe he’s not a full team player and only interacts with fellow Spanish-speakers.

Does anyone really care, even if that’s the case? Derek Jeter only talks to guys that won World Series rings with him (Rivera, Pettitte, Posada). Burnett seems to enjoy the company of guys that have tattoos (Bruney, Sabathia) and Swisher and Damon keep to the company of guys with ridiculous hairdos. Why aren’t we talking about that (tongue in cheek)?

Furthermore, If Buck Showalter had a problem with A-Rod speaking Spanish in the clubhouse, it might’ve done Buck good to take the whole team out for Spanish lessons or to take them all to a Spanish nightclub instead of making such a big deal out of it. Isn’t it worth noting that most people consider Showalter to be an unbearable personality? Maybe the Spanish-speaking Rangers players were talking about how much they hated playing for such a grouch all the time?

A-Rod’s an OK guy and it looks like a decent number of his teammates don’t hate him, as was the common canard among mainstream media types. It doesn’t appear that WW.com has gotten that memo yet, though.

Steve Lombardi wrote:

But, he organized it for Ramiro Pena, on his first career HR. Would he have also organized it for Joe McGillicuddy, on his first career HR, just as quickly?

FWIW, I do personally think he would have.

Here the video of the Pena thing, for those interested…

http://mlb.mlb.com/media/video.jsp?content_id=6901319

MJ wrote:

But even if Alex IS in a clique with only Latin players, who cares? Three years ago, A-Rod’s critics were saying he had no friends on the team other than the bullpen catcher (Borzello) and his personal caddy/first baseman (Mientkiewicz). Now that he’s got friends, it’s a clique of Spanish-speakers.
Further proof that to the A-Rod haters, it’s a sliding scale of offenses. He should just wear a bullseye on the back of his t-shirt that says “moving target.”

FWIW, Buck Showalter saw it as a problem in Texas in 2003. Not sure how Girardi would feel about it now…if, indeed, it is the case.

Corey wrote:

Did you see it happen? All 30 somethin’ active players were involved…

But, he organized it for Ramiro Pena, on his first career HR. Would he have also organized it for Joe McGillicuddy, on his first career HR, just as quickly?

Again, I’m just floating this out there – to offer that, MAYBE, there’s another side to it.