It's been over a year since baseball's 252million dollar man moved in with the Yankees and since then he seems to be under the kind of microscope to see if he really is a Yankee. Take this piece in the NYT.
No one disputes his work ethic. It's his tireless effort at image control that seems to consume him to the point of talent debilitation. Who knew he could be so fragile? The first hint was his exit in Seattle.
Rodriguez equated the size of his contract with his self-worth when he declined the Mariners' offer to make him the highest-paid player in baseball so the Rangers could anoint him as the richest athlete in history.
Then Rodriguez's self-preservation mode kicked in when he fled the losers who were diluting his legend in Texas to re-establish his importance in New York. He had no idea his aura wouldn't travel to New York. He had no idea he'd lose his prom king's crown. Now, if he could just get over that imperfection, he might discover his true identity in pinstripes.
That's Selena Roberts for you. Kick a man when he's... a man. Or is this a new kind of Jeter hagiography where denigrating a great player makes Jeter's intangibles look even more amazing? I don't know.
Well, Today's BIG TABLOID NEWS is that A-Rod is actually a much better man than a ball player, and I for one am happy to relay this one.
I don't know about you, but it fully evokes that feeling of Babe Ruth promising to hit a homer for that sick boy. Okay A-Rod, I forgive you for your crappy season with the glove so far. You are a Yankee when you do this kind of stunt.Newsday
April 14, 2005
BOSTON -- For the first time in his Yankees career, Alex Rodriguez was cheered in Boston, but it had nothing to do with anything he did on the baseball field.Rodriguez risked his life Wednesday to save an 8-year-old boy from getting hit by a fast-moving truck on Newbury Street, the boy's father, Joe McCarthy, said last night. As fate would have it, the boy, Patrick, is a diehard Yankees fan living in Red Sox Nation."I can't express enough gratitude," Joe McCarthy said. "He saved my son's life."
Rodriguez said he was about to enter a car when he noticed a truck heading in his direction and quickly decided to step back to protect himself. When he turned around, he saw young Patrick running into the street and directly toward the utility truck. A-Rod said he acted instinctively during the lunchtime incident, grabbing the boy and pulling him back with him.
"I was trying to get out of the way, and the kid was running the other way," Rodriguez said before last night's game against the Red Sox at Fenway Park. "He was about to run into the street and I kind of just put my arm around him. We both almost got run over."
"It was just unbelievable, truly a God moment," Joe McCarthy said from his Martha's Vineyard home. "A-Rod could have been seriously hurt, but that didn't stop him. It was the best catch of his career."Joe McCarthy said he, Patrick and the boy's mother, Grace Bochicchio, had just left a Niketown store in the heart of Boston's downtown shopping district.
McCarthy said he was off to the side and didn't see the situation develop, but heard the sound of a screeching truck, "oohs" from the crowd, then cheers. When he looked up, he saw his son in Rodriguez's arms as well as a few stunned expressions from onlookers.
"The kid was running into the street and he was about to get run over by a car," Rodriguez added. "From his vantage point he couldn't see the truck coming."
According to his father, who said he was born and raised in Manhattan, Patrick told Rodriguez how much he followed the Yankees while still in his arms. McCarthy said A-Rod then waved over Yankees players Jorge Posada, Tino Martinez and Randy Johnson, who were nearby leaving the team's hotel, to meet the family.
"It was such an unbelievable scene, especially since we're the only Yankees fans in Martha's Vineyard," McCarthy said. The family is headed to New York this weekend for a grandmother's 70th birthday party and will see the Yankees Monday and Tuesday.
McCarthy estimated that the family goes to about 15 Yankees games a year at the Stadium and said Patrick even received a personal letter from general manager Brian Cashman last week after the boy mailed the Yankees his Little League baseball cards."Brian wrote a great letter back and said they're going to keep the cards on file," McCarthy said. "Patrick just keeps saying that when he becomes a pitcher for the Yankees, he hopes Alex is still playing."
The joke doing the Sabermetric circles is that, had it been Jeter on the spot, the kid would've "...gone past a diving Jeter" under the truck.
P.S. Next time A-Rod, don't risk your life, but throw a Red Sox fan under a bus instead. :)
- Art Neuro
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