Baseball writers: Homies?

Maybe in Boston.

Red Sox guy finishes second to Yankee guy in narrow MVP race. It makes us want to holler ''bag job." It just does. Especially when the Red Sox guy is the lovable David Ortiz and the Yankee guy is the smarmy, loathsome poser, Alex Rodriguez (actually, I kind of like A-Rod, but that's his image here in the hardball Hub of the universe).

In New York? Not so much.

Alex Rodriguez is exactly what he was when the Yankees traded for him 21 months ago. He is their trophy third baseman, more of a trophy third baseman than ever now that he has won his second MVP award in three years. He is just not the trophy the Yankees had in mind.
"We can win three World Series, with me it's never going to be over," Rodriguez said yesterday. "I think my benchmark is so high that no matter what I do, it's never going to be enough, and I understand that."

What a guy.

The definition of benchmark goes something like this: A point of reference for a measurement. A-Rod knew exactly how big Yankees were measured when he decided to move here from Texas and move from shortstop to third base. The idea that the expectations for him are now ridiculously high is ridiculously low comedy.

When the Boston writer says of A-Rod, "I kind of like him," and the New York writer obviously loathes him, that's tough for the home town ball player.

You know, I seem to recall that the Red Sox were out in three against the White Sox, and yet that doesn't come up when discussing the relative merits of his deserving the MVP over Rodriguez. Truth is, I expected Ortiz to win simply because the New York beat writers eat their own, as evidenced by no Yankee winning an MVP since Don Mattingly, twenty years ago (twenty years in which the Yankees went to the post-season 11 times, won the AL Pennant six times, and the World Serious four times). But Rodriguez deserved it, not only because of his stellar glove work, but because of his performance the last two months of the season, when the Yankees clawed their way back from an awful start to win the division.

Rodriguez can't win. On the one hand, the local press complain that he's too scripted. But when he allows himeself for a moment -- after saying time and again that he "played like a dog" in the ALDS -- to complain that it's tough to live up to the expectations they rip him apart.

Steve Goldman responds to the hacks:

Uh, Mr. Lupica, sir? He was asked if he thought he would still hear criticism next spring. He said yes. Moreover, he was right. As for the burden of being A-Rod, if he feels burdened over feeling criticism, which he has insisted, again and again, that he does not, it’s really his problem, not yours. Or maybe no one asked him the right question. In the aforementioned WFAN interview with Mike Francesa and Chris Russo, Rodriguez acknowledged that, “I’ve always considered myself a big-game player, but at the same time, in New York, until you do it in the pinstripes you’re always going to be criticized. That’s fair, and I’m cool with it.”

Ian O'Connor, Gannett columnist:

"Rodriguez is no more the MVP of the American League now, as a first-place third baseman with the Yankees, than he was as a last-place shortstop with the Rangers. … David Ortiz should've won the award, even if he doesn't play the field. You didn't need to weigh the numbers to know Ortiz made more dramatic contributions to the Red Sox than Rodriguez made to the Yanks. … So what if there isn't a New Yorker worth his or her Derek Jeter jersey who would declare Rodriguez the most valuable Yankee, not as long as Jeter slips into his Mr. October cape…"

We all have our opinions. Ortiz’s contributions may have been more dramatic, but this is the Yankees, not the kids from “Fame.” Besides: the Yankees went 19-10 in August, 19-9 during September, and it was only by virtue of that terrific finish that they even made the postseason. Rodriguez hit .324/.429/.733 during the former month and .317/.419/.567 during the latter. We are supposed to believe that this was just a coincidence? It wasn’t.

Other columnists jumped on Rodriguez’s discussion of his performance in the postseason and how he expanded his personal strike zone. “My one regret is I thought I could have walked 10 or 12 times and just passed the baton. Probably at the end, I got a little overanxious.”

The aforementioned Wojnarowski:

"Alex Rodriguez wasn't brought to the Yankees to pass the baton, and he sure wasn't brought here to pass the buck. This is no time for A-Rod to feel sorry for himself. No one wants to hear it, and no one ever will. It's funny, but A-Rod always knew what people wanted to hear. And now, he's lost that too. Whatever. Just check with him next October. That's all that's left for him."

But in an interview with Mark Feinsand of MLB.com, Rodriguez expanded on the point: “Looking back, I probably should have walked 10 or 12 times. That's it. I've seen players like Barry Bonds go through it, I saw Vladimir Guerrero struggle this year. Sometimes in the postseason, they circle a few guys and single them out. They did that to me.” If you’re cynical, you can take this as morning-after spin — “It’s not that I didn’t hit, it’s that they didn’t pitch to me.” There is also certainly an element of truth to it.

In the end, the local press treated Rodriguez unfairly (and that’s without going into the reprehensible tabloid headlines on Tuesday). The differences between David Ortiz and Rodriguez were small enough to be reducible to questions of philosophy — were Oritz’s home runs somehow more valuable? Should Rodriguez be given credit for his time in the field? The writers largely refused to admit this, and instead “analyzed” the situation in terms of what they perceived to be Rodriguez’s personality deficits.

Rodriguez is the best Yankee third baseman since...well...ever. He's the best right hand hitting Yankee since Joe DiMaggio. Joe DiMaggio.

Enjoy watching him play, you idiots, or else why do you cover baseball?