Yankee Alex Rodriguez Stirring It Up
The floundering Yankees managed to win one yesterday. Many are questioning A Rod"s tatics in the top of the ninth. With the Yankees up by two runs, Alex Rodriguez was running from first on a pop fly by Jorge Posada. As the Blue Jay Clark, 3b, was preparing to catch the pop fly with McDonald, ss, backing up the play; A Rod let out a yell. This yell was heard by Clark as one of his team mates calling him off and he backed off at the last moment. McDonald was unable to make the catch and the ball fell in for a hit.
The controversy started immediately. Umpire Chad Fairchild had to seperate McDonald and Rodriguez when McDonald started jawing with Rodriguez. The Blue Jays manager entered into the onfield dispute and the homebase umpire had to intervene. Rodriguez remained at third base with his smirk, until he came into score on Giambi"s single.
Rodriguez later brushed aside the Blue Jays" anger, saying the Yankee$ were "desperate" for a win.
"Honestly, I couldn"t care less," he said. "They have their opinions. We"re looking not to be swept."
"The thing about the Yankees, one of the reasons they"re so respected, is they do things right. Always have," manager John Gibbons said. "They"ve got a lot of pride and a lot of class. They play the game hard." "That"s not Yankee pride right there," he said. "That"s not the way they play. I thought it was bush league."
It sounds like the sort of thing that would happen during an unsupervised game on the sandlots or a beer ball game. Technically there is nothing wrong with what A Rod did. After all, he didn"t go out of the baseline or try to bowl over the player fielding the ball. Players really should know the voices of their other team mates.
In the final analysis, Alex resorted to a parlor trick trying to fan the embers in the overbloated bellies of his fellow Yankee$. It smacks of misplaced desperation.