Donald Trump perpetuates the A-Rod myth

May 9th, 2008 | Posted by PostmanR

When you are Alex Rodriguez, people call you out. You are the highest paid baseball player ever, you play in New York City for the Yankees — this is how it goes. But as FJM has talked about who knows how many times and as our pal Matt Watson points out today, it is utterly preposterous to call Derek Jeter Clutchy McClutcheron and A-Rod a choke artist. It is not that black and white. Simple as that.

But leave it to Donald Trump to keep the line moving on that one:

Trump was in Arkansas on Thursday to speak at the Economics Arkansas luncheon. According to arkansasbusiness.com, Trump talked about Rodriguez, a three-time AL MVP who has been criticized for his perceived inability to come through in important situations.

“He always plays bad under pressure,” Trump was quoted as saying. “Derek Jeter, he’s the greatest. People love Derek Jeter. Are those cameras on? This is going to get broadcast back home. Oh, now he’ll leave my building.”

And since I don’t want to look up stats, I’ll refer to Watson for the kicker here:

This seems like a good place to remind everybody that Jeter hit just .176/.176/.176 in the playoffs last year, has a .699 OPS thus far this season and hasn’t hit a home run in nearly eight months. A-Rod, meanwhile, OPS’d .820 in the playoffs last year .913 in close and late situations the last three years.

So yeah, there’s that. But have you seen Jeter’s heart and desire, the way he dives after those balls and is a True Yankee? Bletch.

Good for A-Rod

April 9th, 2007 | Posted by PostmanE

UPDATE: Since the above video is “no longer available due to a copyright claim by MLB Advanced Media,” here’s a couple of replacements. The first is a video game reenactment (sweet); the second is a crowd video (decidedly “meh”). Nonetheless, there they are.

I didn’t mention this is Case of the Mondays’ brief baseball run-through because I think it deserves its own post. In fact, I know it does.

I have been a closet (OK, maybe that’s not the right word) A-Rod fan for a while now (and not just because he’s on my fantasy team). To me, the guy gets far more shit than he deserves, while the guy he switched positions for at shortstop gets all the love because he’s “clutch.” Huh?

Anyway, the most common A-Rod detractors seem to either misunderstand A-Rod’s contributions or enjoy seeing the rich guy fail - or maybe both - so it sort of warms my heart to see the guy do what he did Saturday. Look at him sprinting around the bases like a little kid! Awww. Warms me to the core, indeed.

And yeah, on second viewing … that thing was absolutely crushed. And yes, my Mom wrote the above paragraphs. If you’ll excuse me, I have to go bench press now.

Weekend Fun: Wiiiiiiild Card

August 11th, 2006 | Posted by PostmanR

OK, folks. These wild card battles (especially in the NL) are shaping up quite nicely. We have some sexy, key matchups this weekend starting with the Tigers coming into Chicago to take on the White Sox. I’ll be at Saturday’s game. (Stop sucking it up Buehrle!) The Red Sox look to recover from their five-game skid tonight at home against the Orioles and the Twins are home against Toronto.

Over in the NL, The Wild Card leading Reds will take on the Phillies (who are currently 3 games back of Cincinnati in the WC standings) in Philadelphia. The Padres (0.5 game back of the Reds) and Astros (2.5 games back of the Reds) do battle tonight in Houston.

(Side note: The Reds are 3 games over .500 and are leading the NL Wild Card race. The Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim are 3 games over .500 and are nine game back in the AL Wild Card chase. Just a point of reference, really.)

If you haven’t read this article on Alex Rodriguez or this one on Maurice Clarett, I would suggest you do so immediately.

You can also use this weekend to ponder what a Beckham-less England squad will look like.

E is heading back to Iowa today and I’ll be damned if I’m going to give that state anymore publicity than he’s cranked out over the past few weeks. (See here and here.)

Stay classy, and see you Monday.

(Oh, and the fine young man in that picture? Why it’s IU’s first basketball recruit for 2007, Brandon McGee. Eric Gordon, are you listening?)