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A Bronx Zoo for the 21st Century

The Yankees would a lock to win the World Series if only Alex Rodriguez had told Jason Giambi to go fuck himself, on the record in the pages of this week's Sports Illustrated.

A first-ballot Hall of Famer in a slump doesn't have to listen to a harangue from a kind-of-confessed steroid user who hasn't had a home run in a month (last Giambi tater, Aug. 20) himself. Giambi told A-Rod the latter had no right to try and end his slumps with bloop hits because that negated the value of all the walks Giambi was working to draw in lieu of his own extra-base hits. As a class, ballplayers aren't into irony, but the hypocrisy of Giambi's complaint had to echo in the New York clubhouse.

Unfortunately for Yankee fans, Rodriguez did no such thing. Nor did he tell off said fans, which would've been the next best development for New York's post-season hopes. As Tom Verducci's illuminating article made clear, A-Rod is far too sensitive to the opinions of others for his own good. He's that not uncommon character in American life, the insecure superstar.

Rodriguez wants people to like him and works hard at it. Too hard. Through no fault of his own, it's an uphill struggle. As the highest paid player in baseball who draws that paycheck from the Yankees, 95 percent of Americans are going to dislike A-Rod on principle, and some of those folks share a clubhouse with him.

Rodriguez is smart enough to know this. It's a peculiarity of the New York team that many of its players are perceptive people. He just can't help himself. He's committed to a quest for superstar perfection in all aspects of life, a quest that's making his life truly unpleasant.

As the world knows, Rodriguez is enduring the worst season of his career. We should point out this involves his offensive production slipping from "one of the ten best players ever" plateau to the "borderline Hall of Fame" level. He's still fifth in the American League in RBI, and had his ninth straight season with at least 30 homers and 100 RBI. There's no denying, however, that A-Rod has battled at least two wicked slumps at the plate, and one bizarre throwing slump afield.

The slump is one of baseball's enduring mysteries, and like the common cold, there's no known cure but time. Time is the one thing the Yankees aren't allowed to have. George Steinbrenner's mindset has become the franchise's mindset and the fan's mindset. Every game is the seventh game of the World Series. This imperative is perfect for making a star's slump longer and deeper than need be.

Before A-Rod was born, Bill Veeck wrote that the best treatment for a slumping player was two pieces of cotton, one for each ear. Were I a Yankee, I'd have taped that sentence to A-Rod's locker. Instead, the New York organization made the bizarre decision to light a fire under Rodriguez by making their frustrations with his struggles public. Verducci is an outstanding reporter, but his sources' co-operation had to be green-lighted at the tippy-top levels of the Yankee power structure.

That's how to relax a guy desperate for approval who can't understand why the world's against him. Tell him, it's not juust the world, it's us, too. Oh, yeah, that'll loosen A-Rod up at the plate.

Rodriguez will never win the universal public approval he seeks. The last Yankee who got that was Joe DiMaggio. Nor will he become an accepted part of a clubhouse band of brothers. The Yanks are anything but that. One day hanging around that team reveals that while the players have the utmost respect for each other, good buddies they're not. Johnny Damon and Hideki Matsui get along with everyone, and that's about it. Leaders Derek Jeter and Mariano Rivera are inner-directed chaps. A-Rod should follow their example. Why would anyone WANT to be Mike Mussina's friend in the first place?

There is literally nothing Rodriguez can do to earn the approval he craves. He can hit 8 homers in the playoffs and lead the Yanks to the title, and the general reaction will be "what took him so long? It's the slugger's eternal burden.

When in doubt, give up. A-Rod's idol is Michael Jordan. Didn't he see what happened when Mike tried baseball himself? Rodriguez needs a new role model, one who embodies the best approach to his dilemma.

The ideal sports psychologist for Alex Rodriguez would be Manny Ramirez.

posted by Michael Gee @ 7:55 AM