Before the age of 30, the fabled Alexander The Great had conquered most of the known Ancient World.
On the eve of his 30th birthday next Wednesday, New York Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriguez has arguably conquered most of the baseball world.
Yet the player who Yankees broadcaster John Sterling has anointed "Alexander The Great" differs from his namesake in one important regard. The senior Alexander was victorious in each of the cities through which he passed.
From Seattle to Arlington to the Bronx, baseball fans have watched Rodriguez in amazement, waiting for the ultimate dividend the home team's huge investments figured to earn. For Seattle and Texas, that dividend never came before they bid adieu. Rather, they found themselves a stronger contender in his wake, lending credence to A-Rod's image as poster child for the Addition-By-Subtraction doctrine.
Given their team's 2004 postseason collapse and sluggish start this year, many short-on-patience Yankees fans have been left wondering if they haven't been hit by a case of the reverse: Subtraction-By-Addition. Recent success has tempered their impatience, but it always lingers near the surface.
So, is this rap a fair one or is A-Rod merely the victim of misguided jealousy?
Pundits point to Rodriguez's triple-crown contending 2005 season and argue that a player with this kind of production can only be regarded as a pure asset. One man cannot single-handedly bring a World Series trophy to any city.
Opponents cite the distractions created by a circus atmosphere this media darling draws into a Yankee clubhouse that has swallowed up its share of superstars and maturated them into a team-oriented dedication to winning.
Oh yes, there's one other thing on their side: his stats aren't what they appear to be.
Perhaps no single example could articulate this dichotomy better than what occurred on a warm Milwaukee night in early June.
It was the eighth inning. Rodriguez stepped to the plate to face Jorge De La Sosa. The Brewer southpaw was making only his 24th career appearance. A-Rod lined his offering into the right field stands for his league-leading 19th homer of the season. What's more, he became the youngest player in major league history to reach 400 career home runs at the tender age of 29 years and 10 months. He rounded the bases, tagged the plate, and stood at the threshold of the doors to Cooperstown.
On the other hand, it was a solo shot. The Yankees were up 10-3 at the time.
When news of his milestone was carried to televisions in Seattle, Texas, and Boston, viewers simply shrugged. Yet another stat-padding solo shot for the $25-million dollar man they all lost out on.
Particularly in Boston, A-Rod is regarded contemptuously as "A-Fraud." This contempt was born of the February 2004 trade that sent him to New York on the heels of Red Sox management's failed attempt to acquire him only two months prior.
Throw in last July's run-in with Sox catcher Jason Varitek that became the rallying cry for Boston's first modern-day World Series title, then The Slap in Game 6 of the ALCS, and A-Fraud has forever embedded himself in the ridicule of Bostonians. He was a favorite target of player and fan ire all through last winter and spring. Even now, boards light up in Boston when a radio caller starts an A-Rod thread.
With so much bad blood spilled between player and city, is it conceivable Bean-towners may have allowed A-Rod's notoriety to preempt a fair bean-counting of his achievements?
Although a career .306 hitter, the chief manifestations of Rodriguez's conquest of baseball are his home runs, followed by RBI and a couple of gold gloves. Not yet 30, A-Rod is already tied for 39th all-time with 407 home runs that — along with 1,173 RBI — will ensure his induction into the Hall of Fame.
Adding six postseason homers, A-Rod's career total rises to 413. Most importantly in Boston, he has hit 65 — nearly one in six — over the last season and a-half as a Yankee. So, how significant are his taters?
First and foremost, the Yankees have a .754 winning percentage (43-14) in games where A-Rod has homered and .549 in which he has not. That's prima facie evidence the Yanks win when he homers. Score this one to Alexander The Great.
On the other hand, 31 — nearly half — were hit in games decided by a margin of five or more runs (26 in wins, 5 in losses). Ahhh, it could be that A-Rod simply homers when the Yanks win, the old chicken-and-egg debate. Give this to A-Fraud.
On 24 occasions, A-Rod homers got the Yankees on the scoreboard. Unfortunately, the Yankees went on to win only 14 of those games, but we're not going to blame The Great for this. Score: 2-1.
How about 34 solo homers compared to only one grand slam? For the record, 21 were two-run shots while the remaining nine were for three. We're back to deuce.
Another 34 homers were hit in either tied or one-run games. But wait! Twenty occurred in the first three innings and only three from the seventh inning on. In fact, A-Rod has hit a mere 14 homers from the seventh inning on since becoming a Yankee, and only three — the most recent against Curt Schilling in Boston — affected the outcome. A-Fraud takes the lead.
Well, not everything's about the long ball. Hitting for average is one of the five tools, too.
We'll measure A-Rod by the same barometer with which all of Yankeedom measures the mettle of its players — how well they perform against the Red Sox, the Mets, and in the postseason.
In his first year in the Bronx, Alex hit a disappointing .286 in the regular season but .320 in the playoffs. His average was .291 in 26 games against Boston and .258 in six against the Mets. Collectively, he hit 5 of his 39 homers and drove in 17 of his 114 runs against his team's major nemeses.
This year has been better. Rodriguez is hitting .311 overall, including a blistering .609 ¬— albeit over six games — against the Mets, but .255 in 13 games against Boston. In the 19 combined games, A-Rod has 4 homers and 12 RBI. Most of this damage came during this past weekend's series in Boston when he collected 3 homers and 5 RBI.
Rodriguez's numbers do tend to hold up regardless of the game situation. In 2004, he hit .286 and drove in 31 runs — slightly less than a third of his production — from the seventh inning on. In close and late situations, he hit .275. The only stunning aberration was with runners in scoring position and two away, where he hit .206.
In 2005 to date, A-Rod is hitting .317 from the seventh inning on, .317 in close and late situations, and a much-improved .304 with runners in scoring position and two out.
Against these good but not spectacular numbers, Alexander The Great fans will point out that objective stats don't measure how much A-Rod improves those around him. Gary Sheffield is the defense's key witness here, hitting as he does just ahead of A-Rod in the batting order most nights.
Those who allege Alex is a fraud will ask for proof of that pudding. They'll want to know how Seattle won 25 more games in the first year without him. If he's such an intangible asset, how did Texas win 22 less games in his first year and decline further in each of the next two until trading him and regaining winning ways?
They'll ask why these teams had a combined .475 winning percentage over their last three years with Alex Rodriguez on their roster, then a .603 percentage in the ensuing years (three for Seattle, one for Texas). Discounted of course will be the presence of Jaime Moyer and Ichiro Suzuki in Seattle, of Alfonso Soriano and Kenny Rogers in Texas. That is only so much noise.
Like Tom Hanks and Shelley Long in The Money Pit, George knows he'll eventually get the house of his dreams, maybe even this year. When he does, A-Rod will undoubtedly be a tenant since his lease still has another five and one-half years remaining.
On that night when A-Rod stands in the locker room with the trophy in hand, we can all debate whether he was chief architect or collateral beneficiary.
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