I'd like to introduce everyone to Beth, my girlfriend of 3 years. She's as opinionated as I am and she has something to say:
"Last night I watched A-Rod become the youngest player ever to hit 400 homeruns (in his 40th multi-homer game, no less) so I was eager to get to work this morning to read all about it on ESPN.com. I should have known better. Instead I find an article belittling his achievement by prattling on about how unlikely it is that he’ll break Hank Aaron’s record. Are they serious?! A-Rod not only just accomplished something that only 39 players in the history of the game have accomplished (some of the more recent ones having done so by rather dubious means), he’s accomplished it well before all but one other player did (Griffey had 398 before turning 30 but A-Rod’s over 2 years younger than Aaron and over 4 years younger than Bonds when they reached the same mark). Perhaps most importantly, at a time when baseball’s image is so tarnished, here’s a player who’s doing unbelievable things without cheating. But instead of focusing on what A-Rod’s achieved before the age of 30 and how good it is for the game, ESPN.com chooses to focus on how unlikely it is that he’ll hit another 355.
I think there are 2 reasons for this: 1) he’s a Yankee and 2) his bloated contract damned him to unrealistic expectations. Call me paranoid but ESPN just can’t stomach the thought of giving too much praise to a Yankee. It’s trendy to be a Yankee-hater and ESPN is nothing if not a trend-whore more interested in jumping on the latest bandwagon than maintaining any kind of journalistic integrity or objectivity (paging Stuart Scott). If A-Rod had been wearing any other jersey when he hit his 400th, I’m pretty sure the title would have read something along the lines of “Greatest Ever” (maybe with a question mark at the end). I can’t even imagine how far up his ass they’d be if he’d been wearing a Red Sox jersey. But since he’s a Yankee the best they can muster is acknowledgment of the accomplishment with the qualification that it doesn’t really mean all that much since he probably won’t break Aaron’s record anyway (which is a whole other debate).
I think there are 2 reasons for this: 1) he’s a Yankee and 2) his bloated contract damned him to unrealistic expectations. Call me paranoid but ESPN just can’t stomach the thought of giving too much praise to a Yankee. It’s trendy to be a Yankee-hater and ESPN is nothing if not a trend-whore more interested in jumping on the latest bandwagon than maintaining any kind of journalistic integrity or objectivity (paging Stuart Scott). If A-Rod had been wearing any other jersey when he hit his 400th, I’m pretty sure the title would have read something along the lines of “Greatest Ever” (maybe with a question mark at the end). I can’t even imagine how far up his ass they’d be if he’d been wearing a Red Sox jersey. But since he’s a Yankee the best they can muster is acknowledgment of the accomplishment with the qualification that it doesn’t really mean all that much since he probably won’t break Aaron’s record anyway (which is a whole other debate).
Secondly, I’m sure his wife would disagree but that $252 million contract he signed may end up not being such a great thing. No one can actually be worth that obscene amount of money so in many people’s minds, no matter what he accomplishes, he’s still not worth it. I just think it’s a shame that ESPN can’t present last night for what it is: one of the best players to ever play the game accomplishing something no one ever had before – nothing more, nothing less."
4 comments:
Three cheers for the lovely guest blogger. Anybody that puts up with Mo I assume by definition would need strong opinions to keep him under control.
First off I prefer to let my biases out in the open. I dislike the Yankees (albeit I dislike the Red Sox more than the Yankees) I absolutely agree that A-Rod's huge contract does play a part in the -A-Rod stigma. I'm not as certain tho thats its a bash Yankee syndrome. I don't think A-Rod has ever gotten good media coverage whether he was at Texas or Seattle or even Appleton, Wisconsin (his minor league days). Nobody seems to warm to A-Rod whether its fans or players let alone the media. He comes across as phoney. He gave tons of money to Bush's re-election campaign. Also I heard he kills hobos. Well maybe the first two. Nonetheless while ESPN is guilty of lots of things (Steven A Smith is near the top of the list) I don't think hating A-Rod solely for his Yankee affiliation is the reason.
I think the sole reason that A-Rod gets ignored is the contract. He became the poster child for an overpaid athlete, by having an income greater than many private corporations.
I also don't like the Yankees, but that's not the problem here, because ESPN loves talking about how great Derek Jeter and Bernie Williams are. It's all about the contract. He is a great player, and I don't think anyone would deny that.
I agree and disagree with Ms. Beth. She's right in that the #1 priority should be to celebrate A-Rod's incredible accomplishment - and, for that matter, his phenomenal career. That is the top story and should be the focus of the occasion.
But baseball, more than any other sport, is a game in which we never stop comparing our heroes to those of yesterday. It is only natural, then, to follow up our celebration of 400 homers with two inevitable questions: (1) Will A-Rod hit 756?; and (2) of the all-time greats, where does A-Rod rank? That's what we do with this game of ours. Maybe it's not always right, but that's just what we do. A-Rod and his milestone are not the first victim of this tradition and they will hardly be the last.
As for Beth's "They hate him because he's a Yankee" theory: well, I think there's a little too much Mo in that one. I've learned firsthand that in teaching the beautiful game of baseball to a beautiful woman, some of the instructor's biases wear off, perhaps a little too strongly for objective analysis. I'd concur with Señor Goldberg on this one. :)
I didn't know A-Rod gave money to Bush's campaign. Nevermind what I said about him before. He sucks and doesn't deserve any accolades or admiration. I still maintain ESPN has a huge anti-Yankee bias though. Case in point - a week or so ago one of the Sportscenter highlights was a basehit by Nick Johnson and the accompanying commentary was "put that in your yankeeography." Good old predictable ESPN - getting the digs in wherever they can, even when the only link is as tenuous as a former Yankee bench player. And Hart, just because Mo taught me everything I know about sports and just because I love all the teams he loves and hate all the teams he hates, doesn't mean any of his biases have rubbed off on me. That's just crazy talk.
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