In many ways, Alex Rodriguez was in a no-win situation as he arrived Sunday, knowing everyone was waiting to see how he would respond to the Red Sox treating him like a punching bag.
More Top Picks Best Snow Boots For Men Under 100
Turned out he thought it best not to escalate the war of words, which was fine. What he shouldn’t have done, however, was pretend not to know what has been said about him. What he shouldn’t have done was say, “I haven’t been keeping up with the bulletin-board stuff.”
That’s the kind of thing that makes people roll their eyes about A-Rod. There might not be a pro athlete anywhere who pays more attention to what is said and written about him than A-Rod, and everyone around baseball knows it.
A-Rod has a right to be mad about being held up for ridicule by the Red Sox. Just as he has a right not to want to make matters worse. If only he’d been upfront about it, he’d have earned more respect. Instead, he danced around questions about the various rips from the Sox.
Obviously there is something about A-Rod that doesn’t sit right with his fellow ballplayers, or other Yankees would be screaming back at the Sox. If it’s true that A-Rod never will be perceived as a true Yankee, as the Sox insist, maybe it’s because Derek Jeter refuses to embrace him, as evidenced by his refusal to offer even the most obligatory of comments in his defense last week.
For the moment, in fact, the A-Rod-Jeter relationship is more significant to the Yankees than anything the Red Sox are saying.