THE AROD SQUEEZE

A while back I had written about how I noticed less and less Yankee advertising featuring Alex Rodriguez.  I noticed the billboards only showed our Yankee staples of history. Derek Jeter, Thurman Munson, the Babe.  When my buddy received his season tickets a few years ago, Alex Rodriguez wasn't on any of them, yet the other stars, maybe even "less" stars, on the club were.

It was evident to me, that Alex Rodriguez, while still under contract with the New York Yankees, was to no longer front and center like he was when we signed him in 2004.  Too much controversy and too much disappointment.

Signing Chase Headley to 4 years and $52 million made it even more clear to me that Alex was no longer needed, or wanted.  I mean sure, if he can come to the plate and crank out 20 homers, we'll take it, we need the offense. After all, he's still a Yankee and still needs to put up numbers... that's his job.  But the guy's gonna be 40 this year, and has a few bad hips and yup, he's tainted.  It's clear the Yankees don't have much use for him.

The idea of Headley manning 3rd makes me happy.  I mean, I do like Alex there, but the Yankees have "moved in another direction", something they would usually say when they aren't too jazzed about a certain player.  It's a tactic they have to move on. But for Alex, they didn't say that at all. In fact, they won't. Sneaking around and taking things away is the smarter move. It's strategic. It's the ARod squeeze.

Alex will take his lumps and he should.  He messed up and he knows it.  He'll go to the press at some point this spring and say, "Everything's great" and "Chase and I get along great", but his ego is shot and he's be dying inside.  Maybe that's why he went out publicly saying he's not giving his job away. In the end though, him losing is what the Yankees want to happen.  They want Alex Rodriguez, for the first time in his career be humbled and realize that he's not needed.

Sadly though, the Yankees still owe Alex a ton of money and they know it.  They also know they messed up with that contract.  But they'll do their best to allow Alex to take at-bats and hopefully help the club and get something, ANYTHING back on their bad investment. That's why Cashman came out with his bold, "ARod is the DH" statement.  A statement that rang true through the media, and I'm sure made Alex Rodriguez crazy in Miami.  This is a man that was supposed to be the next all-time home run champion in baseball. That is why the Yankees signed him.  That, my friends is no longer the case.  PEDs have killed his body and whether or not ARod can play 3rd anymore is not longer up for debate.  The Yankees don't want him to.  They want Chase Headley... again, strategic.  The squeeze. It's a slow death for Alex. You don't have to agree with me... but you know I'm right.

As we near the end of ARod's days in pinstripes, they'll cut ties or let him walk away serving his time. Whatever it is, for Yankee brass, it will be a sigh of relief. Not only was it a terrible contract that George Steinbrenner personally worked out, it's a tainted player, whether Alex served his time or not, and the Yankees no longer want him representing the New York Yankees.

Alex Rodriguez was once a great ballplayer. No one can deny that, but those days are over.  It doesn't matter what videos ARod will show his bosses. It doesn't matter that he's working out like a maniac.  It doesn't matter that he's sorry for his sins.  Fate is now in the hands of the Yankees...

What's that expression? Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me?  I guess this is what happens when you're fooled three times...



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