October 3, 2006 -- "If Joe Torre dropping Alex Rodriguez into the sixth spot of the supposed "Greatest Lineup Ever" didn't get the Yankees' attention, the manager grabbed it with a direct message to his players."
Therein lies the hypocracy of bigtime sports. All season long I'd jump in to offer that Rodriguez should bat 6th, but those games didn't count, not to Torre. To Torre, who knows that his team was good enough to win most days anyway, the fans paying to see those games were chumps. Let the team take a day off now and again, let players remain in lineup spots unsuited to their performance, because it's all about them and has nothing to do with us.
Alex Rodriguez had the worst season of his adult life. Dropping him in the batting order was what should have been done in May, not October, but the 4 million PLUS fans who went to Yankee Stadium and the tens of millions more who watched at home weren't important enough as customers to put forth the best team possible.
Think we'll get refunds? Maybe I'll try that after watching or going to a game where the team and/or the manager decided to tank it. Ask for my money back. Can you imagine the press it'd get if most people did just that every time professional atheletes mailed it in?
As for playoff predicitons, it's impossible to tell how this team will handle the pressure. Especially since they've been coddled into believing that it's okay to give less than 100%, and that winning is all about making themselves feel good and not the fans.
In the National League, the Mets are the odds-on favorites but for as skilled a player as manager Wille Randolph was, he was soft. To Willie, "Go For The Jugular" meant killing the guy tossing around those gaily colored balls.
The toughest team always wins. Not the most skilled.
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