The A-Rod Trade to the Yankees

First things first. When it comes to what's good for baseball, Bud Selig (the so-called Baseball Commisioner) is a well known idiot (See this, or this for some perspective). However, he's not such an idiot when it comes to making himself and his family rich. He "owned" (like he still doesn't) one of the worst franchises in Major League Baseball (MLB), the Milwaukee Brewers. So he should be the one to decide if a trade of the magnitude of A-Rod's is "in the best interest" of baseball? I don't think so. He's incompetent. However, he did stumble into the right decision, God knows how.

Second things second. George Steinbrenner is as much a source of contention as Bud Selig, but for vastly different reasons. The N.Y. Yankees, over the years, have compiled a record of winning that is unsurpassed by any other major sports team. This is, in recent times and in no small measure, due to the efforts of Steinbrenner. He recognized early on that to get a team into a position where it could win, it had to have the players (and more recently, a manager). Some of George's early decisions literally had people circulating petitions outside Yankee Stadium for George's removal (how that was going to work, I don't know). But as time went on (and, as fate would have it, I moved away) the Yankees got better. Much better. George can take the credit (but not for the Billy Martin debacle). I'd like to take some credit for being one of the 2000 fans (on a good night) watching the Yankees from the stands in the late 1980's. It was pretty ugly, but I always had a great seat to watch the ugliness because, happily for me, it was the Yankees playing baseball in Yankee Stadium.

O.K. I admit it. I'm a Yankee fan. Jumped on the bandwagon in the early 1950's. As a fan it would be understandable that I would want Alex Rodriguez (A-Rod) and all the rest of the best to be playing for the Yankees. But it's more than that when it comes to a player of the caliber of A-Rod. He's been in Texas with the Rangers, hidden away from the casual baseball fan in the rest of the country. What would it be like to put Michael Jordan on a team like the perennial loser San Diego - Los Angeles Clippers. How would that have been for the NBA? The Clippers may have won 10 more games in a season, but they still would have gone nowhere. Why? They had serious losers for management. The record speaks for itself. Great first round picks year after year. Where did they go? What did they do? Nowhere, and nothing. Can you hear it? "He was good, but did he ever get a ring?" MLB can and should reward itself (and A-Rod) by giving a player like A-Rod a place to play where he can showcase his skills to the entire country. The Yankees are a team that can do that. But not the only one.

So what about the perennial whiners, the Boston Red Sox? They had a golden opportunity to get A-Rod. When I first heard of the Sox getting some serious pitching and then maybe A-Rod, it got me thinking. Can the "Curse of the Babe" hold up against this? Well, yes it can, given the Sox attitude about acquisitions. While they were negotiating for A-Rod they were willing to lose Nomar Garciaparra. He has been the backbone of the team since he got there. Apparently, serious stats hold no sway with the Sox. In any case it was about $12 Million separating the Sox, a major market team, from a deal with A-Rod. Twelve Million? Is that a lot in this day and age? Should we hold the Red Sox up as the epitome of baseball frugality? Not likely. Losing out on A-Rod (but managing to hold on to a miffed Garciaparra) was the best the Red Sox could do. So that was that, until George got his finger in the pie. How much better would the Sox be with A-Rod but without Garciaparra? We'll never know for sure, but probably not all that much. How many more games would they win? Not that many probably. So they gave up, and they're still complaining. The Yankees now have A-Rod, and they have Derek Jeter as well. A-Rod had to change his position and his number. It may not be a cakewalk, but in the end there will be the Yankees, on top again.

So is the A-Rod deal good for baseball? Or is it good only for the Yanks? I think it's both. It could have been good for another team, but the Yankees closed the deal. MLB will reap the benifits, as it always does. But the bottom line is that A-Rod with the Yankees will draw more fans. And not just Yankee fans. And that's good, very good, for baseball.

Trading A-Rod to the Yankees