praise the lord and pass the ammunition

the first thing i saw over at btf this morning:

Sportswriters have a talent for casting nearly everything that happens in sports in the form of a morality play, loaded with stock characters. There are anointed golden boys who stand beyond reproach, and “scrappy” athletes who represent “heart” and “knowing how to win.” (If baseball were Hollywood—or “Los Angeles of Hollywood,” in Angels-speak—Derek Jeter and David Eckstein would be more typecast than Bela Lugosi in an Ed Wood film.)

And because any recycled storyline needs an anti-hero, Rodriguez has been thrust into that part time and again. Subject to much fawning coverage and given an inane nickname for the ages early in his career, Rodriguez saw his image change quickly when he left the Seattle Mariners for a massive contract from the Texas Rangers after the 2000 season. The Mariners would soon become the matinee idols of countless sports pages as they continued to win, while Rodriguez might as well have grown a handlebar mustache to twirl as the Rangers—due mostly to an inept pitching staff—made no improvement. 

But Rodriguez didn’t add the horns and tail to his wardrobe until the Rangers traded him to the Yankees after 2003. Not only did the Rangers improve (thanks largely to an influx of young talent), but the Yankees didn’t win the championships that so many in the press perceived to be their sovereign property. Rodriguez made a convenient scapegoat. [David Damiani]

Labels: team a-rod, yanquis