Alex Rodriguez made my sh#tlist from Day One.
Day One around here was when Texas Rangers owner Tom Hicks forked over $252 million to nab A-Rod in free agency. The contract seemed like drunken spending by an owner who proved himself a mental midget when it came to sports teams.
Adding the extra $2 million on top of the quarter billion dollar contract was the worst part, like slapping an exclamation point on Hicks’ insanity.
No other Major League contract had ever even topped $200 million when Hicks raided Fort Knox at the longterm expense of the team.
A-Rod walked into town of skeptics like me. The only way he could win us over was to be as likable as Babe Ruth while immediately turning a last place team into a World Series champion.
Two problems: A-Rod was only as likable as the cancer that killed Babe Ruth. And Hicks’s ridiculous financial offer meant he low-balled other players — popular guys who actually enjoyed being in Texas.
A-Rod didn’t want to be here. It showed. The New York native and lifelong Mets fan sold himself to the highest bidder and regretted his decision as soon as his feet touched the hot, flat, humid North Texas ground.
He was a great player (hi steroids!) but he had the personality of a shrunken testicle.
And the Rangers stayed in last place.
Then he headed to New York. — not to follow his heart and play for his beloved Mets, of course, but to join the richer crosstown rival Yankees.
Since then he’s been a false idol — great stats in the regular season, spectacular failures when it counts.
He’s dated models, strippers, and actresses that guys drool over, but loves himself most, such as when he posed for a magazine by kissing himself in a mirror.
Now the Yankees have benched him because baseballs suddenly turns into BBs whenever Rodriguez straddles the plate come playoff time.
But back to the question posed in the headline — “Is It Petty To Revel In A-Rod’s Downfall?”
Yes, it is petty to take glee in someone’s failures, particularly a guy who plays a silly game that is unimportant in the grand scheme of things.
So call me petty.
“…personality of a shrunken testicle.” !