Rodriguez is fairly new to Twitter but, like Cashman, has long been a friend to old media in the muckraking tradition of George Steinbrenner. Somewhere, the pinstriped spirits of the Boss and Billy Martin must have had a good laugh this week, raised a glass to old times and wished they had had such immediate digital access to the masses.
@BossGeorge @BillyTheKid “The next time you drive me to the wall, I’ll throw you over it.” (1977)
@BillyTheKid @BossGeorge “What does George know about Yankee pride? When did he ever play for the Yankees?” (1980)
If ever there were Yankees who would have trended with a fury on Twitter, it was George and Billy and, of course, Reggie Jackson, in the relatively short time he was a part of their continual turbulence.
@BillyTheKid @BossGeorge @ReggieTheStraw “The two of them deserve each other. One’s a born liar; the other’s convicted.” (1978)
Has there ever been a more memorable and provocative baseball opinion expressed in 140 characters or less?
Cashman and Rodriguez will have to work on their word games before they can step up in class to match the Boss and Billy. The good (or bad) news is that the Yankees are tied to A-Rod for four more seasons after the current one, and all will have the potential to be more tension-filled than the last.
Consider Rodriguez’s Twitter declaration of readiness the equivalent of batting practice off a tee as he prepares to rejoin an organization that wants no part of him while simultaneously cursing the fates that it, for the time being, desperately needs him.
On the surface, their exchange was about chain of command — Rodriguez’s continuous and in many ways tone deaf endeavors to control a story that even superior performance on the field may not allow him to anymore.
But the underlying issue here is the marriage of mutual dependency and inevitable misery that Rodriguez and the Yankees are locked into, till the death of his $275 million contract (after the 2017 season) do them part.
Cashman was against giving Rodriguez that deal in 2007. Asked directly Wednesday afternoon if he wanted Rodriguez back or if he and the Yankees have been stalling to determine what, if any, action will be taken by Major League Baseball on the Biogenesis front, Cashman said: “Make no mistake. If Alex Rodriguez is healthy, we want him and I want him to play third base. We need him yesterday.”
Of course they do. Kevin Youkilis and his degenerative back will be of no further assistance, and Rodriguez would have to be in 2012 playoff form to provide less production than the team has had at third base this season. With their most faceless lineup since the Stump Merrill days, they also need Rodriguez’s antihero celebrity power to address sagging attendance and television ratings.
The devil draws better than David Adams.
The conditions are different from when Martin was hired (and fired) five times by George Steinbrenner between 1975 and 1988. (@BillyTheKid “All I know is I pass people on the street these days, and they don’t know whether to say hello or to say goodbye.”) But there are similar love-hate realities stitched into the relationship.
As the Yankees moved further and further away from the late-1970s championship teams, Steinbrenner could not shake the addiction of Martin as provocateur and quick fix, evidence to the contrary.
Much as the Yankees fantasize of voiding Rodriguez’s contract because of his continuing immersion in the war on performance-enhancing drugs, they know the odds are against them, even if he is suspended by Commissioner Bud Selig later this season or next.
They would not be so eager to rid themselves of Rodriguez if they were sure he could hit 35 home runs and knock in 100 runs. They do not know what A-Rod, who will be 38 next month, is capable of after his latest hip operation, but chances are it will be better than what they have now and in the future.
The injuries that have befallen the Yankees this season are as much a statement about their rotting core as they are about rotten luck. If nothing else, Rodriguez will at least demand attention for as long as he plays in New York. The Yankees may soon be in need of it any way they can get it.
Rodriguez has seemed willing to take whatever indignities the Yankees have forced on him, with the apparent belief that somehow, some way, he will prevail on the field and have the last word.
If he doesn’t, we should expect no Yankees outbursts on A-Rod to remind us of the Boss’s before-its-time Twitter-perfect musing on Dave Winfield in 1985. (@BossGeorge “Where is Reggie Jackson? We need a Mr. October or a Mr. September. Winfield is Mr. May.”)
Cashman apologized for his profane outburst because the Yankees have become much more focused on stealth management since Hal Steinbrenner wrested daily operating control from his tempestuous brother, Hank.
As Rodriguez becomes a more isolated figure, Twitter could become his most trusted outlet. Cashman may never go there to retaliate, but count on them trending somewhere for four more years, while the Boss and Billy toast the past as Yankees prelude.
Article source: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/28/sports/baseball/yankees-update-infighting-for-a-digital-age.html?partner=rss&emc=rss
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