Hallelujah.
If this were any other player in baseball, would this even be an issue? If it were any other player, would he even have an issue with Torre — one of the best managers in baseball — in the first place?
The “tension” dates back to the 2006 season, when New York faced Detroit in the ALDS and Rodriguez was slumping. The star slugger did not take well to being dropped to eighth in the lineup, a disagreement which he made obvious.
The “tension” grew exponentially after Torre’s career with the Yankees came to an acrimonious conclusion, and in 2009, he co-authored the book “The Yankee Years,” which showcased some not-so-flattering information about his former player — like the fact that his teammates sometimes called him A-Fraud. Naturally, Rodriguez was hurt, but despite the fact that the book debuted a year and a half ago, he couldn’t bring himself to let bygones be bygones when he and the pinstripes first arrived in L.A. on Friday.
During Friday’s batting practice, after Torre had already told a scrum of media members that he was perfectly willing to end his supposed issues with A-Rod, the New York third baseman very calculatedly avoided his former manager, escaping to the clubhouse before Torre had an opportunity to greet him.
But ever the diplomat, A-Rod did an about-face by the time the series ended two days later, hugging it out with Torre before his squad headed home.
“It was a big zoo on Friday,” A-Rod told ESPN.com. “I didn’t want to be caught up in that. It took me a couple of days to get my thoughts and I did that [Sunday].”
The sentiment is nice, but the only problem is that the decision to be the bigger person shouldn’t really require any thought at all.
It’s clear that there was more going on behind the scenes between A-Rod and Torre that the media and fans were not privy to. The fact that Torre dropped A-Rod in the lineup during a playoff series was likely the straw that broke the camel’s back, not the heart of the issue. But still, when Terry Francona moved David Ortiz out of the heart of the order in 2009 and in parts of 2010, the slugger was obviously frustrated, but it was mostly frustration with himself. He never made it personal; he never assumed that his manager was out to get him.
With A-Rod, everything always seems to be personal.
The fact that Torre called out A-Rod in his tell-all book wasn’t a classy move, but was the A-Fraud thing anything we hadn’t heard before? It’s not as though A-Rod had a pristine image that Torre suddenly shattered. This is a man who, according to popular belief, even Derek Jeter has trouble putting up with. If the captain of the team and the face of the franchise doesn’t try to hide his dislike for you, there’s a problem. And it’s not a secret.
Your manager doesn’t need to point it out in a best-seller, but it’s not like the sentiments were totally out of left field.
With any other player, this weekend’s events would have been non-issues. With any other player, there would have been a brief reconciliation before the first game of the series, and that would have been the end of the story. There would have been no public airing of grievances, no opportunity to detract from what was happening on the field.
Instead, this weekend’s series became yet another docudrama starring the sport’s most prominent star.
There’s no question that Torre made a mistake by airing his dirty laundry in public. He could have taken the high road and kept his mouth shut — or at least waited until he was out of baseball to speak the truth.
But his open animosity toward Rodriguez afforded Rodriguez the rare opportunity to be the bigger person. The Yankee could have shrugged off Torre’s comments and pleaded the fifth, and everyone would have been a bit shocked, yet impressed, by his level-headedness.
A-Rod had the opportunity to be the bigger person, and once again, he didn’t take it.
