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A-Rod on his way to being greatest ever
Topic Started: Jun 9 2005, 08:54 PM (91 Views)
COTTON EYED JOE
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By Mike Celizic
NBCSports.com contributor
Updated: 1:29 a.m. ET June 9, 2005

There’s no question Alex Rodriguez has been a convenient target ever since the end of the 2000 season, when he set out to become the best-paid player in the history of American team sports. But now, as the youngest player in history to hit 400 home runs, it’s high time to give the man credit for what he’s accomplished.

Baseball careers, more than those in any other sport, are measured in numbers. One can carp and cavil about what happens in a game, a series or a season. But when the games and seasons combine into a career, all you can do with someone like A-Rod is marvel at what he’s accomplished.

This has nothing to do with his personality or his popularity with fans or players or media. Many great players have been less than the most complete or genial human beings.

Ty Cobb was a racist, hateful miserable s.o.b., so hated in the game that just two former players came to his funeral. Babe Ruth was enormously popular, but he went overboard the other way, a giant kid who indulged every appetite of child and adult. Lou Gehrig was quiet and attached to his mother. Joe DiMaggio was a tightwad and so cold you’d get frostbite sitting next to him.

Mickey Mantle was beloved by all, but partied as hard as anyone ever did. Hack Wilson and Jimmie Foxx were prodigious drinkers. Sandy Koufax was painfully shy. Ted Williams was loud and profane and as irascible as they come.

So, while we keep wanting every great player to be like Yogi Berra or Robin Yount or Stan Musial, it isn’t going to happen. And it doesn’t have to. All that counts when a career is done is the numbers in the book.

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BleacherCreature

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I am only concerned with this number:

World Championships: 0

If he puts two or three in that column while he is here and continues piling up numbers the way he is maybe someday you will be able to make that argument.

For right now he is a stat padder who has never led his team to the promised land while continually being called "the best player in the game"

As a matter of fact every team he has played for got considerally better the moment he left..... :think:
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I'mRickJamesBitch
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He is probably the most talented guy that the Yankees have had in the last 20+ years but he needs that ring to complete his status.
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cmnyy
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Well - he came to the right place to get that ring. :yes:


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Giambi_MVP_25
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Not this year.
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BleacherCreature

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I'mRickJamesBitch
Jun 9 2005, 08:57 PM
He is probably the most talented guy that the Yankees have had in the last 20+ years but he needs that ring to complete his status.

I might have to agree with that except for the fact that I saw Mattingly play long before he hurt his back and the guy was just ridiculous...He doesnt get hurt and his numbers are huge, he is still here for all those rings, and he would need a pick up truck to carry around all those additional gold gloves....

You may very well be right , but I couldnt live with myself if I didnt throw that out there....
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COTTON EYED JOE
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Drew
Jun 9 2005, 10:10 PM
Not this year.

Giving up again ???

I will never give up !
6 games out , time to give up :no1:.... crazy
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Strider
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cmnyy
Jun 9 2005, 10:06 PM
Well - he came to the right place to get that ring. :yes:

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh, my eyes! Warn me next time you're gonna expose my pupils to such sunshiningeynessity.
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I'm not reading the article ("Reading is foolishness" - Strider at 6) cuz I have my own opinion and I'm right. He'll be considered one of the greatest ever - would have been even more if he stayed at SS - but he won't be the greatest. He'll probably end his career a batting average in the high .290s and over 700 homeruns. Great numbers, but not the greatest. Until someone combines the power with a high-high average (and low-low ERA) like Ruth or with superb fielding and baserunning like Mays, they'll never get the distinction. In the conversation, but not "it".

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Yanksfan03
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cmnyy
Jun 9 2005, 10:06 PM
Well - he came to the right place to get that ring. :yes:

Yeah, he's really helped us the last two years. :rolleyes:
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