You people say all those things about Arod because he has not send all of you to hell, the only bad thing i would say about Arod is that he doesn’t have cojones if it was me i would have tell you people to shut the F.. up

if the Yankess give Jeter 200 then is ok he is a winner, he deserves it, bla bla bla bla bla bla, but because its Arod that to much money, right?

You people don like Arod because you are too in love with Jeter and are afraid of loving somebody else

My message to Arod is: send everybody to la MIERDA and play your game, so I would say thats he only thing missing on Arod as a player. Some cojones to send everybody to hell

Neil Best reports that one teammate, near tears, went to Torre about Damon, saying, “Let’s get rid of him. Guys can’t stand him.” Oh, is that the standard now – not that you can play, but whether you’re in with the in crowd? No wonder this team was so dysfunctional.

-39] I tend to think that A-Rod is (mostly) showing the real him over the past year, and it’s not always very appealing or likeable. But that’s what we get for asking him to just be himself!

One thing the Dominican community can’t stand is someone who is a phony, they don’t even admire his skill – and he probably has more skill than any player in baseball. I’m not speaking for all Dominicans, obviously there are some who like ARod, but in my last trip there 6 months ago I was amazed at how many Dominicans really despised and hated him for not being like Pedro, Manny, Papi, etc.

He’s not a bad guy, he’s just such a hard guy to identify with. What other athlete, in any sport, uses Warren Buffett to negotiate a peace agreement with the team he just turned his back on? Who understands that shit? No one!!! I don’t disagree with anything Torre said about ARod because it’s true and he had a first hand account.

I will always root for ARod to help the Yankees win, but if I had a choice, then I’d wish he wasn’t on the team – just like The Hawk. I used to make excuses for him, but ARod brings too much of that on himself.

Jeter to me is exactly what I want out of an athlete, I don’t want to hear too much from him other than about winning, focusing on winning championships and not hearing too much about their religious and political beliefs. Keep it moving and don’t bring too much extra attention on yourself. Look at how Jeter handled the comment by George Steinbrenner about partying too much, he addressed it, said it wasn’t true, and said he wasn’t going to change. Nuff said. He was comfortable with his own skin, isn’t that what we should be admiring?

I love that people want to blame Jeter for ARod’s nutty emotional issues, but before ARod got to NY there was nobody that needed Jeter’s pampering, but now comes the “great” ARod and Jeter is somehow responsible for not coddling him. Pah-lease!

And I don’t know about the rest of you, but Bantering here is like playing Calvinball sometimes to me >;)

thinking about it, isn’t Cashman a bit like Calvin’s dad??

But you may have forgotten I am a cartoonist as well… with my sense of humor and that hint, where would The Noodle Incident come from?

[38] good points all..never understood the Paul O’Neal love-fest, guy seemed very unbalanced and while a very good player, was highly over-rated..

[38] Some interesting thoughts…here one from me…if Alex really likes Madonna, wouldn’t he be a fraud for staying with his wife to keep up appearances? Also, if Arod only stayed at the ASG because he thought it’s what everyone would want him to do, wouldn’t that make him a phony? I think those two events point toward a divergence from the Arod Torre talks about in his book to the one the emerged in the 2007 season.

And why we’re all psychoanalyzing A-Rod, can we put Torre on the coach for a second here? Because his hatred of Rodriguez is, oh, I don’t know, like something out of “Single White Female” or something.

Joe criticizes Alex for trying to achieve individual numbers, while he adored Roger Clemens, the guy who wore a 300-wins patch of himself on his glove. Torre complained Alex obsessed too much over his failures, although watercooler destroyer Paul O’Neill was a Joe favorite.

Speaking of Clemens, while Torre was worrying about the propriety of A-Rod having a clubbie get him coffee and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, he let the Rocket put his own clubbie of sorts, Brian McNamee, on the Yankee payroll.

I thought A-Rod did a terrible job over the last year with the opt-out thing, the Madonna scandal, and even leaving the All-Star Game early, but I thought he has handled the Torre book perfectly – just by saying nothing.

[35] I agree with Torre on that, and it signified Steinbrenner’s full return to the bully pulpit.

I would not be thrilled about someone else detailing my depression in a “tell-all” book, to be honest. Was it Damon’s own account of his depression, or second-hand observations?

Torre was against the Giambi singing. He prefered that they go after Damon at the time. He wanted them to resign Tino for a year to help break Nick Johnson in. Torre didn’t like how Giambi’s poor fielding would impact the team.

The one thing that Verducci does detail is Johnny Damon’s depression in 07. He had serious thoughts about retirement that off season, came into camp out of shape, and it took him some time to get his head back in gear. According to the book, Damon’s teammates were really pissed about it and he was none to popular for while there.

Jeter and his Cal Ripken-like persona is actually more interesting anyway! just ONCE would like to know what he really thinks..the guy seems like a walking Bull-Durham cliche at times..

[31] Hawk, I think the Martin comparison is a bit legit — they’re both baseball players, Yankees, who dealt with insecurity. Lots of athletes turn to the bottle.

I guess I just don’t get all the dumping on A-Rod simply because he’s insecure and kind of socially awkward. Yes he needs to relax more in post season situations, but I don’t think everyone harping on his flaws is going to help.

16 days to pitchers and catchers. And I had to dig out from another 6″ snowstorm today.

Baker:
“I find him unlikable, but can anybody say that they think the Yankees wouldn’t have won all those World Series in the ’90s if they had him and not Scott Brosius playing third base?”

Sure, why not? I’ll say it right now or at least I’ll say “probably not”.