N.Y. Yankees: Lou Gehrig Catches Another Bad Break

From the desk of:   BLAME CARLOS MAY

New York YANKEES: Resistive Faults In The Pinstripes.

The desecration of Baseball's all-time records continues as the career of Lou Gehrig catches another bad break.  On Friday evening, Alex Rodriguez broke the Iron Horse's all-time record for most grand slam home runs in a career.  The blast came in the bottom of the seventh inning during a 1-1 game against the San Francisco Giants at Yankee Stadium.  Reliever George Kontos gave up the record ridiculing blow.  Alex Rodriguez now has twenty-four grand slam home runs during his infamous career.

On a related note, Alex Rodriguez needs just six more home runs to tie Willie Mays on the all-time list.  With Friday night's knock, A-Rod now has 654 round trippers.  Willie Mays is next with 660 homers.  Eight games remain in the New York Yankees regular season.  It is unlikely A-Rod reaches Willie this season, but certainly not out of the question.  With any luck, A-Rod's full suspension sticks next season and beyond, and he never gets the chance.  But hey, that's just me.  My reasons are simple. Alex Rodriguez is a clear and obvious repeat PED offender.  Nuf ced.

In fact, the Bronx was chock-full-o-news Friday evening.  Andy Pettitte announced his retirement from the Yankees, again.  But this time he says he means it, and I'm sure he does.  Baseball after all, is a young man's game.  Now what follows is the debate as to whether Andy is a Hall of Famer, and without hesitation, I say he is not.  If Andy belongs anywhere, it would be in the Hall of Very Very Good.  His career win percentage of .627% is nothing short of spectacular, and 255 career wins are awfully hard to achieve by any standard.  His career ERA is an Amercan League'ish 3.89, to go along with a 1.354 WHiP, and he has over 2,400 strikeouts.  In fourteen years of post-season play, he amassed a 19-11 record and 3.81 ERA.  But alas, he was never one of the game's elite pitchers, just very, very clutch.

Both Andy and Alex make for an intriguing case study in likability.  For most of his time spent playing in New York, Alex Rodriguez has served as the town pariah.  Most everything he has said and done has been met with resistance and/or disdain from sizable pockets of the local and greater baseball population.  Andy Pettitte however, has been a city darling since his rookie season in pinstripes.  Everyone loves Andy.  Right?

Both are baseball cheats, and neither one of them will escape that fact.  Among all the known PED users to date, Andy Pettitte perhaps took the most humbling approach to his dilemma, and fessed up immediately, and openly.  But that doesn't make anything right with regards to what he and ARod did.  If you recall, Andy's memory had to be jarred a tad, in order to recall a second time he used.  Which is fine, because he was always forthright with his involvement, and even testified against Roger Clemens.

With ARod, no such transparency exists.  What started out as a loosey-goosey time for him just degenerated into a giant sham.




Mike.BTB