Wednesday, October 31, 2007

Heed the disclaimer

Disclaimer: I don’t like A-Rod. I think he has no soul. But here’s the case for the Red Sox going for him.

Performance: The Red Sox didn’t make the playoffs in 2006. They only won the division this year by 2 games and only tied for best record in baseball. Sure, they went on a tear and blew out the playoffs. And even the national media is now predicting the Red Sox to win 165 regular season games for the next four or five years. But being able to land a player who puts up 50 HR and 130 RBI with a batting average over .300, while playing a key defensive position (SS or 3B, take your pick), makes the regular season a bit more comfortable.

Clutch performance: Before getting on A-Rod’s post season failures and assuming it will always be such, we should consider that our own franchise went 86 years without a title. John Elway, Steve Young and Mike Krzwklsikslieksi (the basketball coach from Duke) are other examples of guys that “couldn’t win the big one”…until they did. Remember, they used to call Jeter Mr. November and say all he does is win. Things change.

Character: First: if Ortiz is friends with him, that’s gotta say something. Second: A-Rod and Randy Moss. Compare and contrast.

In addition to my disclaimer above, know that I can think of very few things my wife wants more than for the Red Sox to NOT acquire A-Rod. If they did acquire A-Rod, she might start rooting for him to suffer an immediate career-ending injury. No, I’m not kidding or exaggerating this. Not even a little bit.

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