An Open Letter to Alex Rodriguez

Dear Mr. Rodriguez,
You're kidding right? I mean, you have to be kidding because there's no way I just saw you go 0-4 with three strikeouts in game five of the ALDS, did I?


Oh wait, I did. Well let me just voice an opinion that you have heard before and you are about to hear AGAIN from every media outlet in the greater NYC area: YOU ARE, WITHOUT A DOUBT, THE MOST OVERHYPED AND UNDERPERFORMING PLAYER THE YANKEES HAVE EVER SIGNED. And Alex, that is saying something. You are worse then the Carl Pavanos and the (post-steroid) Jason Giambis, You're even worse then A.J. Burnett, and do you know why? Because with those guys you didn't EXPCET them to come through, they would have mediocre seasons and then have mediocre playoffs, or they would have a good season and have a good playoffs but none of them were like YOU. YOU have great, MVP like seasons (not this season to be fair but most seasons) and then you choke in the playoffs, and I mean CHOKE. There are bandits that got hung from trees in the wild west that don't choke as much as you do in the clutch.


Let's look at last night: seventh inning, down two runs, one out, bases loaded, you come to the plate. You didn't even need to get a hit. All that you had to do was hit a deep fly ball and score a run. That's IT. However you aren't even good enough to do that, instead you struck out swinging.....on a pitch that started inside and kept moving towards you, it was NEVER going to be called a strike and yet you still swung. Alright well I guess I can forgive you because Benoit threw you a change-up and you were looking fastball, so he made a good pitch, plus Tex walked in the run that YOU should have walked in so at least we scored a run. However, you had ANOTHER chance to define your legacy as a Yankee in the bottom of the ninth.


This time there were two outs, no one on base and if you don't get on base the SEASON is OVER, that makes it slightly important for your ass to get on. All the pressure is on you, and guess what: when you sign a contract for over $200 million you are signing a contract that says "HEY I WANT THE SPOTLIGHT ON ME, I WANT THE PRESSURE ON ME. I'M GOING TO COME THROUGH WHEN NO ONE ELSE CAN!!!!!!!" So the Baseball Gods gave you your wish, all of Yankee Stadium and most of the baseball world is watching YOU, watching YOU stare at two pitches that you easily could have launched over the right field fence and then watching YOU swing through a pitch that YOU should have obliterated. And then we watched YOU walk back to the dugout after, for the SECOND STRAIGHT SEASON, making the last out of the playoffs by striking out. I hope you feel good about yourself Mr. Rodriguez.


Now before you go and pull a LeBron and ask, "What should I do?" I'll just tell you. You should go to the front office of the New York Yankees and tell them that you want to re-structure your contract so that you make the minimum amount of money possible for a major leaguer unless you hit over .300 in the playoffs OR get game tying/winning hits in the postseason. I want you to tell them that, because it is clear that you don't feel like you need to EARN your money at all, you just expect us to give it to you, and as of now, you are correct. But before you blow off this letter please do me this favor, look at the other people in that locker room, look at all the fans you let down, time after time and ask your yourself this question: Is the money really that important to me? Because if it is then you aren't a real Yankee, and you will NEVER be a real Yankee. A real Yankee goes out there for his teammates and for he fans, Nick Swisher is a real Yankee, Robinson Cano is a real Yankee, Brett Gardener is a real Yankee, even C.C. is more of a Yankee then you are. So do yourself a favor Mr. Rodriguez and get in the YANKEE mentality because if you aren't in the Yankee mentality then you don't deserve to be in a Yankee uniform. So as Stephen Colbert would say: you're on notice.


Sincerely,
Andy Cahill and Yankee fans everywhere.