This Is Why We Hate A-Rod
Look at this picture, what do you notice? Do you notice Alex Rodriguez (far left) being a twerp again? No? Well, keep reading.
The more one scrutinizes Rodriguez, the more abnormal he appears.
On Monday, Hideki Matsui slammed a game-winning walk-off home run. As the Yankees stood excitedly waiting for Godzilla to finish rounding the bases and jump into the team’s awaiting scrum at home plate, Rodriguez, outfielder Melky Cabrera and catcher Jorge Posada all motioned for him to toss off his helmet so that when his teammates mobbed him, they wouldn’t pound it euphorically into his skull.
“I was just going to step on home plate normally,” Matsui said, “but they told me to throw my helmet. So I threw my helmet.”
Perhaps it was the excitement of being a part of Matsui’s first career walk-off homer, but as the helmet went skyward, Rodriguez and Cabrera forgot all about the ensuing celebration at home and fought for position under the lofted helmet like two housewives in line moments before the doors open at a department store holiday sale. (Pictured, Rodriguez on the far right).
Their preoccupation with the helmet is strange, but I’d be willing to chalk it up to there being some inside joke regular folks just aren’t in on. But Cabrera wins the battle, grabs the helmet and continues bouncing into the throng of celebratory Yankees. It then seems like A-Rod will let it go, like someone attempting to shake hands with someone who wasn’t paying attention. It’s kind of a rejection, but y’know … it’s cool.
Rodriguez didn’t let it go. He energetically bounced his way closer to the group (but really, the helmet) and ripped it out of Cabrera’s hand like a child re-establishing that these are his toys you’re playing with to a friend visiting on a play date.
Cabrera looked vaguely surprised, but only for a moment, and then he went back to celebrating. Rodriguez, for his part, gripped the helmet like a trophy.
Weird, right?
A bully once took the Doritos from my lunch tray a few days decades ago. I was so unsuspecting of being bullied that I actually corrected the guy by telling him he grabbed my Doritos by mistake. The bully replied, “It’s no mistake” and walked away. There was no further discussion.
Wondering if Rodriguez ended up returning the helmet to Matsui made me recall that painful, painful memory.
This isn’t a big story. But it is a story. I read a description of Rodriguez several years ago, from an author I cannot recall, that described him as the kind of player who would rub dirt on the front of his uniform when no one was looking to appear as if he exerted himself during the game. And here he was Monday pretending to be ecstatic about his team’s dramatic win, when really, it appeared he was driven by … something else entirely.
And unfortunately for A-Rod, whether it be a dirty uniform or a purloined helmet, someone is always looking.
Photo sequence after the jump.
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