A-rod, Buck O'Neil, and The Tigers

This article says it all about the Yankees v. Tigers series. It stills hurts to the touch, but I'm glad Leyland is the guy that got it done. Man, look around baseball and it seems fairly apparent how you have to build a ball club these days if you want to win: Get a young, energetic manager (Ozzie, Willie, Giradi) who has learned the ballgame from vets (LaRussa, Torre), or go back to the guys who have lived their entire lives in the game (Leyland, etc.). Then you get young guys who'll give you the team mentality (Granderson, etc.), plus a few vets who teach throughout the season (Zito, Rogers, Mags). Those young guys don't know any better than not to show emotion. I like that. When Bonderman pumped his fist after big outs . . . that was cool. So was when, I think it was Swisher, ran off the field in the A's game the other night with his arms stuck in the safe position after sliding home safely.

Anyway, it's time for A-rod to move on. Jeter’s not interested in protecting or going to bat for him, and he has no other friend in that organization now. He’ll bring back several pitchers in return, and somebody will probably want him, even at that payroll. He may even be willing to take a cut after this year, but I think the Yankees will eat some of it, as well. He'll be a great, great player again in two years. He'll go back to short next season for some team that will wins more than it loses. He’ll get his mind right, and he’ll make a huge comeback in two years. You heard it here first. I don’t think Torre will be around next year to shelter him, either. Besides, he'll never get a shot in NY again, and he shouldn't get one. He had three years to earn the $25 mil per. He knew there were going to be some expectations when all that money fell into his lap. And when the expectations came, he wasn’t ready to deliver.

I never met Buck O'Neil, but I have a friend I work with who did. Buck took quite a few photos with him, and my friend still talks about it with the same enthusiasm each time. That's pretty telling about who the guy was. I've heard him in radio interviews several times, and he was very sharp. His stories were amazing. I wonder how many books he could have spawned. I have another friend at work who is a Mets fan. She and her husband watch Ken Burns "Baseball" every year during spring training, which I think is a pretty good idea. She also met Buck O’Neil, and she’s sent along many stories over the months about baseball’s less known history.

The game has changed a lot over the years, but it hasn’t changed at all in others.