Many, Many People To Blame, Before We Blame A-Rod

Barring divine intervention, the Yankees’ season is over. They will not win the American League East or the wild card. After the first game of the current series with the Boston Red Sox, the ever-vigilant scapegoat brigade spent its best efforts on Alex Rodriguez, and their efforts were bolstered by the man himself, who said, “Tonight you can put it on me.” This was fair but overly generous, given that A-Rod didn’t give up 10 hits and six runs in 4.2 innings. Andy Pettitte did.Rodriguez didn’t pitch in yesterday’s Game 2 either, but perhaps Sidney Ponson will be fortunate enough to receive the same exculpatory whitewash despite a first-inning performance that was reminiscent of James Read’s portrayal of an on-the-take Lefty Williams in “Eight Men Out,” with four hits, a walk, and two runs allowed before the home team even came to bat. Perhaps time could have been called at that point, during the changeover between the top and bottom of the first, and Rodriguez could have held up a sign to the crowd: “My fault! My fault!”That seems ludicrous, but not any more so than the very notion that the $200 million Yankees, playing for their lives, are calling not on Red Ruffing, Whitey Ford, or Ron Guidry, but on Ponson, or that their stretch-run starting rotation also includes Darrell “Five-Run” Rasner and Carl “You Break It, You Bought It” Pavano. Rodriguez didn’t design the pitching staff. He did not fail to do what other teams do every season, and have done for years while the Yankees have spent their millions on Roger Clemens, David Wells, Mike Mussina, and other veteran imports — that is, take talented pitching prospects such as Phil Hughes and Ian Kennedy and teach them how to succeed in the majors.Rodriguez didn’t force Melky Cabrera to stop hitting, then demand that the Yankees ignore the problem for months. He didn’t trigger the decline phase of Derek Jeter’s career. It seems unlikely that he encouraged Robinson Cano to phone in major parts of his season. Nor did he make the call to open the season with Joba Chamberlain in the bullpen — or Ross Ohlendorf, or Billy Traber. or LaTroy Hawkins. He didn’t require Joe Girardi to pursue his answer to the famous Gene Woodling and Hank Bauer platoon, “Jason Giambi and Nonentity du Jour.”Until the time that someone opens up the center envelope in their Yankee-branded “Clue” set to show cards saying, “Professor A-Rod, in the clubhouse, with the lead pipe,” we can also be reasonably certain that Rodriguez did not inflict disabling injuries on Chamberlain, Hideki Matsui, Jorge Posada, and Chien-Ming Wang, or cause Wilson Betemit’s eyes to fail. Unless he’s moonlighting as some kind of bizarro batting coach, he didn’t prevent Shelly Duncan from carrying his fluke 2007 hot streak into 2008, or prevent Morgan Ensberg from contributing off the bench. He didn’t run the last half-dozen Yankees drafts, the ones that left the farm system without ready upper-level position players of any stripe, and it’s improbable that Brian Cashman asked for his input on a Johan Santana deal.In short, due to a very typical combination of errors, oversights, injuries, bad luck, and those random developments that can unmake any team’s season, the Yankees failed to field a championship team, something that’s been apparent going back to May, which they finished with a season record of 28-27. Still, it’s all Alex Rodriguez’s fault because he had a lousy game against the Red Sox in a game that had a million-to-one chance of meaning anything anyway.Rodriguez has had a difficult year hitting in clutch situations. He certainly hasn’t been an asset in that way. Nevertheless, he has been an asset overall, something that can’t be said about his manager, his front office, or a good many of his teammates. Yet, even with his difficulties in Tuesday’s game, his results with runners in scoring position, in late and close situations, and in tie games are but tiny fractions off of his overall numbers. In all of those situations, his on-base average is .380 or above, which means that he has often driven those runners in, and failing that he’s done a fine job of extending innings, of putting another runner on base so that the Yankees could have a big inning. If they haven’t had them, look to the fellows batting immediately after Rodriguez, principally Jason Giambi (.203 AVG/.342 OBA/.314 SLG with runners in scoring position) and Robinson Cano (.270/.307/.373 RISP).Yes, Rodriguez failed in a pretend big game. Yes, he only has four sacrifice flies in 33 chances, and he’s only 1-for-10 with the bases loaded. Those are 43 at bats out of 412. You want to pillory him for that, go ahead, but so many other, far more culpable parties will be going free.Mr. Goldman writes the Pinstriped Bible for yesnetwork.com and is the author of “Forging Genius,” a biography of Casey Stengel.

Many, Many People To Blame, Before We Blame A-Rod

Many, Many People To Blame, Before We Blame A-Rod

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