Afternoon Baseball

I'm in that list of people (larger than you think) who don't consider A-Rod a choker, who know that he presses in big situations but is not someone you wouldn't want to have when you had a big game ahead. Despite his huge failure in the latter games of the 2004 playoffs and the 2005 ALDS, he was far from the only Yankee to pin the loss on. For instance, the ALDS was lost in Game 3 with RJ).
The jury is still out on A-Rod's mental approach to the game, frankly, but the vitriol directed at him is disgraceful. Here's my past synopsis of A-Rod. And even the reservations, some strong, I've had about him do not change the fact that I love that he's on the team.

But back on track.

This long road I'm writing on leads us to the popular notion, proliferated by The Sports Guy on sheer conjecture and cherry-picked e-mails, that A-Rod is an opportunist -- he'll smack the home runs when the team is already ahead, but do nothing when the team is behind, unless they are down by eight or nine runs.

While DJ Gallo did a beautiful job mocking this "do no right" crowd, Was Watching has dug up some disturbing statistics. My only caveat would be that A-Rod has been very productive when in a tied-game situation (even in the WBC). That's huge. But he's been atrocious when the team is behind and a machine when the Yanks lead. Those insurance runs do matter -- but the disparity also does. Take a look for yourself. The commenters have differing opinions, as well.

Not sure what can be done. But right now, A-Rod is proving the critics aren't completely crazy. The worst thing he can do is pay attention, though. He's simply got to -- as silly as this sounds -- go out there every day and just play hard. Let history judge him decades from now.