I had an epiphany when I woke up this morning.Although Alex Rodriguez's two-run homer against the Blue Jays yesterday was just in a spring training game, I think the homer proves to us his focus and confidence is with the team.
Reggie Jackson, current Yankees special advisor, talked with Bryan Hoch about the home run after the game yesterday.
"We all know he can play baseball," Jackson said. "If this does one thing, maybe what we saw today is that he's got an ability to concentrate.
Jackson is absolutely right here. Who would have thunk, after all the PED controversey and spotlight on A-Rod, that he could jump right out of the gates and smash a homer in the first game he's played in months.
If A-Rod can keep focused on winning and avoid getting involved negatively with the media, then Yankee fans can and should expect a big season from him.
Coming from a guy who hates A-Rod's guts, that's saying a lot.
Photo from CBS
5 comments:
A-Rod can concentrate. He always has been able to concentrate. This has nothing to do with Concentration. This has to do with motivation. On his contract season with the Yankees, he hit 54 home runs with 156 RBIs. He may have been motivated by knowing he would receive the biggest contract in baseball history, but he did pretty much single-handedly slug the Yankees into the playoffs.
This time A-Rod is motivated by two-timers like yourself who "hate his guts" as of a month ago. His talent and skill were put into question by this steroid controversy, and he want to prove everyone wrong. Motivation is always what causes players to have amazing seasons such as the one A-Rod is going to have this year. This is very good for the Yankees, and I bet you will be back to being his number one fan when he wins next year's MVP award
I would say it's a combination of concentration as well as motivation. There's no way somebody who gets that much attention from the media can 100% block all of it out.
As for me being his #1 fan: Me hating his guts has nothing to do with his baseball skills. I hate him because he is no longer pure, and is now a key contributor to baseball's tainted history. If he wins MVP this year, I would still think he's a cheater as well as a liar.
Personally I think A-Rod loves all of the attention from the media. Why all of the steroids? Without them he may have just been another 35-40 home run guy who was considered a very good player, but not the in the world.
As far as your tainted history goes, nobody ever mentions the amphetamines, which according to USA Today, are used by 50-80 percent of major-leaguers. By the way, these have been used since the 40s, so what do you consider the "pure" era of baseball? Everything from before 1940?
Cheating is unfortunately a big part of baseball, and if all measures are taken to prevent performance enhancing drugs, the game will be a lot less exciting and therefor the league will lose a ton of money. Not to mention that players will be getting hurt like never before in baseball history.
I would say the pure era is anything before the '90s and these past 2-3 years as well. Ever since Bud Selig has implemented the steroid rules, players have gotten scared.
Yes, I'm sure players in the '40s took PEDs, but I bet they weren't nearly as helpful as they are in today's world.
Also, why would a lot of players be getting hurt in a non-PED era of baseball? Were there a lot of injuries when baseball was mostly clean?
Let me tell you right now, this era is anything but pure. HGH is absolutely rampant, and I am pretty much entirely sure that Alex Rodriguez uses HGH right now. It is also impossible to find in MLB drug tests.
Also, Amphetamines changed baseball, and is part of the reason why more games were put into the regular season schedule. I'd say that lasting longer in a season and being able to focus during day games only a few hours after night games is a tremendous advantage.
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