By JENNIFER FLOYD ENGEL
jenfloyd@star-telegram.com
The World Series ended Monday, or maybe Philly delayed what feels inevitable and dragged this "Fall Classic" into Wednesday and NYC. Does it really matter?
I, like most inhabitants of fly-over states, have trouble feigning interest, much less watching.
We are talking baseball in November, a month most often associated with Thanksgiving and puffy ski jackets and college football rivalry games. And we’re talking another N.Y. Yankees championship to further annoy matters.
What did NYY exactly do worthy of fawning? This is not the little guy overcoming odds, or a team slowly building via a vibrant farm system, or even a long-suffering franchise buying itself a championship. This is a monopoly, swiping a bunch of talent from smaller franchises unable to afford the players because it had gone eight long years without a championship.
Thank goodness for long-suffering Yankees fans. Now, excuse me while I gag.
Two prominent ex-Rangers stand among this embarrassment of Yankees vagabonds: A-Rod and Mark Teixeira. I am struggling to find the right amount of disgust.
I like Tex and hope he ends up with a championship. The thought of A-Fraud with a ring makes me throw up a little in my mouth, and I am OK with being hypocritical on this issue. A-Rod was a phony and a whiner in Texas. His only saving grace was his supposedly other-worldly talent. And it turns out that was a lie, too.
A-Rod is an admitted PED-user, his excuse being how much pressure he felt from $252 mil and his caveat being that he only cheated while in Texas.
Well, as long as you were clean in pinstripes, by all means, carry on as though nothing happened. And we’ll ignore the centaur in the room while we’re at it.
The most underrated story of this World Series, by far, was the revelation that A-Rod has commissioned portraits of himself as a centaur to hang in his bedroom. Giggle.
Since we have not seen said photos, we are left to guess if a) He had his head imposed on Mr. Ed’s body; b) He had Mr. Ed’s head imposed on his body, or; c) He had Derek Jeter’s head imposed on his body. Who does this? A-Rod apparently. Nor is this level of self-idolization a recent development.
A couple of Rangers types confirmed, when cleaning out A-Rod’s office (a perk of his $252 million contract) after his trade, they were greeted by several huge portraits, not of his family or his then-fiancée, just life-size him. So I have no problem imagining him explaining to an artist how he’d like his hooves to look. Giggle, giggle.
Centaur talk and a chance of A-Rod remaining ring-less were what engaged me in this World Series. As Johnny Damon scored on A-Rod’s double in Game 4 on Sunday, though, all that was left was the reality of a Yankee with another ring.
For what it is worth, I found what the Rangers accomplished this season much bigger than Yankeedom.
Whatever criticisms have been leveled at Jon Daniels, mine included, everybody has to agree he spearheaded an impressive turnaround of this farm system, with results already evident. The Rangers played mostly competitive ball all season, despite reports of impending doom and chaos. They are building a championship-caliber team, if the young talent is not lured away by big money and promises of purchased rings by NYY.
This, of course, is not a Yankees problem. It is a salary cap problem.
Baseball does not have one, and good for teams who have owners willing to scam the system. For everybody else, enjoy being the Yankees farm system and try to savor those years when the Marlins go and do something crazy like win it all.
Is it too much to ask then that they wrap it up in October?
There is something very wrong about baseball in November. For starters, baseball fans should not have to wear Packers snow gear to watch World Series games. Nor should baseball players have to wear dugout parkas. Nor should hot cocoa be sold at baseball concession stands.
If we are going to whine about NASCAR’s never-ending season and nonexistent off-season, we must apply that standard to America’s since-displaced pastime. Pitchers and catchers report to spring training in a little more than three months. That’s a nine-month season to determine what we all had a pretty good idea was going to happen back when CC Sabathia and Tex reported to Yankees spring training.
So forgive me if I am not too terribly interested in the finale to this whole monstrosity. Although, I will be watching the parade just in case A-Rod decides to travel the whole thing on horseback.
Jennifer Floyd Engel, 817-390-7760
Looking for comments?
Share
@Nyx.CommentBody@