Donnie Baseball: Get off A-Rod's Back and Move On!

(The Voice of Yankees Universe)

Don Mattingly has gotten sick and tired of all the A-Rod bashing. Mattingly has a sense of respect for Alex. He isn’t his biggest fan, but he respects his work ethic and all the hard work he puts into his game. This is what he had to say on the topic:

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“Honestly, I am getting tired of guys beating up on him,” Mattingly said when reached by phone in Arizona yesterday. “I see [White Sox manager] Ozzie Guillen acting like a buddy of his and trashing him. Here is how I feel: He did something wrong. He admitted [he used steroids from 2001-03], now let’s move on. The guy works hard. He is a good teammate. … He wants to be great. I have no problem with that.”

“K-Long and him got along much better than me and him,” Mattingly said of 2006 hitting coach Kevin Long and Rodriguez. “Me and Alex were not on the same page. Our [hitting] language was not the same. But that is fine. I wanted what was the best for him and the team, and regardless of our connection, I had nothing but tremendous respect for how Alex prepares and plays.”

“I see all this talk about how that he was putting on an act when he teared up when mentioning his teammates,” Mattingly said of the Tuesday press conference. “I’m sure it was huge for him to have [Derek] Jeter and [Jorge] Posada there. It was probably hard to express. Now we are going to say his pause was too long. Come on. I am sure everything is not perfect, but this guy has been in the [drug-testing] system for four years and he has not come up positive and he was won two MVPs.

“Time to say the past is the past. He is just too easy of a target. Let everyone jump on the bandwagon, I want to be on the other side of the bash Alex thing.”

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I feel the same way as Donnie. People try and find the smallest things in the world to pick on. We realize the media needs to cover this, but they go overboard. The guy comes out and admits his steroids use, and people still aren’t happy.

Will it ever be enough? I don’t think Rodriguez was telling the whole truth, but give him a break. He has given us more information then most of the other steroid users. It’s hard for a guy to pour out all of his mistakes.

There are two polls I had up on my old site, but I thought I would share it with you guys:

What are your thoughts on Joe Torre now that he has released his new book?

Still love the guy  103 Votes  (37.45%)

I’ve lost some respect for him, but I still like him  99 Votes  (36%)

Hate him  37 Votes (13.45%)

Good manager, but not a fan anymore  36 Votes (13.09%)

275 Total Votes

Who should be the Yankees starting center fielder?

Brett Gardner  114 Votes  (63.69%)

Melky Cabrera  65 Votes (36.31%)

179 Total Votes

It seems like most people still like Joe Torre, but they’ve lost some respect for him. The majority of voters also like Brett Gardner over Melky Cabrera. I just recently put up a new poll asking...Will you boo or cheer A-Rod this season? Go Vote!

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