Alex Rodriguez and the Yankees: In Baseball, Teams are Great, Not Men

As a Yankee fan, what dominance have you grown to appreciate, what arrogance have you harbored, what confidence do you emit, what excellence have you grown to expect? 

If my calculations are correct, nothing short of absolute superiority. 

As a baseball fan opposed to the style of the Yankees, what ill will do you harbor, what venom do you possess, what discontent do you share with so many not unlike yourself?

If my calculations are correct, nothing short of hatred and disgust. 

The allure of Yankee greatness and Yankee doom, to both lovers and haters, is not unlike gravity.  We may not want to acknowledge it, but it is there, every day, pulling us, holding us.

What is Yankee doom?

Yankee doom is losing the Iron Horse and Munson too soon.  It is paying a pitcher for years and watching him sit on the sidelines for 90 percent of his contract.  It is an old friend airing his and your dirty laundry.  It is your MVP in a steroid controversy, swiftly followed up with an injury that may end his season before it starts.

Yankee greatness.  What is it? 

It's standing in front of a stadium crowded with people, dying in front of their eyes, and telling them you feel like the luckiest man alive. 

Yankee greatness is batting more home runs as an individual than most teams combine for in an entire season, all the while gripped with the weakness for hot dogs and beer.

Yankee greatness is hitting a walk-off extra-inning home run against the Red Sox, as the least likely to do so, to win a postseason Game 7.

Yankee greatness is attending your best of friends, your team captains’ funeral, and not only playing the game afterwards, but winning it by your own hand alone and in his name, then giving his widow your game bat.

History tells a story to be perceived as you see fit.  No matter who you are, or where your heart lies.

What makes a Yankee?  Greatness of course, skill without a doubt, talent undeniable.  But talent can walk by you on the street and you may never know.  If that talent is wrapped in pinstripes, you cannot deny it.  It goes without saying. 

The man doesn’t make the stripes impressive, though.  Being a Yankee is what makes a Yankee great.  No one man makes the Yankees great.  That can never be forgotten or overlooked.

So here the Yankees stand.  Alex Rodriguez may be on the verge of a procedure that will see him miss a majority of the season.  Fans and haters alike all have their opinions, their cheers, their fears, and plenty of talk about how this will play out. 

It may not be as bad as it seems.  It might just be a blessing in disguise.  It could very well bring this team together.

The last time this Yankee team was potent and intimidating, there was no Alex Rodriguez.  There was no looming force in the lineup to scare opposing pitchers. 

There was no one thing that did the job.  It was a combination of efforts by some great ball players.

It was the uniform, the club, the organization, and the men under that umbrella that intimidated and beat teams.  It was the team.  The team was the unstoppable force, not one man.

This Yankee team is filled with a mix of young talent chomping at the bit to prove themselves and veteran players who know very well how the road to October twists and turns. 

Not one of them can replace Rodriguez.  All of them can carry him, as he has done for them so many times before. 

None of them can do it alone and, as a whole, they need every individual to pull it together.  Everyone—this ensures that no one man can hurt the team.  Not so much as the entire team can carry one man.  

Make no mistake, no one is saying losing Arod won't hurt; it will hurt bad.

It doesn’t mean the Yankees can't gel.  It does not mean they can't succeed.  Name a man on the Philadelphia Phillies who is comparable to Arod.  Name a man on the Tampa Bay Rays who competes statistically with Arod.  

We can wait...

These teams were, and still are, the best and they succeeded without Rodriguez.  They became the best as a team, not by jumping on the back of one or two men and enjoying the ride.  They played for each other, not themselves. 

The Yankee family is familiar with this approach.  It served them well in the latest run of World Series appearances, which now seem so long ago.   

Yankee greatness has been dormant for some time, and it's about time it shows its familiar face around these parts again.  It has been long overdue, and if ever there was a time, now is that time.

It is high time this Yankee team comes together and realizes that individual accomplishments will never get the job done.  There are nine Yankees who walk out on the field every day.  Not nine superstars, not nine individuals.  Nine Yankees.

If one falls, another steps up and takes his place.  Still nine Yankees, not eight minus Rodriguez.  That isn’t how this thing works, and it never will work if that is the attitude. 

No one can replace Arod.  It has been said.  Well, no one really has to, do they?  Arod wasn’t going to win the division single-handedly.  Fifty home runs help, but that is not enough to win it all.

Someone needs to step up and cover that sack down on the hot corner and put up their best effort on both sides of the dish.  That is what Arod would have done—gave his best.  That’s all the next man has to do, because he has eight other Yankees out there doing it with him. 

There is a reason the Yankee jersey does not have a name across the shoulders.  It is the idea that no one man can prevail; they all do.  No one man can fail; they all do. 

The Yankee third baseman may go down, but the Yankees will stand tall, regardless of his absence.  It is the Yankee way.  History, pride, success, and mystique command that it be this way.