Sweet justice, or, The Curse of Pay-Rod

From a purely Texas Rangers-fan perspective - not that I am one (baseball isn't my game, remember?) - Wednesday's elimination of the New York Yankees had to be nothing short of sweet revenge.

After all, it hasn't even been a year since Alex "Pay-Rod" "A-rod" Rodriguez all but demanded to Rangers buffoon tycoon owner Tom Hicks that he be traded to the Yankees - because he was sick of playing with "25 kids".

That, and losing 90-plus games every year.

So Hicks granted Pay-Rod his fondest wish.  Traded him to those Damn Yankees™.  Got Alfonso Soriano and a handful of beads.  Oh, but now  the Yankees had the final piece to their puzzle of regaining their World Series championship, hadn't they?  Everyone said so, didn't they?  Might as well just mail it in, everyone was saying.

Just one little hitch:  The Curse of A-Rod.

See what everyone seems to be forgetting is what happened the last  time Pay-Rod changed teams - from the Seattle Mariners to the Rangers.  When "Big Country" Hicks signed Rodriguez to that $quarter-of-a-billion 10-year contract, the Rangers were crowing that finally, they had the last piece of their puzzle - that being to win a world championship.  Why, they had the bestest player in that thar whole game o' baseball, they did!

Seattle fans, meanwhile, were apopletic.  How dare  the "best player in the game" leave their beloved Emerald City?!?!?!

Ah, but what wound up happening?  The team that lost him - Seattle - immediately went out and won the division the next year, and contended strongly for it the year after before starting to slide.  Texas, meanwhile, slumped to last place all three years of their particular Pay-Rod era.

And during that particular stretch of rotten baseball, Pay-Rod - while supposedly being the best player on the team and being looked to as one of its leaders - never quite fit in here.  Never became a leader in the clubhouse.  Not a figure in the community.  No local endorsement deals for Pay-Rod.  He was happy to spend his off-seasons at his home in Miami and only report when he absolutely had to be there.

So, when Texas traded this perennial clubhouse cancer, while the so-called "experts" were wringing their hands in angst-filled mourning, there were some of us who said, "Now wait - look at what happened to Seattle when Pay-Rod left there.  There's a chance that getting rid of this guy is the best thing to happen to the Rangers in a long time; give it a season and let's see what happens."

The proof is in the pudding, as they say.  The Rangers, thought to be a shoo-in for last place again, shocked the world by contending for the American League Western Division title until the very last week of the season, finishing with 89 wins and establishing that they will be a force to be reckoned with in years to come.

The Yankees, meanwhile...

While Boss Steinbrenner's crew had too much talent on hand already to slip very far - and indeed, when they and Pay-Rod got on the same page, they were a fearsome team indeed, and in fact won the division - they showed themselves vulnerable during the course of the season, losing 11 of 18 against the team that eventually beat them in the ALCS, the Boston Red Sox.

In fact, some will argue that what saved the Bosox against the Yankees in the ALCS this year...was Pay-Rod himself.

Game 6, 8th inning, Boston up two, one out, Derek Jeter on first.  The Yanks have just scored to make it 4-2, with Rodriguez up.  Pay-Rod hits a slow chopper to first baseman Kevin Millar.  Millar grabs the ball while Pay-Rod is running down the baseline, and attempts to tag him.

Rodriguez deliberately swipes at Millar's glove with his left hand, knocking the ball out and up the right field foul line.  Jeter, running hard all the while, scores from first; Rodriguez winds up at second, now in scoring position.  Momentum has shifted the Yankees way - and, already up three games to two in the best of seven, are now looking to pull ahead and close the Red Sox out.  Yankees fans are delirious.

But wait.  It's a violation of the rules for the offensive player to touch the ball while it's in play; to do so is considered interference.  Replays clearly showed Pay-Rod purposefully attempting to knock the ball out of Millar's glove, a point which was made to the umpires by Sox manager Terry Francona.

The umpires' decision:  Rodriguez is called out; Jeter is called back to first base; the run he scored is taken off the board.

You could almost see the wind go out of the Yankees' proverbial sails after that play.  They got one more hit in the ninth, but were quickly shut down, losing the game, 4-2 - and then they were destroyed in Game 7, losing 10-3.  Sayonara,  Yankees.

So, Rangers fans, rejoice.  The so-called "best player in the game", Pay-Rod, is now the New York Yankees' problem.  Not George Steinbrenner's, since "Big Country" Hicks agreed to pay the lion's share of Pay-Rod's salary for the balance of the contract - but at least the Rangers can now work towards building a franchise of which you can be proud.

And the cancer can infect some other  clubhouse from now on.