I was shocked when I read that Hank Aaron said Alex Rodriguez’s head is not level enough to have the kind of year that will put him closer to breaking all-time baseball records. But Aaron went even further by comparing ARod unfavorably to Derek Jeter and saying he didn’t have the captain’s focus. Talk about stirring things up.
I can't blame Hammerin’ Hank for taking a shot at ARod. It's got to be so frustrating for him to watch a known steroid user like ARod challenge his career mark for home runs after fellow steroid cheat Barry Bonds broke his record. For me, Aaron is still the true home run king, no matter what the baseball record books say.
But invoking Jeter’s name takes things to a whole new level. Aaron has been a huge Jeter fan for a long time and I’m sure he knows all about the bad blood between Jeter and ARod. Aaron knew exactly what he was doing by bringing up the Yankees shortstop. He was getting the media’s attention. More importantly, he was getting ARod’s attention.
The New York Yankees haven’t had to deal with the ARod vs. Jeter cold war in a long time. I doubt Aaron’s jab is enough to revive the bad feelings between the two again, at least not publicly. But it’s got to annoy the crap out of ARod that he’s still coming up short in comparisons to Jeter.
There’s nothing ARod can say or do about Aaron’s criticism without coming off as a jerk. Many times in the past I thought ARod made bad situations worse simply by opening his mouth. But hopefully the new ARod is smart enough to know that it’s best for him to just take his lumps with a smile.
Thanks to Rubenstein via Wikipedia for the photo.
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