High and Tight.: Mike Lupica is a Jackass: Chapter Seven

Mike Lupica is a Jackass: Chapter Seven

You knew it was going to happen, or you should have. After years of throwing Alex Rodriguez under the bus repeatedly, Mike Lupica is saying that A-Rod should leave town and opt out of his deal because of the way he's been treated in New York. By others. By people not named Michael Lupica. Usually I offer commentary throughout Lupica's articles, but this time I'm just going to post a few portions from it. Also, is that photo from 1995? Has anyone seen Lupica lately? Maybe it's his high school yearbook photo.

With all that's happened here, Alex would be wise to opt out
Thursday, July 12th 2007, 4:00 AM

Think about something else from A-Rod's point of view. Not mine or yours or Cashman's or even George Steinbrenner's:
Why would he stay?
This is a Yankee season nobody can blame on him, a season that has him right where he wants to be, which means pinstriped hero, at least for now. All he has to do is keep hitting. When the season is over he doesn't have to be bashful or phony this time, tell us it is all about the farm system the way he did when he went with the Rangers. He can just sit there while Arte Moreno of the Angels or the new Cubs owners or even John Henry start throwing money at him.
You think the Red Sox won't be in play if A-Rod is in play? Come on. They spent $51 million just to get a seat at the table with Daisuke Matsuzaka. Not only do they have the money in Boston, they have something else:
An opening at shortstop. A position Rodriguez gave up to come to New York and play next to a shortstop who sometimes seems reluctant to give A-Rod the time of day.
Scott Boras, A-Rod's bag man, is right: There is no reason for his client to negotiate with the Yankees right now. What's in it for A-Rod, except perhaps for the stroke of seeing the Yankees reverse their field and try to negotiate a new deal with him when they said they wouldn't do that for a pinstriped World Series hero such as Mo Rivera?
Maybe the Yankees think they have enough money to trump all the reasons A-Rod has for getting out of New York when the season is over.
And you better believe he has his reasons, whatever he says in public, and you better believe the Yankees know exactly what they are:

The treatment he feels he has gotten, up until this season, from an awful lot of vocal Yankee fans, all the ones who wanted to drive him to the airport after the way he hit last October against the Tigers and want to carry him out to Monument Park on their shoulders now.

The treatment he has gotten in the media, not just here and not just on the sports pages, but on the front pages when he got caught with that strip-club blond in Toronto. As A-Rod's stats get gaudier, by the way, his sidemen are now blaming his off-field problems on the tabloids for that. Right. The tabs did it! The Post must have fixed him up with the blond on Match.com.
The treatment he got from Joe Torre in last year's playoffs when Torre batted him eighth against the Tigers. A-Rod can hire skywriters to say he and Torre have kissed and made up on that one. You know when No.13 will forget where he hit that day? On the 13th of Never.

Finally, there is the treatment he has gotten from Derek Jeter. You weigh in however you want on this relationship. But A-Rod thought that by agreeing to leave shortstop, even though he was on his way to being the greatest shortstop in history, he could get Jeter to forget the lousy things he said about him in Esquire magazine. He was as wrong about that as he was yelling at some backup third baseman in Toronto and thinking nobody would think it was a big deal.

Suddenly, without a single point added to his postseason average as a Yankee, A-Rod appears to be the one holding all the good cards. Suddenly, it is the Yankee variation of the old Bob Arum line: Yesterday I was lying, today I'm telling the truth. Yesterday they weren't negotiating. Now they are. It is easy to see how they can't let him walk without at least making him an offer.
But really: Knowing what we know about A-Rod, why would he stay?

I know, typical Lupica Yankee hatred/glee in Yankee failure/doom and gloom nonsense. Lupica is obviously wishing and praying A-Rod goes to the Red Sox so he can say what a coup it was for John Henry to land such a great player. Lupica, you moron, if A-Rod has problems with the press coverage in New York, why in the hell would he go to Boston, which is even worse to its sports celebrities? ("Oh no, Tom Brady is wearing a Yankees hat! On a street! National emergency, front page news!")

Lupica rails against the "tabloids" as part of the problem (specifically mentioning, of course, the Post and the blonde woman in Toronto while ignoring the Daily News' continual front page stories about how Alex went to a poker room and played poker, which wasn't illegal).

Mike Lupica shows precisely in this column why he's a two-faced jackass: he's saying shame on you to everyone for driving Rodriguez out of town while he was the one driving the bus. Anyone remember the congratulations and praise Lupica gave A-Rodthe day after he won the 2005 AL MVP?

Bonus Lupica action:

Former ESPN.com Page 2 columnist Jason Whitlock on working with Lupica:

Q: In one of your most memorable appearances on The Sports Reporters, you got into a tiff with Mike Lupica and Mitch Albom when you said sports was just ‘entertainment.’ Lupica told you to go work on ‘Entertainment Tonight.’ You haven’t appeared with either of them since. Have the three of you kissed and made up?
I don't have a problem with Mitch Albom. Lupica is an insecure, mean-spirited busybody. He's upset because I put a clown suit on him on that show and in a follow-up column I wrote for ESPN. His little disingenuous overreaction to an opinion I'd stated previously on the show was staged to try to put me in a bad light. I guess no one had ever informed Mike that the E in ESPN stood for Entertainment. The Little Fella probably won't let the producer (Joe Valerio) have me back on the show again. That's cool. They're mostly upset that I wouldn�t participate in their Barry Bonds witch hunt and help them single Bonds out as the creator of steroids. Lupica doesn't like to be disagreed with, and he's spoken so abusively to that producer for years that the producer probably doesn't realize people are allowed to disagree with Lupica. I enjoyed my time on the show. But if the price of admission is stepping to Lupica's drum, I'm more than happy to go without.

Right on, big man. Right on.

Labels: a-rod, douchebag, insecure mean-spirited busybodies, jackass, jason whitlock, lupica

posted by Mr. Faded Glory @ 3:23 PM 0 comments

0 Comments: