FROM DAY ONE by Tannen

I vividly remember the day after Valentine's Day, 2004 when the word came down the Yankees had traded with Texas for Alex Rodriguez. The SportsTalk phones lit up expecting me to be in a joyous mood. Imagine their surprise when I mentioned how soured I was. Willing to let things play out, but skeptical about a guy who talked about his desire to win, then leaving a Seattle team who'd made the AL championship series for a garbage, perennial losing franchise like Texas. It was all about the money, albeit a ridiculous quarter of a billion dollar deal. In 2004, New York was the defending American League champion and rolled into the playoffs, through the Twins in round one and onto a 3 games to none lead against Boston for the league pennant. The rest is history with the Bosox becoming the first to overcome such a deficit and Rodriguez leading the tank job with one hit over his final 17 at bats. New York has failed to win another playoff series, falling in round one in 2005, 06 & 07 and not even qualifying for the post season last year. In those 3 playoff defeats, A-Fraud has 6 hits in 44 at bats or about a .140 batting average. His only homer and run driven in the 7th inning of the final game of the 2007 league championship series against Cleveland in the last inning to cut the lead from 6-2 to 6-3, not exactly Mr. October stuff. The guy is a disgrace, but has to get in line with Roger Clemens, Barry Bonds, Mark McGwire, and Sammy Sosa as those who performed magical feats on the field but will forever be known as cheaters. Let's make sure no one ever forgets.