Steinbrenner Stepping Down

The New York Yankees were eliminated from the playoffs in the first round once again. Immediately following this, George Steinbrenner, owner of the Yankees, believed changes had to be made starting with him. He has decided to step down and give the day to day operations to his children Hank and Hal. They seem to be inheriting a franchise with many clouds of uncertainity.
Joe Torre refused their offer following the first round exit and has recently signed with the Los Angeles Dodgers. Alex Rodriguez has decided to opt of of his contract and pursue the free agent market due to the uncertainty around the locker room. Jorge Posada (catcher) and Mariano Rivera (closer) are also free agents that are yet to be signed by the team.
The dynasty that was around in the 90's seems to be falling apart and no one has any idea which direction this organization is heading. They have signed ex-Yankee Joe Girardi to be manager and have a young, promising pitching staff to lead the way for next season. Many elements of their team are unknown, but everyone is waiting to see if they have what it takes to win their 27th World Series.

ARod Opts Out of His Contract...Is He Bad For Baseball?

So a day after the Boston Red Sox win their second World Series title in four years, they're not even the biggest story in sports...let alone baseball. Why you ask, because of one man, Alex Rodriguez, and his ill-timed decision to opt out of his contract with the Yankees. Rodriguez gave up $72 million he was owed over the final three seasons of his record $252 million, 10-year deal, which he signed with Texas before the 2001 season.

But what would you do if you were him? ARod had a career year with stats that clearly indicate that he is the best player in baseball; one who will eventually break Barry Bonds' home run record. He led the majors with 54 home runs, 156 RBIs and 143 runs scored. He's highly marketable, leading the majors in All-Star votes. Rodriguez could easily be paid over $30 million a season and no one would question if his numbers made him deserving of it. It's like a businessman who busts his tail in the office, puts up some big numbers and makes his company tons of money. That man would deserve a raise and he should be pissed if he didn't receive one. ARod is deserving of a raise, but he is not deserving of my praise or anyone's for that matter.

Alex Rodriguez is a man that likes to be liked. As a matter of fact, he wants to be loved by everyone, but what a way to just shoot yourself in the foot. No matter where he goes there will be people that hate him, whether in Seattle or Arlington (and now New York). He could have stayed in New York and people would have loved him for not opting out of his contract. He could've displayed an undying dedication to one team and fans would have worshipped the ground that he walked on. But now some team will have to give away a handful of talented players just to afford one man that seems to be bigger than his eventual team... and baseball. And what happens when his team isn't winning or when he hits 30 something home runs instead of 50 something? There will be fans that hate him for being greedy and unloyal and then there will be fans that hate him for underacheiving because in order to warrant any type of praise when you're the richest man in baseball you have to hit 100 home runs and win the World Series every year.

Word to the wise ARod: pick a team and stay there! Changing teams every four years without winning a championship will only frustrate fans. You'll leave a bad taste in their mouth and people WILL NOT like you. Yeah the fans in the city of your eventual team (Anaheim, San Francisco, L.A. or wherever) will love you until you get into a slump and everyone else on Earth will probably highly dislike you wherever you go. People will love to watch you for your talent, but they'll boo you for your selfishness. What does one do with their old ARod jerseys? And is it worth buying another one or is he going to play somewhere else in a week? That whole "I just want to be liked" mentality that you carry around with you will be out of the window, so don't even try to play the "Whoa is me card." Go to a new team and produce great numbers and never win a World Series title. My only two questions to you Mr. Rodriguez...What hat will you be wearing in the Hall of Fame and What team is retiring your jersey???

Give the Marlins a 1,000 seat stadium

This past Wednesday the Marlins held a home game against the Washington Nationals. It turned out to be a very exciting game that ended with a Marlins win in the 12th inning. The problem is no one was there to see it. When attendance for a Major League game is in around 9,000 then attendance is considered very poor. The Marlins would have been ecstatic about a number like that. Instead the estimated attendance was around 400 people. No that's not a typo it really is a four with 2 zeros behind it. That number was at the peak time. It is estimated that the attendance by the end was around 200 with a whopping total of 9 people in the outfield seats.

This number is appalling to me. Sure this is a match up of the basement of the NL east division and it was a day game but honestly the Marlins must be doing something wrong to put up a number like that. The Miami Herald argues that this is a good a advertisement for why the Marlins need a new stadium. Does a team that is going to draw worse than a class A team in the middle of nowhere really deserve a brand new stadium complete with a retractable roof? I would say no. The truth is that even if the stadium wasn't so far away from downtown they still wouldn't have drawn a crowd for a mid-week day game. The problem isn't the stadium. The problem is within the organization. They don't try to sell their product and when they do they apparently market to the wrong people. It's about time the Marlins realized that, in the popularity contest that is Miami, they are the nerdy unpopular band geek in high school and not in the popular crowd. It's about time to pack up, move to a new town, completely change their appearance, and hope for better popularity somewhere else.

What is just as interesting to me is the lack of attention that a crowd of 400 people earned on a national media scale. If you want a sign of the coming doom of watching sports live then here would be the perfect example but instead the Doom Sayers seemed to ignore the fact. The only mention that I heard in the next couple of days was during the broadcast of the Cardinals game on FSN Midwest. The topic of the Marlins was brought up in connection with a discussion of the small crowds they had seen on their recent road series in Cincinnati. Of course the Cardinals announcers are spoiled with a brand new stadium that is nearly sold-out every night even for a sub-500 team. The the question becomes what are the Cardinals doing that the Marlins aren't? The Cardinal's announcers had no solutions. The only question they had was why should the Marlins stay in Miami? This is a very valid question and I would love to hear the Marlin's front office's reply to that. Why stay?