Wouldn't it be nice
Go ahead and jump on the bandwagon of Alex Rodriguez.
He's going to be America's darling this year in Major League Baseball.
What's that? You don't like the New York Yankees?
It doesn't matter. I dislike the Yankees. George Steinbrenner ruined the game by creating the monster of overpaying players and free agency.
But that's beside the point.
I'm rooting for A-Rod. And I won't be the only one.
Please tell me you've heard of the tear A-Rod is on to start the season. He hit 12 home runs in the Yankees first 15 games this year. He hit a walk-off home run Thursday night to cap a six-run bottom-of-the-ninth Yankee rally in completing a three-game sweep of the Indians. He hit a walk-off grand slam April 7 against Baltimore. And he hit two more Friday against the Red Sox.
His walk-off antics of flying around the bases with his arms outstretched and then flipping off his helmet before getting mobbed may seem a bit much. But A-Rod explains it perfectly.
"It kind of goes back to when you're 9, 10 years old, making a jackass out of yourself when you're running around the bases, but you can't help yourself," he said Friday.
With the two dingers on Friday, he tied Philadelphia Phillies Mike Schmidt's 1976 mark as the quickest player to hit 12 home runs in a season.
Rest assured, A-Rod will not keep up this pace. If he does, he'll hit 114 dingers with 295 RBIs.
It's astounding what he's doing right now. He's hitting for average (he's hit safely in every game this season, has a 22-game hit streak and has a .371 average). He's driving in lots of runs (he's been shut out in the RBI column just three times this year and has 31 on the season). And he's hitting the long ball in crucial situations.
So the kid who was drafted with the No. 1 overall pick by the Seattle Mariners in 1993 is doing well. But prior to this tear, Yankee fans jeered their MLB's highest-paid player (Steinbrenner is forking over $27.7 million this year for him) after two straight postseason flops. Now they're cheering him. And the rest of America soon will follow.
You see, if A-Rod keeps this up for a while he will have a legitimate chance to hit 74 homers this season.
Seventy-four?
Yup, that would be an MLB single-season record. It would drop America's favorite-hated player down a notch. Wouldn't that be nice.
Think about it. Anybody who ever has personally dealt with the current single-season record holder - the same guy who will be breaking Hank Aaron's career home run record of 755 this season - doesn't like him. Heck, throw out the steroid scandal and he's still a bad guy. Ask former teammates. Ask former personal trainers. Ask former nannies and maids. He's a bad guy.
The only people who like him are Giants fans who have their heads in the sand.
A-Rod isn't a bad guy. Sure, he's highly paid and plays for the Yankees, which makes him not well-liked by a lot of Americans. But it doesn't matter who breaks 73. It's just that most everyone wants somebody to break it so a certain somebody doesn't hold it.
An even bigger beauty? A-Rod could become the career leader before, and if, a certain somebody gets into the hall of fame.
A-Rod is only 31 years old - he will turn 32 on July 27 - and has 476 career home runs in a little more than 13 years in the majors. Aaron's 755 homers will probably be surpassed by about 20, meaning the new mark will be about 775. A-Rod will need about 300 to break it. If he averages 33 per year for the next nine years, which would put him at 40 years old (the guy looking to break the record is 42 years old), he will be in range for the MLB career home run mark. He's averaged 41.7 homers per year during the last 11 years after having only five homers in his first two years with the Mariners.
Wouldn't it be nice to tell Barry Bonds to go away. No records. No hall of fame. Just go away. He was and still is a great player. But he had to thumb his nose at an entire nation during a scandal. He doesn't care about the integrity of the game and he treats people badly.
Come on, A-Rod. Keep it up.
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Carl Hennell is a sports reporter at the Daily Inter Lake. He can be reached by e-mail at chennell@dailyinterlake.com or at 758-4446.