Alex Rodriguez goes after homer No. 600 against the Tribe tonight.
View full sizeAlex Rodriguez turns 35 today, and likely is hoping to find a nice present at Progressive Field tonight: career homer No. 600.Nothing in baseball is a given, except that there are six outs to an inning, the team that scores the most runs wins and any Indians pitcher who wins a Cy Young Award will a different uniform within two years.
That being said, Tribe fans can pretty much bet on another sure thing: New York third baseman Alex Rodriguez will hit his 600th home run some time during the four-game series that begins tonight at Progressive Field. He's been stuck on 599 since last Thursday, and tonight is his 35th birthday. It's not like Jake Westbrook is planning to serve up a tater ball; it's just likely.
What's also likely is that what coverage there is will be minimal beyond a few highlights on ESPN, a story or two in The Plain Dealer and the New York papers. Kind of hard to believe for a guy who only has six guys ahead of him in the all-time list.
But it's true. Some say it's playing in the shadow of Derek Jeter and against the ghosts of Mickey Mantle, Joe DiMaggio, Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig. Some insist it's his admitted use of performance-enhancing drugs when he was with the Texas Rangers. Some say it's because he's arrogant (Listen, this is Cleveland. Cleveland rallied around LeBron James. Cleveland cheered for LeBron James. Cleveland watched LeBron James break Cleveland's heart. You, A-Rod, are no LeBron James).
Award-winning New York-based writer Allen Barra is sick of it. Writing for salon.com, Barra says it's time for New York and the rest of the country to admit that Alex Rodriguez, who has won three Most Valuable Player awards since coming to the Yankees in 2004, is one of the best in baseball history.
New York can be a strange town sometimes. LeBron James is reviled by New York fans for not wanting to play here, while A-Rod is reviled by many because he wanted to.
It's time for Yankee fans to start thinking the A-Rod thing through. The Yankees currently have the best record in baseball, and even with two of their five starters injured and out of the rotation, they are still the betting favorites to win the American League pennant and crush whatever hapless National League team gets in their way in the World Series. If Rodriguez ends up winning at least two World Series – the same number, by the way, as Reggie got in New York – and climbs toward the all-time home run mark, Yankees fans will have to decide whether or not he's really a Yankee.
Think of it this way, folks: Do you really want Rodriguez to wear a Seattle Mariners or Texas Rangers cap when he's inducted into the Hall of Fame?
Yeah, but Bronx Bomber fans can take solace in one fact: LeBron James probably will wear a Yankees cap when he's inducted to basketball's hall of fame.
Location, location, location
Joe Smith, writing for the St. Petersburg Times, had this to say about the Rays' 4-2 win over the Tribe Sunday at Progressive Field:
Reid Brignac acknowledged it felt good to come through with the go-ahead homer in the second inning of Sunday's 4-2 win over the Indians.
But Brignac said the bigger thrill was making arguably the game's biggest defensive play in the seventh, when, with two outs and runners on second and third, he saved the lead by diving to his left to snag a hard-hit grounder and rob Carlos Santana of a potential two-run single.
The play was symbolic of the Rays' sparkling defense all day, and fitting in that the Rays wrapped up their first series victory in Cleveland since 2005 with rare good fortune at Progressive Field.
"Fortunately, I was in the right place at the right time," Brignac said.
Rats. The kid finally gets an A in geography and it has to be in Cleveland.
From The Plain DealerBeat writer Paul Hoynes witnessed Sunday's 4-2 loss, and managed to find a bit of glint peeking around the edges of the cumulus: namely, a four-hit game by DH Travis Hafner. Sadly, as Hoynesie noted, though, all four came with the bases empty. Still, it's clear that skipper Manny Acta's team is still playing hard. The Tribe did leave 11 men on base, almost four times as many as Tampa, and that almost always translates to a loss. But at least they were ON to be left, ya know?
In his Indians Insider column, Hoynesie also offers a little more hope: Seems the Tribe's top pick, Mississippi lefty Drew Pomeranz, is ready to sign on the dotted line and begin his pro career. Dunno who's happier, the Indians or the Yankees, where it seems all good Tribe pitchers wind up.