Does A-Rod Cause His Own Problems?

I find it curious that so many Yankee fans get on A-Rod's case. I understand that he will never, ever be Derek Jeter. The Yankee captain has been there and done that. He may be the best clutch player ever and in my opinion should be a serious contender (finally) for MVP honors this year. I also understand that much is expected of Alex Rodriguez and his $25 million annual salary. He may be having a subpar year (for A-Rod), still his numbers are nothing to sneeze at: .287 batting average with 25 homeruns and 85 RBI. That puts him on pace for 35 HR and 115 RBI for the season. Not to mention the fact that he is the reigning American League MVP.

That being said, it seems as if A-Rod brings a certain amount of grief on himself with his comments. Last year he made that comment about seeing a therapist on a regular basis. While he may have been trying to connect with fans, showing that he is a "regular Joe" exposing his soft underbelly, Yankee fans don't want hear about that. They want their third basemen to be like Craig Nettles. A tough, gritty kind of guy who can smack Carlton Fisk in the face so hard that it rang his bell. Not dance with Jason Varitek and have people laugh at him for doing it.

Another example of Rodriguez bringing the wrong kind of attention to himself was the comments he made after Sunday's loss to the Angels, implying to the press that he "may have been playing hurt". Exsqueeze me?? When Joe Torre was asked about A-Rod's comments he seemed to be in the dark about the whole thing. "Obviously," the manager said, "it was nothing debilitating because he was out there every day ... The nagging, everyday stuff would be my guess."

When Rodriguez was pressed about his comments last night after he knocked in the winning run all he had to say was "I'm not going to get into that, I didn't say specifically, did I?". He should have been talking about his game winning hit and how he hopes to continue to contribute and all that good stuff instead of digging himself a deeper hole.

A-Rod, just shut up and play. You're a good player, still the best all around player in the game. The only thing you need are some handlers to filter the comments that you make which only make your situation seem worse. Perhaps another high profile celeb who doesn't feel so comfortable in his own skin, Tom Cruise may be able to lend you his sister as a handler, since she did such a good job for him.