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Yanks' captain abandons ship Refusal to help Alex hurt club If George Steinbrenner thinks that bringing in Lou Piniella is going to solve his Alex Rodriguez problem, and all of the bad karma it has wrought, he clearly isn't in touch with his ballclub. A There's only one person who can change the dispassionate climate surrounding the Yankees, and it's the reluctant captain, Derek Jeter. But if he hasn't been willing to embrace A-Rod by now, it's hard to believe anything is going to change. Not that Jeter can help A-Rod hit the high fastball. Indeed, it has become clear that, for all of A-Rod's talent, his failures in the postseason are due at least partly to the fact that he can't catch up to the high-octane fastball above, say, the thighs. B Scouts have been saying it more and more - in critical situations, pitchers armed with enough firepower can attack A-Rod boldly up in the strike zone, usually with major success. But the bigger problem is A-Rod's addled state of mind, the steady erosion of confidence that made him look clueless at the plate during stretches of the 2006 season, when he was guessing so badly that he was missing sliders by a couple of feet. And that surely is tied to his relationship with Jeter. It is no news bulletin that A-Rod wants to be liked, accepted, loved, however you want to say it, by his teammates, especially Jeter. And the captain hasn't budged on the matter, to the point where an ex-teammate, who wouldn't use his name for fear of crossing Jeter, said yesterday it creates a certain tension at times. "He won't let Alex in," the former Yankee said of Jeter. "Everyone in there knows it, and it bothers Alex and impacts the clubhouse." The result seems to be a negative energy that reveals itself in times of crisis, such as the collapse against the Tigers. Where the Paul O'Neill-Tino Martinez championship teams were inspired by their bond as brothers in arms to play fearlessly, with a joyful all-for-one commitment, it's no coincidence that this group of Yankees has played with fear and uncertainty when pushed in the playoffs the last three years. When they need to lean on one another, well, it's as if one doesn't trust the others to hold the net under the tightrope. It's not only the A-Rod-Jeter dynamic. Since the high-end free agent shopping began in earnest five years ago, the clubhouse has become more a place of superstars living on their own islands. A-Rod, Mike Mussina, Randy Johnson, Gary Sheffield, Jason Giambi, and, mostly because of the language barrier, Hideki Matsui, changed the way the Yankees interacted. Newcomer Johnny Damon tried to bring a sense of esprit de corps this year, and succeeded in loosening up the place a bit, but it's a long way from the frat-house atmosphere he created with the Red Sox. Jeter sets the tone for everything the Yankees do, so while he got tons of credit, and rightfully so, when they won, he has to take some of the blame now for allowing the A-Rod mess to seemingly suffocate this team. He has kept A-Rod at arm's length, apparently all because he can't get past the famous Esquire article of five years ago in which A-Rod allowed his jealousy and self-esteem issues to surface for the first time. It makes me rethink the whole MVP debate. I wrote a handful of times that I thought Jeter deserved the award this season, and I still think he did more on the field to help his team than anybody else. But in light of the Motown Meltdown, and all that it revealed about this team, I have to question how Jeter could be the MVP in a season in which he wouldn't make the slightest effort to offer a hand when A-Rod was flailing in quicksand. He refused on several occasions to support A-Rod publicly when the booing was out of control, and he had to know any comments of support would have helped the situation. Isn't that incumbent on him as captain? Jeter did go out of his way to support Jason Giambi during the steroids fallout, but he wouldn't go anywhere near the A-Rod controversy. He should have been bigger than that, since he's all about team. I don't see how Piniella changes any of that, even if A-Rod is comfortable with him from his days as a young Seattle Mariner, which is why the Yankees need to trade A-Rod, no matter what they do with the manager. Just convince A-Rod it's over for him here, get some pitching from the Angels, and move on. C Then the Yankees no longer will be paralyzed by the A-Rod soap opera, the chemistry has to improve and they will have taken an important step toward winning in October again. Steinbrenner has a right to change managers if he wants, after these back-to-back first-round playoff flops, but if he thinks Piniella addresses the biggest problem the Yankees have, he needs to talk to some of his own players. |