"Yanks Should Treat Rodriguez the Way he Treated Them." (Opt Out) George Vecsey, NY Times

"Alex Rodriguez let his agent opt out for him, right during the World Series. Now the Yankees should opt out on him.

• The Steinbrenners graciously allowed Rodriguez and his wife, Cynthia, to pay a social call yesterday in Florida, with Boras nowhere in sight, unless he was driving the car, to amortize his percentage.

This was the same Mrs. A-Rod who wore a profane and probably expensive little white tank top to a Yankees game last July, an eye-opener for the kiddies, telling the world off quite graphically. Presumably, she did not wear that shirt yesterday for the conservative Steinbrenners.

• In his own gauche way, A-Rod has offended the Yankees, which may only now be dawning on him.

This is the Yankees’ big chance to take whatever money they had penciled in for him and spend it on pitching and power and first base and a reasonable approximation of Scott Brosius at third base.

• The Yankees’ management was cold-blooded about Joe Torre, making him twist for days, then finally forcing him to fly down to Florida to try to save his job. They should be no less cold-blooded toward Rodriguez.

He dumped on the Yankees and on his business by passively allowing Boras to drop An A-Bomb! From A-Rod! — John Sterling’s cloying call, used 54 times last season — during the final game of the World Series. The midnight bombshell was that Rodriguez was opting out of his contract with the Yankees, as was his legal right.

• That’s what agents are for. I remember a beautiful evening in Seattle, when Rodriguez was dumped at second base and crumpled down, holding his knee. A few rows from the field, a clearly distraught man leapt to his feet and made his way to the railing. Why, it was Scott Boras, no doubt worried that his client’s impending free agency had just caved in.

As it turned out, A-Rod missed a few games and resumed his slippery path out of town, telling people in Seattle it wasn’t about the money, a tale he has subsequently told people in Texas and now the Bronx."

• From NY Times column by George Vecsey, "Yanks Should Treat Rodriguez the Way he Treated Them," 11/15/07

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