Alex Rodriguez has released an official statement claiming that he'd now like to return to the Yankees.
Prior to entering into serious negotiations with other clubs, I wanted the opportunity to share my thoughts directly with Yankees' ownership. We know there are other opportunities for us, but Cynthia and I have a foundation with the club that has brought us comfort, stability and happiness.
As a result, I reached out to the Yankees through mutual friends and conveyed that message.
Now, this isn't a story I follow too closely, mostly because I'm more interested in, say, Omar Infante being traded than I am in following a soap opera involving a great player who happens to be a bit of a prick, a team, and that team's entitled and melodramatic fanbase. I'm especially uninterested in following it in the mostly troglodytic New York media, much of which is guaranteed to cast the drama in terms of storylines that would be too stupid even for Days of our Lives, and to publish those storylines with headlines featuring LOTS OF CAPITAL LETTERS and PUNS like I'm five years old. (And would the five year old me have found "STRAY-ROD" amusing, anyway? Probably not.)
But this particular development is interesting, in part because, thanks to the morons in the New York press and the ridiculous fans who actually debate about whether A-Rod is "a true Yankee" or whatever, it is impossible to believe that Rodriguez and his wife have "foundation with the [Yankees] that has brought us comfort, stability and happiness."
Instead, one wonders who misjudged what here - did A-Rod's agent Scott Boras suddenly realize that nobody was going to pay anywhere near the $350 million he was seeking? Did A-Rod suddenly realize that this whole situation was making him look greedy? Did the Yankees, who seem mutually interested in having Rodriguez back, suddenly figure they could somehow snag a playoff spot next year, leading to their attempts to re-sign Jorge Posada, Mariano Rivera and now Rodriguez? All of the above? Or none of the above?