Two Responses to Yankee Loss

They are both future Hall of Famers because they redefined the shortstop position for a generation. One of them moved off the position for the other so that they could play together and bring championships to the Bronx. They've been teammates for four frustrating postseasons in pinstripes that have made a huge impact on one's reputation and left the other one totally unscathed. One is lauded as the ultimate stand-up guy who never shirks from a pressure situation, the other has been called a choker, derided as selfish and generally been made the butt of jokes despite putting up ungodly numbers. Here's how they responded to last night's 6-4 loss to the Indians and the end of another ring-less season in the Bronx.

Player 1:

"It's on me. Whatever blame you put on me, that's fine. The most courageous group of guys, that I've ever played with ... No explanations. No excuses."

Player 2:

"Sometimes you do well and you lose, and you don't do well and you win. It doesn't really make a difference. We didn't get the job done and that's the only thing that really matters."

While I'm sure you figured out who the two players are by now, I thought it worth noting that the first comment came from Alex Rodriguez while the second one came from Derek Jeter. Neither man played well in the playoffs but A-Rod played better. He didn't make an error that opened the scoring for Cleveland in Game One. He didn't hit into three double plays over the last two games or hit .176 for the series.

Not that you'd know that from the local papers. The covers of the Post and the Daily News feature shots of A-Rod alone. Even the venerable New York Times put Rodriguez on Page One of the entire paper, not the sports section which they saved for a takedown of Rodriguez in words not images. Other than the fact that he might opt out, which isn't the story this morning, there's no reason to single out A-Rod this morning but it happens all the same.

I write this not to argue that A-Rod had some brilliant series amid the depressing, wholesale flameout of the Yankees. I write it to argue that the guy standing up and saying "Blame me" should be the Captain who disappeared during the four-game loss. A-Rod had a better series than Jeter, Jorge Posada and Hideki Matsui but he still stood in front of the press and put it on himself. He did that knowing that he'd get killed regardless while Jeter shunned the harsh spotlight safe in the knowledge that nothing could ever knock him off his perch atop the Yankee rolls.

Neither man deserves to be judged by the last four games. Yet there's A-Rod on every paper in town, standing alone as the symbol of Yankee failure while Jeter is nestled inside proclaiming his love for the manager and shrugging his shoulders about how the breaks didn't go their way.