When The Captain calls out the Yankees, you know it’s bad.
It takes quite a bit for Derek Jeter to speak ill of the New York Yankees. He is The Captain, after all. Yet not even two of the most famous ballplayers to don the pinstripes could spin what happened in the Bronx on Wednesday night.
After the Yankees completely melted down in the fifth inning of Game 5 — blowing a 5-0 lead by giving up five unearned runs to the Dodgers — Jeter and former teammate Alex Rodriguez struggled to comprehend how the Yankees could make such mistakes on the Fox postgame show.
If you’re going to be on a national baseball show, you’ve got to speak the truth about what you saw, but you know that had to feel super uncomfortable for the former New York legends.
FOX’s MLB panel includes host Kevin Burkhardt with former baseball legends Alex Rodriguez and Derek Jeter as well as David Ortiz.
Rodriguez and Jeter were famously teammates on the New York Yankees from 2004 until 2013, winning a World Series together in 2009. Ortiz, on the other hand, played for New York’s biggest rival on the Boston Red Sox.
He is a three-time World Series champion who famously helped pull off one of the biggest upsets in sports history when Boston miraculously came back from a 3-0 deficit in the 2004 ALCS.
Ortiz hilariously continues to be a thorn in the side of Rodriguez and Jeter on FOX’s broadcast. Just watch his reaction to when the Yankees lost Game 3 of the 2024 MLB World Series against the Dodgers on Monday:
This is not the first time fans have seen this hilarious energy from Ortiz, though.
Earlier in the series, after Ice Cube performed before a Dodgers victory in Los Angeles at Dodger Stadium, Ortiz declared it was a “good day” because the Yankees lost.
Knocking 40 home runs while stealing 40 bases is one of baseball’s most elusive milestones.
It’s fairly common for a Major League Baseball player to excel in either power or speed, but very few players are masters of both crafts.
One of baseball’s most elusive milestones is the so-called “40-40 club,” which is reserved for players who hit 40 home runs and steal 40 bases in a single season. It’s such a rare feat that, in the nearly 150 years of organized MLB league play, only five players in history had accomplished it prior to 2024.
That changed on Friday, though, as Los Angeles Dodgers slugger Shohei Ohtani. knocked his 40th home run of the season, becoming the sixth player to join the exclusive club. He’s also the first player to do so since Ronald Acuna Jr. last year.
Here’s a look at the complete current list of players that comprise MLB’s 40-40 club.
You may see former MLB star Alex Rodriguez courtside as the Minnesota Timberwolves continue to make their NBA playoff run, and wonder: wait, does he actually own the franchise?
What happened? Well, Taylor said that the franchise might be worth more than he had initially agreed to sell it for. And the agreement between the parties was pretty much all set … but in principle.
Plus Rodriguez and Lore didn’t make a final payment for the team, which complicated everything.
The relationship between Taylor and his successors – Lore and Rodriguez – disintegrated over the past two-plus years, sources tell ESPN. Lore/Rodriguez did raise money necessary to purchase controlling interest, but Taylor contends that they didn’t meet contractual deadlines…
Alex Rodriguez saw all the jokes made about his face when he was interviewed during a Minnesota Timberwolves game (reminder: he’s a part-owner of the NBA franchise that’s on the rise).
It was during that interview with the ESPN broadcast that A LOT of people noticed A-Rod’s face looked … different. It was why Sammy Sosa’s name trended for a time. The memes and jokes were everywhere on X (formerly Twitter).
But Rodriguez decided to address all of that with a video: he explained he went on vacation and fell asleep in the sun. Hey, it happens!
“So, everybody calm down,” he added.
A-Rod does an interview from his courtside seat during the Timberwolves' game on ESPN. pic.twitter.com/X5QeDURHbS
KG will next need a jersey retirement ceremony and a statue in Minnesota.
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Simply put, the two individuals do not see eye-to-eye or get along. Despite playing for the team for more than a decade, Garnett has called Taylor a “snake” who does not know “[expletive] about basketball” and that only represents a fraction of what he has said about the businessman.
Taylor is on the way out, though, and a new ownership group will gain control. Now that Marc Lore and former MLB star Alex Rodriguez are about to take over, Garnett could eventually take a role with the team. Here is more from Brian Windhorst (via ESPN):
“Garnett’s guidance is brought up often by [Karl-Anthony] Towns. And with the Wolves on the verge of finally being sold by longtime owner Glen Taylor to Marc Lore and partners including Alex Rodriguez, that influence might be drawing closer.
Assuming the transaction is finalized, there is a chance Garnett will take a role with the organization, sources told ESPN. He has been in a bitter dispute with Taylor and distant from the franchise in recent years.”
His role is unclear but in May 2021, Pioneer Press journalist Charley Walters reported that Garnett would likely be “heavily involved” in the Timberwolves basketball department once Rodriguez and Lore eventually took control.
The following year, Walters (the same reporter) added that Rodriguez and Lore also wanted Garnett to join their ownership group with a significant investment. The expectation was that an overdue Garnett statue and jersey retirement would follow.
While these are just rumors for now and may not happen, as a sports fan, it is also very cool that Rodriguez may bridge the gap between Garnett and his longtime franchise.
In so many ways, the two former players mirrored each other during their professional careers. Both were very hyped prospects and top picks in their respective drafts then had similar longevities and long-term success playing their sports, reaching their highest moments at similar points in their careers.
Garnett played in the NBA between 1995 and 2016 while Rodriguez played in the MLB between 1994 and 2016. KG was a 15-time All-Star and won his only championship in 2008. A-Rod was a 14-time All-Star who won his only championship in 2009.
Although it was the only time he received the honor, Garnett was the NBA’s MVP in 2004. Rodriguez won the award in the American League for the first time in 2003 (then won it again in 2005 and 2007).
These are also two of the greatest players of their eras who lived up to their lofty hype. Garnett and Rodriguez never got to win a championship for the teams that drafted them, though. A-Rod has said that in retrospect, he feels that he may have left the Mariners “too early” (via Seattle Times):
“I always think about that – boy, if I stayed one more year, with Ichiro, maybe we could take on Goliath and actually get over the top,” he said. “But that never came.”
Even though leaving the team was the right call for him, if he comes back to the franchise, perhaps his presence can help keep the talented roster together moving forward.
Nowadays, the Timberwolves have two former No. 1 overall picks that they drafted on their roster: Anthony Edwards and Karl-Anthony Towns. The team is enjoying tremendous success as the top seed in the Western Conference.
When projecting the long-term future based on payroll, for financial reasons after also owing a massive salary to Defensive Player of the Year frontrunner Rudy Gobert, it will be a challenge to keep this core group together.
But for the fans who are watching this team in Minnesota, it would likely be incomparable to see the continuity of the homegrown talent win for the team that drafted them. Anything that Rodriguez and KG can do to convince them to stay would go a long way.
Especially as they are playing elite basketball, meanwhile, there is no better time than the present for KG to have a role with Minnesota. The idea of a statue and a jersey retirement ceremony should follow shortly after that, too.
The Most Singularly Strange NBA Moment
Bally Sports San Antonio
The Spurs mascot dressed up as Batman and chased a loose bat around the court during the Timberwolves game.
If that doesn’t make sense, I get it. Cory Woodroof has you covered:
“In one of the most singularly strange moments in the 2023-24 NBA season, a bat got loose in the San Antonio Spurs’ Frost Bank Center and got promptly chased by the Spurs mascot wearing a Batman costume and holding a giant net.
Don’t worry; the world around you is not glitching to reveal The Matrix. This is a thing that actually happened in San Antonio on Saturday night, and it’s apparently not the first time?”
The Twins made easy work of the Blue Jays in their AL wild-card sweep, and the series honestly felt like it was over after one play in the top of the fifth inning.
As the Blue Jays were threatening with two outs and Bo Bichette up with runners on second and third, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. made a massive base-running mistake and got picked off at second to end the inning. It was a play that pitcher Sonny Gray and shortstop Carlos Correa dialed up perfectly. And between innings, ESPN analyst Alex Rodriguez thought he saw how the play was going to develop in real time.
There was just one problem: A-Rod was making things up.
A-Rod says that Sonny Gray touched his hat as the indicator to Carlos Correa for the pickoff play pic.twitter.com/w6CvldISih
When the broadcast returned to the bottom of the fifth inning, Rodriguez had the crew revisit the play and claimed that the pickoff was called by Gray as he touched his cap to let Correa know that a pickoff was coming. It would have been a cool broadcasting moment from a former big-league shortstop if what Rodriguez was saying was actually true.
Now, Gray — and many MLB pitchers — frequently touch their cap. It would be a terrible signal (and an easy one for opponents to spot). But the main problem with A-Rod’s analysis here was that he framed a guess as some kind of certainty. That in itself was dishonest to the viewers and blew up in his face when Gray was asked about the play postgame.
The call never came from Gray. Instead, it was signaled by Correa to the dugout and called to Gray in his PitchCom system.
Correa had told Gray earlier in the game that the runners weren’t able to hear the “BACK!” shouts from the Blue Jays bench and base coaches. So, they had the pickoff opportunity in their mind up until the fifth inning when it was called from the dugout.
A-Rod, who didn’t play during the PitchCom era, was probably basing his observation off his own experience. But plays are called differently in today’s game, and A-Rod honestly should have known that instead of pretending to read the Twins’ signs.
Once Gray made his postgame comments, fans were quick to call out Rodriguez — who had just called his last game with ESPN — for his false commentary.
Alex Rodriguez is the latest person who didn’t realize MLB teams can’t trade draft picks.
Another prominent voice in sports has completely whiffed on realizing the MLB does not allow for the trade of draft picks, and who it is might surprise you.
New York Yankees great and sports broadcaster Alex Rodriguez recently shared on The Bret Boone Podcast that he feels that the Los Angeles Angels should “want to get a bunch of draft picks” for superstar Shohei Ohtani, per Awful Announcing.
That’s, y’know, not possible for the Angels or any team. You really can’t trade MLB draft picks; it’s not a running gag. It is literally impossible.
“I think here’s the thought that I would think about, if I was the Angels, I would want to get a bunch of draft picks, I want to load up my farm system,” Rodriguez said on the podcast. “If I’m the Angels, I’m saying, okay, you’re gonna take Ohtani, but I also want to give you some of my bad contract. So, if I can unload a few, or one big one, and take that off the books, plus refurnish my minor league system, get some draft picks and get maybe a piece or two? Now you got something.”
How does Rodriguez not know this? He played professional baseball! Maybe it’s just a slip of the tongue, but this is a pretty thorough take!
If he hasn’t already said something, Alex Rodriguez will probably want to walk back some of his comments from Sunday night.
While describing an ideal batting position to Michael Kay, Rodriguez said one’s posture should be up, and their right (arm) should be down … like they’re “punching a little person.”
Oof. Rodriguez is one of the best baseball players of all time and has a prominent position on ESPN’s Sunday Night Baseball broadcast. Surely, he could’ve thought of another, more sensitive way of describing an ideal way to hit, right?
Because it’s pretty mind-boggling that someone said this on live TV.
It remains hard to take this museum all too seriously.
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Tuesday was the day of the year when the baseball people make an announcement about former players (or player) who were lucky enough to be voted into a museum in upstate New York called the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum.
It was also the time of year for lots of baseball fans to be reminded that the the voting process isn’t really one that should be taken too seriously and that the museum doesn’t mean as much to fans these days because of the list of amazing players who will never get the call to the Hall.
Scott Rolen was the only player voted in this year, as he got just over the threshold of 75 percent of the votes that it takes to make it. Rolen was a fantastic third baseman during his career and won a World Series with the Cardinals. He was a 7-time All-Star in his 17 years and in his final five years he played 88, 40, 133, 65, and 92 games.
Does Rolen deserve to be a Hall of Famer? Sure. That’s not really my argument here, but I guess it does have some impact on what I’m going to say.
Here are two names from yesterday that didn’t get voted in – Manny Ramirez, and Alex Rodriguez. They once again join a group of other all-time greats like Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens (who are no longer on the ballot) that will likely never get their named called and it’s why we shouldn’t take this Hall of Fame thing all that seriously.
Those guys listed above aren’t getting in because of their involvement with the steroid era, which was a pretty fun era of baseball but that’s besides the point. We all know the arguments about why they aren’t getting in and why the should get in.
Scott Rolen was a great player. Manny, A-Rod, Bonds, and Clemens were a whole lot better and have legacies that will never be forgotten.
We baseball fans know who the best players of all time were and we don’t need some museum to give the names on that list any type of validation.
Though it would give the place a lot more credibility.
Quick hits: Brady acting lame about fine… Chiefs fans mad about Super Bowl ref… Joe Burrow thirst videos are raging… And more.
