The Sports Truth

Much has been made of the tumultuous off season for the New York Yankees. Certainly we’re all aware of the A-Rod saga, but catcher Jorge Posada filed for free agency and returned, same for closer Mariano Rivera. Roger Clemens is expected to retire (again) and starting pitcher Andy Pettitte declined his option to stay with the Yankees for another year as he contemplates retirement.

Andy Pettitte keeps the Yankees in limbo as he decides his future.

Certainly not the best of off-season’s for the Bronx Bombers a sentiment Yahoo! Sports’ Tim Brown talks about in his column on November 19th, 2007.

Tim’s point is that the Yankees are not addressing their most pressing need: pitching. While he’s right, what do you want them to do, Tim? Sign Kyle Lohse (another Boras client, by the way)? Trade away every rookie for Johan Santana? Demand that Andy Pettitte not retire and stay with New York another year? Frankly, one of the best things they could have done for their pitching was make sure Rivera returned. Tim thinks the pitching is poor now, imagine if Rivera didn’t come back.

In typical terrible reporting fashion, Tim talks only about the problem and blames the Yankees for not addressing it without coming up with a solution of his own. The reason is, of course, there is not solution. In my opinion, the Yankees have two options. Either move one or more of the kids (Philip Hughes, Joba Chamberlain, or Ian Kennedy) with Melky Cabrera for Johan Santana or stick with the aforementioned kids. The rest of the free agent pitchers out there aren’t worth paying for.

Move over, Stray-Rod. We’ve got F-Rod!

So many rods to discuss as controversy continues to swirl around superstar Yankee third baseman Alex Rodriguez.

His wife, Cynthia Rodriguez, stayed surprisingly cool a month ago when reports of A-Rod’s philandering hit the press.

But she may have flipped her lid this week when she went to a game in The Bronx wearing a tight-fitting tank top bearing this on the back:

“F*%k you.”

Given that this was on the back of the normally composed Cynthia Rodriguez, many were taken aback… especially those seated behind her.

The obscene phrase was visible to many fans - kids included - as she, their 2-year-old daughter, Natasha, and another woman took their seats.

“[One] father, was so embarrassed, he got up and left and took his son,” who appeared to be about 10 years old, a fan said.

“I mean this kid was right in back of Cynthia Rodriguez. His nose must have been about 4 inches away from the words ‘F*%k you.’”

Cynthia Rodriguez’s F-word antics violate Yankee policy, which prohibits any banners or signs that are not in “good taste” and warns that anyone “using foul language” or “making obscene gestures” may be ejected.

Still, when fans let security know about Cynthia Rodriguez’s classy four-letter garment yesterday, nothing was done about it.

“It was noted by police and security,” one fan said. “I guess you don’t kick A-Rod’s wife out of the game.”

Cynthia’s etiquette comes after she was humiliated by her straying hubby’s jetting around the U.S. and Canada with a busty, blond Las Vegas stripper and Playboy wannabe named Joslyn Noel Morse.

Is that who the tank top’s message is directed at? Or is it the media? Brian Cashman? Derek Jeter? A-Rod himself? We may never know.

He’s hitting .238 in the past week and has cooled off considerably since his record-setting April, but the last week was even tougher on Alex Rodriguez than the box scores show.

Last weekend in Boston, Red Sox fans (below) greeted the slugger with masks representing stripper Joslyn Noel Morse, who the New York Post reports he was spotted in Toronto with at an all-nude club.

The “Stray-Rod” scandal put a strain on married A-Rod’s relationship with wife Cynthia Rodriguez, who left their East Side pad with two suitcases, refusing to speak with reporters, after the story broke.

However, Alex and Cynthia were seen in Boston prior to the Yankees’ weekend series with the Red Sox and appeared to be in good spirits the next day.

Doing some damage control, A-Rod took his better half out to fancy dinners and purchased for her thousands of dollars diamonds. How Kobe Bryant of him.

As for Joslyn Noel Morse, well, it appears she once appeared in Playboy … in the magazine’s “Casting Calls.” She wasn’t quite Playmate material. Sad.

Follow this link to see pictures of Joslyn Noel Morse nude …

Here’s the question: Was Alex Rodriguez threatening Yankees fans with his comments that they could actually boo him out of town? Or was he teasing them with the attractive possibility?

“It’s a do or die situation,” he said on WFAN-AM’s “Mike and the Mad Dog” show. “Either New York is going to kick me out of New York this year, say ‘I’ve had enough of this guy, get him the hell out of here,’ and we have an option. Or New York is going to say, ‘Hey, we won a world championship, you had a big year, you were a part of it and we want you back.’”

Wow. Who knew fans had such control over a player? Moreover, who knew an accomplished athlete would allow the common ticket holder to decide his fate? ARod sure is a sweetheart.

Until he took back those weird comments later in the same interview:

“I want to 100 percent stay in New York. Period. That’s it. I don’t know how many ways I can say it.”

Well, one way would be to avoid making the original statement, in which you made it sound like blame would fall on the fans who booed your underachieving glove and bat if you took your player’s option and skipped town after the 2007 season.

It’s hard to know what we make of Rodriguez. He’s never been fully embraced by the Yankees or their fans - yet he plays hard, puts up solid numbers, cedes the ledership role to Derek Jeter. But at the end of the day, he sounds like a politician yearning for your cheers.

And a bad one at that.