Rant #1,732: Tonight's the Night

No, I am not going to warble Rod Stewart's classic song. I can't stand the song, and I was never a fan of his.

I am talking about tonight being the final game of Alex Rodriguez's career, or more to the point, the final game of his Yankees career. (Notice that his final game as a Yankees is tonight, and not on either Saturday or Sunday, when they will be celebrating the championship 1996 team, with members in attendance, and having a ceremony for Mariano Rivera at Monument Park--there is not way they want to sully those events with an ARod departure.)

He is being forced out by Yankees ownership, who believe that he cannot play anymore.

Rodriguez has done nothing to show that that belief is false, not even hitting .200 this year, with little power.

He is a shell of his former self, but the way that the Yankees have treated this episode is also shameful, making manager Joe Girardi have to atone for all of ownership's sins when it comes to this circus.

That is just plain wrong.

And do you really think that ARod is going to go along with this, with 700 home runs still within his reach?

If he has one ounce of baseball ability left in him, some team will sign him next season, and he will go after at least four more home runs, but he won't do it in a Yankees uniform, and that is by design.

The Yankees believe that he has sullied their uniform, and the last thing they want him to do is hit 700 home runs while a member of this team.

Babe Ruth did it; ARod will not, at least, not with the Yankees.

So they created this circus atmosphere, and tonight is it, versus the Tampa Bay Rays, a team that ARod could very well play for next season in his pursuit for those home runs. He could also play for his hometown Miami Marlins, if news reports are to be taken seriously.

And the Yankees will be paying him whatever the case, and you know that that burns them up like throwing a lighted match into a forest.

He will be playing tonight, just like he did in last night's 4-2 victory over the Red Sox. He got an RBI in that one, even though he went hitless.

Tonight is another story.

If the game is out of hand one way or the other, will one of the Tampa Bay pitchers groove one to him, so they can be part of ARod's baseball lore?

Don't bet against it. It does happen, and you can bet that if the situation presents itself, ARod will get a good shot to hit one out at Yankee Stadium as he is on the way out.

Years back, a few pitchers admitted that they grooved pitches to Mickey Mantle in his final season in 1968, just so they could one day tell their grandchildren that they were part of Mantle's lore.

One, the Red Sox's Jim Lonborg, actually admitted to it publicly.

In fact, looking back at one of the great urban legends, Mantle's 500th home run, on Mother's Day in 1967, might have been just that.

Here is what I wrote way back in Rant #600, on October 20, 2011:

"I have told this story many times, and I will tell it again.

My dad bought tickets to a Yankees game in May 1967, and he took my two friends with us. It was a birthday present to me, a little late one since I was born in April, but I anxiously waited for the game.

The problem was, my mother was not happy, because my father unwittingly bought the tickets for a game on the holiest day of the year, Mother's Day.

Well, we went anyway.

Mantle's Yankees were playing the Baltimore Orioles. My father had had Oriole Manager Earl Weaver in his cab a day or two before, and the two got to talking. The Yankees were destined for a ninth-place finish that year, and my father asked the seemingly inebriated Weaver if his pitchers could groove a pitch to Mantle during Sunday's game, the game we were going to be at, so we could be there when Mantle hit his 500th home run.

Weaver gave some unintelligible answer, and it was left at that.

Well, Mantle hit his 500th homer during that game, and the 25,000 or so in attendance--including me, my dad, and my friends--saw history that day. The place rocked and rolled for the rest of the game, with those in attendance cheering and yelling and screaming as if twice as many people were there.

Mantle, who was, by this time, a weary first baseman, made an error during the game, but the Yankees held on to win.

So did my dad have a part in Mantle hitting his 500th home run that day? Who knows, but it's fun to think about it that way."

So, could this happen tonight?

Yes, it could.

This game is a big one for the Yankees, as they push to try to get into the playoffs. They have been "the little engine that could" since management supposedly cashed in their chips this season, and they have played well, staying on the outside looking in in the playoff picture.

It probably is too little, too late, but if the circus helps propel this team to another win, and if ARod and an accommodating pitcher want to make it their own personal show, well then, why not?

It has happened before, and it could very well happen again.

We will know about 18 hours from now, so let's see what happens.

Speak to you again on Monday. My teeth may be killing me, but my fingers are still A-OK.