By BOB BROOKOVER
Tribune News Service
TAMPA, Fla. — Six years ago they were World Series headliners and at the peak of their popularity in their respective cities.
Ryan Howard had just hit .333 with two home runs and eight RBIs, winning the NLCS MVP in the Phillies’ five-game series win over the Los Angeles Dodgers. He had carried his team back to a second straight World Series for the first time in franchise history.
Alex Rodriguez had batted .438 with five home runs and 12 RBIs in nine playoff games to help the New York Yankees get back to the World Series for the first time since 2003. He was the 21st-century Bronx Bomber and taking aim at becoming baseball’s all-time home run king.
Six years later, they are considered two of the biggest albatrosses in baseball.
Howard, 35, is owed $60 million over the next two seasons, including $25 million this season. He is also manning a position that would otherwise be occupied by either Darrin Ruf or Maikel Franco, the two best power-hitting prospects on the Phillies’ 40-man roster.
Rodriguez is owed $61 million over the next three seasons, including $21 million this season. The Yankees have always had a knack for doing things bigger and better. In this case, however, they simply have a much bigger mess than the one the Phillies have with Howard. A-Rod is a contract problem on steroids, both literally and figuratively.
He has stained the game and his own name with his actions and the lies he has told to cover them up. He is going to turn 40 years old in July and the Yankees will still be paying him at 42. Oh, yeah, and then there are all those home run bonuses.
If he hits six home runs this season, he is owed $6 million. If he hits 60 over the next three seasons, he’ll get $6 million more. Those bonuses were a cute little perk designed to track his pursuit of the career home run record when the Yankees signed him to that 10-year contract worth $275 million after the 2007 season. Now, however, the Yankees will find themselves begrudgingly paying A-Rod for his fraudulence at a time when they should be looking at younger players.
In his last three seasons on the field, Rodriguez hit .269 with 41 home runs, 138 games and a .796 OPS. He also only averaged 88 games per season during that time. Hip surgery limited him to 44 games in 2013, so he has barely been on the field the last two seasons.
Like Howard against the Yankees the day before, A-Rod enjoyed a nice spring-training debut Wednesday against the Phillies at Steinbrenner Field. He faced Phillies fifth-starter hopeful Kevin Slowey as the second batter in the bottom of the first inning and, after swinging through a couple pitches, singled to left field on an 0-2 count.
“I was happy I just made contact and I was pleasantly surprised it was a base hit,” Rodriguez said. “I was a little nervous. It had been a long time since I put on the pinstripes. It was definitely fun to put them back on.”
Rodriguez grounded out sharply to shortstop against Paul Clemens in the third and drew a walk off Ethan Martin on a tough 3-2 pitch in the sixth before being removed for a pinch-runner.
What Rodriguez should have been most pleasantly surprised about was the reaction he received during his return. The majority of Yankees fans enthusiastically welcomed him back from his one-year drug suspension.
“It was mixed,” Yankees manager Joe Girardi said after his team’s 3-1 exhibition loss to the Phillies. “It’s probably going to be that way. But as I’ve said all along, it’s nothing new for him. He has had to deal with it for a long time now. He knows how to block it out and prepare himself.”
The boos directed at Rodriguez were most audible during pregame introductions, but still no match for the applause. By the time he came up in the sixth, he was greeted with the loudest ovation of the afternoon. It is mind-boggling that someone who has done so much wrong during his career could receive that kind of positive feedback.
“For me, the most incredible thing has been all the good-luck texts and good wishes I have received from so many people,” Rodriguez said. “I never dreamed that I would get that much support, so that part has been unbelievable and motivating.”
If Yankees fans can applaud A-Rod after all the harm he has done to the most successful franchise in North American history, then there’s no reason Phillies fans should ever boo Howard. All he has ever done is give a good, honest effort. His body may have betrayed him in recent years, but he has still gone about his business in the right way.
Given a choice between two bad contracts, I’ll take the one that belongs to the one good person.
