Replay in Baseball? Challenge Accepted!

Major League Baseball has officially entered the 21^st Century, and it’s about time. On January 16, 2014 every MLB team as well as the players association and the umpires union agreed to expanded replay. Prior to the new system teams could only ask for a video replay on homerun and boundary calls. Although many people believe these changes will improve the game, many baseball purists hate the idea and both sides have legitimate arguments.

The new system will allow managers one challenge per game and if that challenge overturns the call they will be awarded a second challenge. Along with homerun and boundary calls managers can now challenge ground rule double calls, outfield traps, fan interference, hit by pitch, tag plays and several other calls.

One interesting play notably left off the list is force plays at second base on a double play. For years second baseman and shortstops have used the “neighborhood tag” to their advantage in turning double plays. If you’re unfamiliar with the “neighborhood tag,” if a ball is grounded to the second baseman and he tosses it to the shortstop at second base the shortstop will very often never touch the base and still turn a double play. Umpires will call the player out the vast majority of times but occasionally players are called safe. The idea is to keep the fielder safe from runner’s metal cleats. It’s extremely intriguing the “neighborhood tag” is left off the list because of the many controversies it causes. But that is a discussion for another time.

Fans already groan at the length of a baseball game which was roughly two hours and 58 minutes last year. Adding replay will most definitely add time to games. Baseball has a difficult enough time keeping fans interested at the “slow pace” of play, how will adding time to games keep those fans entertained? It won’t.

Replay also takes away some of the good old fashioned rustic feel of the game. Of the four major sports; baseball, football, hockey and basketball, baseball is the only one that has no time limit. Fans will never hear a final buzzer go off. The game can go on and on until an outcome has been reached. The game has a natural, pastoral feel about it. It has wide open fields and the foul lines extend to foul poles that reach to the heavens. It’s a beautiful idea and feeling when you think of the history and the realness of what baseball is. And now MLB adds replay? A man-made machine that shows the umpire what just happened. What’s real about that? It takes away from the fantasy of baseball and the genuineness of the game.

On the other side, though, plenty of reasons exist why replay will help baseball. In today’s sports world the most important thing is to get the call right. A few years ago on June 2, 2010 Armando Galarraga lost a perfect game on a blown call at first base on what should have been the 27^th and final out. In the 2009 ALDS Joe Mauer hit a double down the left field line against the Yankees that could have sparked a rally in extra innings and the umpire called it foul, the ball was about a foot fair. Those are only two examples of the hundreds nay thousands of calls umpires get wrong. In fairness to the umps they are human and humans make mistakes. So baseball decided to fix many of those mistakes with replay.

Fixing calls isn’t the only thing replay does. Umpires now have a chance to be validated instead of demonized. Think about it, when an umpire makes a bad call fans, players, coaches and managers tear into that umpire. Now the umpire won’t have to deal with that scrutiny as the play can be fixed or the umpire can say, “I was right.” Umpires get more flack than anyone in baseball. When teams lose fans and players blame the umps. Now the scapegoat is gone. Now you can only blame the team.

No sport will get every call right or for that matter, every non-call right. But for the first time ever baseball is making huge strides in fixing a broken part of its game.

Welcome to the 21^st century baseball, we’ve been waiting for you.

New Rivalries and Old Rivalries Renewed on One Day

Sports always seem to have a funny way of working things out. This weekend's NFL Championship Weekend is no different. We’re in the middle of a rivalry shift like we’ve never seen before. In one day and two games we will see the greatest debate of the past decade versus quite possibly the greatest debate of the next decade.

Let’s face it; unfortunately Tom Brady and Peyton Manning’s careers have reached their respective twilight. Manning comes into the championship game following the greatest season in QB history. Brady comes into the game as a “game manager” more so than the great QB we’ve always seen. Every great athlete plays a last game and this weekend there is a chance we will see the proverbial torch being passed to the new generation of great QB’s.

No one knows for sure if Colin Kaepernick and Russell Wilson will live up to the same rivalry that Brady and Manning have. Wilson and Kaepernick are very good QB’s but they probably will never be as good as either Manning or Brady. And that’s not a knock on either of them, the fact is Manning and Brady are two of the greatest ever. But there’s a great chance the competitive rivalry will be better between the younger QB’s.

Brady and Manning have played in 14 career games against each other, including three playoff matches, in the past 12 years. Now take this, in a year and a half Wilson and Kaepernick have already seen each other three times with their fourth this weekend. Spreading that out into 12 years we’re looking at 32 head to head matchups. A more conservative estimate would be 25 games.

While Brady and Manning’s rivalry stems from their incredible talent and the constant comparisons Wilson and Kaepernick might end up having a more resentful link. Because the Seahawks and 49ers play each other twice a year it builds a hostile environment between the teams and their fans. In doing so it creates a bitter rivalry between the teams and their QB’s. Manning and Brady never had to go through that. While it was built up in fan’s minds and in the media that it’s a huge rivalry truth is Brady and Manning are friends.

I’m not saying that friends can’t be rivals but wouldn’t friendship take something away from it? There seems to be more resentment towards Eli Manning than Peyton by Patriots fan, and rightfully so. Eli admitted that Brady doesn’t really like him. Of the last four times they’ve met, including two Super Bowls, Eli and the Giants beat the Patriots. Maybe the real Manning/Brady rivalry doesn’t involve Peyton. The animosity between Giants fans and Patriots fans exists because of those Super Bowls and the teams’ respective locations, the northeast.

Kaepernick and Wilson playing in the same division and the west coast help create hostility between fanbases. While players and teams create the rivalries, the fans are the ones that argue and fight for their favorite team. Rivalries don’t live without fans.

Obviously it remains to be seen if Kaepernick and Wilson will even play at high levels long enough to be bitter rivals but as of now they are lining up as the premier rivalry of the NFL. And while many believe it’s Kaepernick and Wilson’s time to shine they still have plenty of learning to do; and what two better guys to learn from than Manning and Brady?

Once upon a time A-Rod was close to Retribution now it's just a Fairy Tale

On January 9, 2010 Alex Rodriguez received the Baseball Writer's Association of America's Postseason MVP award after helping carry the Yankees to a 27th World Series title. After receiving the award Alex joked, "Postseason MVP. What's next, the good guy award?" He knew then, as he knows now, he wasn't the most revered person in baseball. Almost four years later to the day, on January 11, 2014, Alex received the largest suspension in baseball history, 162 games.

It seems the greater an athlete is, the easier it is to tarnish their image. Between the years 2001 to 2008 A-Rod was arguably the best player in the game. During that time he won three MVP awards, made eight all-star teams and won two gold gloves. Then the stories hit. Joe Torre, his former manager, wrote a book saying teammates called him "A-fraud," stories surfaced about how he made his assistant put toothpaste on his toothbrush after games and above all Selena Roberts broke the story that A-Rod took steroids. His image was at an all-time low.

Alex isn't the only major athletes to have fallen from grace. Kobe Bryant, Tiger Woods and LeBron James have all had their share of image trouble as well. In July of 2003 Bryant was arrest for sexual assault. At the time he was the premier player in the NBA. He had just come off of three consecutive championships and led the league in scoring the previous season. When the sexual assault charges hit things quickly changed for Kobe. Several of Bryant's sponsors left him and many fans had deserted him. He was left with the one thing he could do well, play basketball. And the only way he could be liked again was to be great again.

On June 16, 2008 Tiger Woods improbably won the US Open of golf. He played the championship on one good leg. There is even a story that his doctor told him to sit out the tournament because he needed surgery. His response to his doctor was, "I'm going to play the US Open and I'm going to win it." Well he did both. After famously tying Rocco Mediate with a difficult putt on the 18th hole in round 4, Tiger limped his way to the title the next day. About a year later his world fell apart. In November of 2009 The National Enquirer posted a story about Tiger having an affair with a nightclub manager. The next couple months roughly 18 other women came out and said they had slept with Tiger. Instead of winning golf tournaments, Tiger became a joke to the American public. Similarly to Kobe, Tiger lost many of his endorsement deals. His days as a "squeaky clean" American athlete were over.

On July 8, 2010 LeBron James hosted a TV special called "The Decision." He had finished playing seven years with the Cleveland Cavaliers and became a free agent allowing him to decide what team to join. He had won two NBA MVP awards and had led the Cavs to a NBA Finals appearance in his time there making him a beloved Ohio athlete. During the event James announced he would leave the Cavs and join the Miami Heat. "The Decision" drew much criticism. It was said that his "decision" took too much time to come out during the event, his line "take my talents to South Beach" was made a joke and many people felt like James was a traitor and betrayed his hometown team. People that once called James "the King" had lost all respect for him. He could no longer be the savior the NBA desperately needed since Michael Jordan's retirement.

Something funny then happened with all four of these athletes. Yes A-Rod had taken steroids, Kobe had been arrested, Tiger cheated on his wife many times and LeBron disgraced the game. But then each of these guys began winning. And America likes nothing more than a winner.

Kobe won the NBA MVP award for the 2007 and won consecutive championships in the 2009 and 2010 seasons. In the meantime Kobe had gained back many of his sponsors and was once again an athlete people rooted for. Questions about his affair had dissipated, fans started buying his jersey again and Kobe was no longer the most hated guy in the NBA. He was, in fact, beloved again by many because he won.

Tiger Woods had gone through a rough patch in the immediate aftermath of his cheating scandal. Fans hated on him for making a Nike commercial using the voice of his late father, calling it disrespectful. But then, similarly to Kobe, he started winning again. He hasn’t won a major tournament since the aforementioned 2008 US Open but he has regained the number one ranking in the world and has won the PGA Tour Player of the year twice since the scandal, in 2009 and 2013. Many people still don’t like him but he’s still the biggest name in golf. The PGA tour needs Tiger to be good. Ratings are still at all-time highs on Sunday when Tiger is on the leaderboard. People watch when Tiger is playing because we are in awe. Many people do root for him to fail. But there are still a lot of fans hoping he will do well and that’s more than he could have said in 2008.

“The Decision” made LeBron James look like just another arrogant, egotistical athlete. It left his camp reeling and fans bad-mouthed him for it. He had become hated at an all-time high level. Many felt he spurned his former team and his home city. LeBron, at that point, did the only thing he could to gain back favorability; he played basketball. And he played it very well. He went on to make it to three consecutive (and counting) finals appearances and winning two of those. He is now number one in NBA jersey sales and funny enough, Bryant is number two. Both of them were hated not too long ago. The only thing that changed was winning and now they’re obviously beloved.

It seemed after 2009, Alex started on the same path as Bryant, Woods and James. He was a winner and a winner on the biggest stage. He was clutch in the 2009 playoffs and played like a man on a mission. People said all the pressure was off him now because he had admitted his steroid use and that he would be a different man. Then his notorious postseason failure started in again. He batted .219, .111 and .120 in the 2010, 2011 and 2012 playoffs, respectively. The choke artist had returned and any chance he had of fixing his image had vanished. His image took another hit in 2013 when his name came up in documents for purchasing more PED’s. And when he used his rights to ask for an arbitration settlement of a 211 game suspension players and fans admonished him. His appeal was at an all-time low and he was hated by almost everyone.

America loves comeback stories. America loves winners. All four of these men had tarnished their respective images. Three of them came back and made it right, by winning. Alex was on that same path to retribution but somewhere along the way he took a wrong turn and now there’s no way back.

How A-Rod Coverage has made Yankees Off-Season a Success

Phineam T. Barnum of Barnum and Bailey once said, “There’s no such thing as bad publicity.” This goes along the same line as an Oscar Wilde quote, “The only thing worse than being talked about is not being talked about.” As we await the decision on Alex Rodriguez’s suspension those two quotes seem to ring truer than ever.

A-Rod is known for several things: controversy, PED use, hitting lots of home runs, attention seeking, getting popcorn fed to him by Cameron Diaz and my favorite—carrying the Yankees to the 2009 World Series title. A-Rod’s non-stop controversies and behavior has led to a ton of publicity for the New York Yankees. Based on the aforementioned quotes, none of that publicity is bad.

Although the controversies may have a negative connotation and the Yankees have “tried” distancing themselves from the A-Rod issues, it’s all good, no—great, for the organization. In a town where all sports franchises—and there are a lot, nine to be exact—clamor for the “back page” of newspapers, the Yankees have the king of controversy manning third base for them. And when we go a couple of days without hearing any A-Rod news something seems amiss.

For nearly two months we heard news about A-Rod’s arbitration hearing almost daily. A-Rod started suing everyone from MLB to the Yankees to the little boy who walked in front of him after a hearing—actually that last one never happened but it might as well have. A-Rod was on a warpath. Then we heard about A-Rod slamming his fist down in anger and storming out of his hearing because MLB Commissioner Bud Selig wouldn’t have to testify. Then there was A-Rod saying the prosecution had nothing and it would be an easy win for his team. Then things slowed down a little bit on the A-Rod front.

The news may have been sour but the coverage was fantastic. A-Rod and Yankees news was plastered on newspapers, something they both relish. Alex seems to have come to the understanding that no matter what he does he’s the bad guy. And it seems he’s now OK with that. It sounds like he will speak his mind from now on. He doesn’t need your approval or mine. He might go down but he’ll go down guns blazing.

While the A-Rod news slowed down the Yankees news didn’t. Brian Cashman, Yankees GM, began spending as only the Yankees know how to do. He signed Brian McCann away from the Braves; he brought Jacoby Ellsbury over from the Red Sox and finished that trifecta with signing outfielder and life-long Yankee wannabe Carlos Beltran. During the spending though something else interesting happened. The Yankees lost their second baseman, Robinson Cano, to the Seattle Mariners. A lot had happened in Yankee-land and that’s the way they want it because people are talking about them.

When the New Year finally hit, the A-Rod train started chugging again. A series of emails between Alex and the Yankees president Randy Levine were published. They went from extremely friendly, if not “high school text message like” to seemingly hostile. But what did these emails do? They gave the Yankees and A-Rod more publicity and there’s nothing wrong with that.

The email news settled rather quietly and then some more Alex news came out. He’s “considering” taking a lesser suspension to guarantee he will play this year. The league offered him a lesser suspension a long time ago, he didn’t take the deal. So why would he now? He’s not going to take a lesser deal, his camp leaked this “information” for one thing—publicity. It doesn’t change anything. It was just getting a little too quiet for Alex’s liking.

There has been a lot of Yankee publicity, much of it focused on A-Rod and the zoo he created around him. It may not have been good news but it had been great publicity. People were talking about the Yankees and above all that’s what the Yankees want. The Yankees will say they want this A-Rod coverage over but the truth is they don’t.

The Yankees organization has become a loud, boisterous, rowdy entity but it hasn’t been bad. They claim to have a “professional” team and clubhouse but there is nothing more they want than media exposure. They know the fans aren’t going anywhere and they also know that all this noise makes people watch.

The Yankees want people to talk about them, no matter if it’s negative, because if they’re talking about them they’re watching them. Yankee-land knows it better than anyone, except maybe A-Rod, that there’s no such thing as bad publicity.

Maybe the Hall of Fame voters got it Right

Since news has spread of the 2014 MLB Hall of Fame results people have bashed the voters, the voting system, MLB and the MLB Hall of Fame. People have taken issue with the fact that Greg Maddux didn’t receive 100% of votes and that Armando Benitez was listed on someone’s ballot and that Dan Le Batard allowed the fans on deadspin.com do his voting. Many people think the system is broken and that players, like Jack Morris, should have made it into the Hall of Fame at some point in the past 15 years.

Maybe the system, the voters and the Hall of Fame didn’t get it wrong this year; maybe they got it right.

Greg Maddux was a special pitcher and in recent days many people have suggested he was not only one of the greatest ever, but arguably the greatest ever. Many people thought he had a chance to be the first player ever to be unanimously elected to the Hall of Fame. The kibosh was put on that idea when Ken Gurnick of mlb.com said he won’t vote for any player from the steroid era. It doesn’t sound like necessarily thinks every player in that era took PEDs but it sounds like he thinks every player could have taken PEDs. To be honest, that’s not that far-fetched.

It was a time in baseball where management, ownership and league officials turned a blind eye towards steroid and performance enhancing drug use. And as we’ve come to find out, it wasn’t just baseball but also cycling, track and field and probably many other sports. Gurnick obviously feels like many other voters do, that PED users don’t belong in the Hall of Fame and he’s proving a point by saying even the most unlikely suspect is still a suspect. As long as Gurnick can vote for the HOF and sticks to the same criteria Mariano Rivera won’t be unanimous nor will Derek Jeter. Maybe Gurnick is right. Maybe because everyone in the “steroid era” could have taken PEDs they should be off the ballot. Maybe.

Some have suggested that every one of the 571 hall of fame ballots should have a name behind it. As of now ballots are confidential unless the voter allows fans to see their ballot. These people suggest that players like Armando Benitez wouldn’t get a vote if everyone knew who they were. But maybe these ballots should stay sealed. Think about it, why should anyone’s beliefs be thrown out to the wolves to be fed upon? If someone thinks Armando Benitez is a hall-of-famer then that person should be able to vote for him without being harassed. His or her name shouldn’t be tossed around and mocked because of their Benitez vote. Maybe because every writer deserves to save face sometimes they shouldn’t have to show their ballot. Maybe.

Dan Le Batard has been stripped of his right to vote for the MLB Hall of Fame for life even though he is a member of the Baseball Writers Association of America. He is being stripped of that right because he allowed fans to choose his nominations. What’s wrong with that? Why can’t he allow other people to choose who he selects for the HOF. The fans are the ones who pay to see the games. The fans are the ones who get in barroom brawls defending their team. The fans are the ones who cry when their team loses the World Series or celebrate when their team wins the World Series. The fans are the ones with the passion for the game, not the voters. So why not allow the fans to do the voting? Le Batard might be onto something, allowing the people who really care to do the voting. Maybe the fans should vote for the Hall of Fame. Maybe.

Baseball is a fun and intricate game. There are many rules and then there are many “unwritten” rules—whatever that means. The players that play that fun and intricate game better than any other players deserve to be enshrined in Cooperstown, NY in the baseball Hall of Fame and maybe there is nothing wrong with the  current system to figure out who those players are. Maybe it needs no fixing.

Maybe the system is all right, but it’s probably not.

How do Fans choose their team?

At 7:44 on January 8, 2014 my sister-in-law gave birth to a beautiful baby boy making me an uncle for the first time. In learning that I’d become an uncle several thoughts crossed my mind. The first was why didn't my brother call me and tell? And why does everyone know before me? Well I’m going to be able to move past those issues pretty soon.

Then a new thought came to my mind after noticing my brother wearing a New York Yankees hat in the picture with his wife and new baby. Immediately I thought: This kid is going to be a Yankees fan. Then I thought: What if he’s not? Well if you grew up in my house, you were a Yankees fan or you became one when they beat the Braves in the World Series twice in the 90’s, just ask my oldest brother.

I was bred to be a Yankees fan. My dad took us to Yankee Stadium for my 9^th birthday and I can still remember seeing the greenest green grass I’d ever seen. Don Mattingly, my favorite player, had a single and an error in the game and Mark McGwire of the Oakland Athletics hit a home run. That was almost 20 years ago and I remember it. But that’s not what made me a Yankees fan. I was a fan before that, before the Yankees became the team of the 90’s, before they won four championships in five years, before Derek Jeter was the Rookie of the Year in 1996. But why was I a Yankees fan?

The simple answer would be that both my parents were Yankees fans. Something I didn't realize until only a couple years ago was my mother, who lived in Massachusetts and raised by an avid Red Sox fan father, was a Red Sox fan growing up—pretty much until she met my dad. My dad’s dad wasn't really a baseball fan but when it came to baseball he didn't care much for the Yankees. Following the departure of the Giants and Dodgers from New York to California, my grandpa pretty much rooted for the Mets. So that makes me really wonder why I’m a Yankees fan.

Both of my grandfathers’ rooted for Yankees’ rivals; one the crosstown rival Mets and the other the division rival Red Sox. I was born in 1986 but my future fate as a Yankees fan was sealed in 1964 when Bob Gibson got Bobby Richardson to pop up to second base in game seven of the World Series crowning the St. Louis Cardinals World Series champions by beating the Yankees seven to five. My dad has told me the story many times, he was an 11-year-old boy and he saw the Yankees lose the World Series and he felt bad for them so he decided to root for that team.

He began watching games and learning the players. His favorite player was Joe Pepitone, he remembers how much of a letdown it was for him when Pepitone was arrested for drugs, 20 years later. He remembers hoping Mickey Mantle would retire with a .300 batting average and failing because of how bad he played his last few years. He even named his fantasy baseball championship team after his favorite players. That’s how he became a Yankees fan. By watching and learning and loving the game and now he is probably the biggest Yankees fan I know.

Because of his influence, my mother became a Yankees fan as I did and both my brothers. With that being said I know many people who don’t root for the team their parents do. One of my best friends from college is a die-hard Red Sox fan even though he is from New York and no one in his family likes the Sox. So your fandom is not always dependent on that of your parents.

What other factors go into someone’s decision of a favorite team? Location is a big one. I live in Northern Virginia now. The Washington Nationals have only been around for nine years. Before that the only team in this area people rooted for was the Baltimore Orioles. From what I notice now, many of the younger fans root for the Nats. I even went to a Nats game last year and wore a red hat with a cursive W scrawled on it. I didn't have a rooting interest in either team and I live local and need a National League team to root for, so why not root for the Nationals? Don’t get me wrong, the Yankees are still my team. When the Yanks played a spring training game against the Nats I was the obnoxious Yankees fan surrounded by red hats with cursive W’s. 

I think one of the most important factors about fandom is winning. I’m from New York and I like the Yankees, Rangers and Giants. All New York teams and all have won a title in my lifetime. Am I a Knicks fan? No. I’m a Bulls fan. I still root for them even though Michael Jordan hasn't shot a basketball for them in 15 years. I rooted for the Bulls during my “formative sports years” because of Jordan, because Jordan made them win. They won in 1991 when the Giants won and 1994 when the Rangers won and 1996 when the Yankees won. And they won again in 1998 when the Yankees won.

I don’t say that I only root for good teams because, quite frankly, the Bulls and Rangers were terrible for a long time. But is it a coincidence that during the years a person forms opinions on their teams were the same years those teams won the championship? Probably not. I like winning, I like it a lot. I hate losing and I’m bad at it and that’s probably why I bought a championship trophy and ring when I finally won my fantasy baseball championship this past year.

But if winning was the deciding factor for people to root for a team there would be no Cubs fans today or Red Sox fans until 10 years ago. Both of those fan bases took on the role of lovable losers and blamed “curses” for their lack of success. People bought into that and they enjoyed it and they wanted to be a part of that. Because when all that losing turns into success as it has in Red Sox Nation these last 10 years people want to be part of that.

I think, at the end of the day, there are a million different reasons why someone likes one team more than the rest of them. I love the Yankees and I hate the Red Sox. But I’ve always said that if I weren't a Yankees fan, I’d probably be a Red Sox fan because besides Yankees fans, I’ve never seen a fan base with so much passion and intensity. I love the intensity at Yankee Stadium facing the Red Sox and I loved feeling the animosity at Fenway Park in a June baseball game between the Sox and Yanks.

In 10 years or so I will have a better understanding of what makes someone a fan of a certain team. My nephew will grow up in a predominantly Nationals fan base in Northern Virginia. But he will grow up in a Yankees house with a die-hard father and a die-hard uncle nearby. All his friends will be Nats fans, all his family will be Yankees fans. 

Fans are great and they make baseball great and in a few years my brother is going to take his baby boy to a baseball game (hopefully his favorite uncle tags along). I hope he remembers it as well as I remember my first game. He’ll be rooting for one team over the other and I will do everything in my power to make sure the hat he’s wearing is navy blue with an interlocking NY on it. But I don’t think it’s as much my decision as I’d like to believe.

The Case against re-signing Robinson Cano

***Originally written on 11/4/13***

Four silver slugger awards, two gold glove awards, five all-star appearances, one home run derby championship and a World Series ring are only some of the accolades Robinson Cano has as a member of the New York Yankees. And for the Yankees, that should be all they need of him.

Cano is widely considered one of—if not the best—second baseman in baseball. His numbers through half a career strongly suggest he will one day be a Cooperstown candidate. The Yankees would be crazy to let go of a guy who puts up .300+ BA, 25 home runs and 90+ RBI every year. He’s been in the top six of MVP voting the past three seasons and will undoubtedly be there again this year as he carried an injury-plagued Yankees team into playoff contention.

The question about Cano is how much he really cares. If you watch him in the field he makes impossibly difficult plays look like second nature. The guy is unbelievable with an arm that produces double plays at will. He’s quick and he’s got great range and he acts like a vacuum cleaner on anything that is close with a nonchalance that has become so typical. He never seems to give the great effort that is needed at such an integral position.

Comparing anyone to Derek Jeter is a fool’s task but it’s fair to compare the person who—according to his own father—says he could replace Jeter as the team’s captain in a few years. Cano has one of the sweetest swings in baseball. And he benefits greatly from the short right field fence at Yankee Stadium, the stadium is tailor-made for him, just like the Yankees like it. But why can’t the guy hustle to first? Jeter busts it down the line 100% of the time, he goes hard always, even with a broken ankle.

Cano busts it down the line too…occasionally. But how many doubles has he lost out on because he’s admired his hit that falls short of the fence and he ends up at first? How many bobbled infield grounders has he lollygagged his way to first only to start running once he realizes he might make it has he been thrown out on? How many times has he barely made second base on a sure-fire double because he trotted out of the batter’s box? Whatever the answer is, it’s way too many times.

Cano reportedly asked for a 10-year deal worth somewhere between 300 million and 310 million dollars. Next year he enters his age 31 season. A 10-year contract would put him at 40 by the time it expires. Teams realize now—after A-Rod and Pujols—that 10-year contracts to someone in their 30’s is not a good idea. Cano won’t get that much money from anyone. But if someone offers it the Yankees should thank them.

For all of Cano’s strengths—which are many—he consistently shows he puts himself above his team. The Yankees won’t find someone that can replace Cano, it’s nearly impossible. The guy is in his prime and is going to put up incredible numbers for the next three years but his lack of hustle is a real concern. And the truth is he’s not going to change. Girardi can’t pull him out of the lineup anymore because he’s the franchise player.

With everything the Yankees have been known for over the years from a “no nonsense clubhouse” to a “very professional” organization they can’t keep a guy that doesn’t care. They can’t let him be the face of the franchise. How can you let a player with a lackadaisical attitude be your guy? Some teams could get away with that, the Yankees can’t afford that. If they do that they will have abandoned everything that Jeter stood for. And everything every other captain, from Mattingly to Gehrig, stood for.

The Yankees are known for winning and doing whatever it takes to win. Cano does not encompass that Yankee attitude. For as good as he is, he hasn't proven he has the heart of winner; that he’ll do whatever it takes to bring the Commissioner’s Trophy back to New York.  Cano will do a lot of great things as a baseball player but until he learns to hustle it will never be enough.

Cano’s production will be tremendous, the Yankees know that and 29 other teams know that too. But that doesn't make him a no-brainer re-sign at-all-costs player. At this point, and it’s early, the Yankees are long-shots to win the World Series next year with or without Cano.

The Yankees don’t need another big contract that will cause more harm than good in the end. Re-signing Cano will give them a great player with lousy upside. It’s time for the Yankees and Cano to part ways. Cano wants money, the Yankees want championships and the two can’t mix in the foreseeable future.

The Yankees need to re-build starting now. Cano won’t let that happen because of the money he will demand. If he proved to be a workhorse Cano could have had the Yankees and the rest of the baseball world at his fingertips this off-season but instead he decided to jog to first. And because of that jogging, he should be walking away from New York.