Giancarlo Stanton drama imperiling Yankees in ironic twist
NY Post
No better sports drama ever existed than Alex Rodriguez’s 12 seasons (over 13 years) playing for the Yankees, which gave us thrills, spills, suspensions, lawsuits, breakups, makeups, brawls, feuds and enough Page Six mentions to satiate a small country’s yearly appetite for gossip.
Giancarlo Stanton, the man to whom the Yankees committed $265 million just a few months after they wrote A-Rod his final check of his $275 million contract (which got cut by about $22 million thanks to his 2014 ban), is incredibly boring compared to his nine-figured forefather. Yet the 31-year-old brings sufficient drama to his pinstriped existence, and it’s the kind that imperils his team’s chances of success in a way that A-Rod almost never did. For Stanton, signed through 2027, the drama concerns his availability and his productivity, or lack thereof on both fronts. It is considerable.You are the face of Major League Baseball, the $700 Million Man, and your close friend, your interpreter, betrays you, allegedly steals $16M from your bank account to pay off his gambling debts. An MLB investigation into The Scandal Heard ’Round the World, from here to Japan and back, thankfully absolves you. It does not cost you your reputation, or your growing legacy.
Whenever seasons like the one the Knicks just completed end, I always find myself back outside the visiting locker room at old Mile High Stadium. I always find myself standing with a handful of writers surrounding Bill Parcells maybe half an hour after the Jets lost the AFC Championship game to the Broncos.