Jorge Posada's Temper Tantrum

On a day when Donald Trump announced he was no longer running for President of the United States and the favorite to be the next President of France was denied bail on charges of trying to rape a hotel maid the topic of interest too many was Jorge Posada.

For those of you who don’t follow baseball Posada is a 39-year old longtime member of the New York Yankees who caused quite an uproar over the weekend when he refused to play in a game. In clearly the twilight of what’s been a very good career Posada is having a miserable season and his .165 batting average led manager Joe Girardi to bat him 9th in Saturday’s game against the Red Sox. That’s the bottom of the lineup and usually reserved for your worst hitters, which Posada happens to be right now. When he first learned of the demotion he seemed to accept it but later in the day, probably after speaking with his agent, Posada informed Girardi he was not going to play.

A day later he sort of apologized for his actions, claiming he had “a bad day”
and teammate and Yankee captain Derek Jeter has come to his defense. The story has taken on a life of its own with more newspaper space and radio/TV time devoted to the controversy than the Yankees poor play which has resulted in a six-game losing streak. There’s been a lot of talk about how Posada and Girardi have never gotten along because it was the then-young Jorge who replaced the veteran Girardi as the team’s catcher back in the day. This may be true but honestly it’s irrelevant. At the end of the day coaches coach and players play and while Posada might have been insulted at batting 9th he should have “sucked it up” and gone out and performed. By the way he is paid quite nicely for his services and has earned well over $100 million while wearing pinstripes and his current deal pays him about $72,000 a day. Clearly he is overpaid and collecting now for what he did in the past which is no different than Jeter.

There’s been a lot of blame being tossed around and we don’t know the half of it…nor should we really care. Yankees management might have mishandled the situation but in the end a player refused to play because he didn’t like the way he was being treated. That should not be acceptable to anyone, especially fans who shell out big money for tickets, parking, beer and hot dogs. If Posada can get a better gig for $72,000 he should take it. If not then shut up and go out and play
because that’s what players do.