Labrum? I don’t even know him
Posted: March 9th, 2009 | Filed under: Baseball | 50 Comments »
First off, why do they call the cartilage in your hip the “labrum?” Is this some sort of medical gag designed to confuse baseball writers? Because, seriously, it’s working. We are confused. The labrum is the cartilage in the shoulder that protects the shoulder blade AND the labrum is also the cartilage that protects the hip joint. Really. Apparently there are not enough words in medicine.
In general, it is has been the labrum in the shoulder — the glenoid labrum according to the official medical source of the American Medical Association otherwise known as “Wikipedia” — that has been the hot injury in baseball. Our good friend Will Carroll wrote a whole piece for Slate Magazine on the torn labrum being baseball’s “most fearsome injury.“ A torn labrum finished off Robb Nen and Mike Sirotka among many others (though Gil Meche appears to have come back from it). I think we were all pretty settled on what a labrum injury is.
Now, of course, the shoulder labrum is as yesterday as Britney Spears. Alex Rodriguez has a torn labrum in his hip. So now, that’s the labrum of choice — it’s sort of like when Kurt Warner replaced Curt Warner or when football Larry Johnson took over for basketball Larry Johnson or when LT came to mean LaDainian Tomlinson to a new generation (when LT will forever in my mind represent Lawrence Taylor).
Lots of people are speculating about what this will mean for A-Rod’s career. I have to say: I have absolutely no idea. The doctors quoted seem to think he will be able to come back after this first arthroscopic surgery and play for the rest of the season, and those same doctors seem to think that he should have a full recovery after more intensive hip surgery in the offseason. That’s certainly possible. They are doctors, they should know. Then again, a soon-to-be-34-year-old infielder facing two hip surgeries doesn’t exactly seem like the world’s best bet.
I would make a couple of points. One, there are not many third baseman who have had great years into their late 30s.
Best OPS+ seasons for third basemen (age 35 or older)
1. Chipper Jones, 2008, 36 years old, 174 OPS+
2. Chipper Jones, 2007, 35 years old, 166 OPS+
3. Mike Schmidt, 1986, 36 years old, 152 OPS+
4. Mike Schmidt, 1987, 37 years old, 142 OPS+
5. Wade Boggs, 1994, 36 years old, 141 OPS+
6. Pete Rose*, 1976, 35 years old, 141 OPS+
7. Ken Caminiti, 1998, 35 years old, 132 OPS+
8. Stan Hack, 1945, 35 years old, 132 OPS+
9. Tony Cuccinello, 1945, 37 years old, 129 OPS+
10. Tim Wallach, 1994, 36 years old, 127 OPS+
Point is, third basemen don’t really tend to age very well. There’s only one third baseman in baseball history who had an OPS+ better than 125 after turning 37, and that was Tony Cuccinello during World War II. So, even beyond the injury, most people were expecting A-Rod to simply maintain his greatness through age 40, and history might argue the point. Chipper Jones has held up extremely well, so it’s not impossible. Of course, Chipper Jones but even he has not played more than 134 games in any of the last four seasons.
The second point: Some third baseman do age well after they move to first base — George Brett won a batting title at 37 as a first basemen, Pete Rose had a couple of good years as a first baseman and so on. It would not surprise me if there was a position change for A-Rod in the future. Of course, I have heard that the Yankees have paid some pretty good money for a first baseman, Mark something-or-other, and so that might not be an easy move.
And while we’re here, we might as well talk a little bit about the Yankees. I’ve read in a few places that the Yankees should be able to overcome the short-term loss of A-Rod, and i think it’s possible because they do have the makings of a dominant starting pitching staff. But to me this was a very flawed team before A-Rod got hurt. They are brutal defensively up the middle. Brutal. That will not help the starting pitching. Their bullpen before Mariano is shaky at best, and heck, even Mariano is 39 years old.
More than anything, look at that lineup. Jorge Posada turns 38 in August. Derek Jeter turns 35 in June. Hideki Matsui also turns 35 in June, and he’s coming off an injury. Johnny Damon’s already 35. Robinson Cano had a .305 on-base percentage last year, Nick Swisher hit .219, Xavier Nady is Xavier Nady. I mean, those guys are names, some of them, and maybe they all have a last hurrah in them. But maybe not. That lineup just reminds me so much of those teams you see that will not let go of the past — kind of like the Kansas City Chiefs of the 1970s. The key to the Yankees lineup, for me, was Teixeira repeating what he was able to do in Anaheim for a couple of months and A-Rod being A-Rod. Without those two things, I just don’t see the Yankees — even with all the money they spent on pitching — being as good as the Red Sox or Rays.
Now, of course, A-Rod’s season is a shaky proposition. His future is shaky too. All those things people predicted — the home run record, the title of greatest player ever, the unanimous Hall of Fame selection — are hazy. I do feel badly for him. He has been been a great player who, in many ways, has not been fully appreciated. He’s brought a lot of that on himself, of course, with his brazen grab for money and his admitted steroid use and, yeah, a few ill-timed playoff struggles. But I don’t think those things make him much different from many of the other great players in baseball history.
I think of the beautiful line in Richard Ben Cramer’s epic Esquire story about Ted Williams:
”He wanted fame, and wanted it with a pure, hot eagerness that would have been embarrassing in a smaller man. But he could not stand celebrity. This is a bitch of a line to draw in America’s dust.“
Richard has been working on a book about Alex Rodriguez, and I think I know why. Because A-Rod, like Williams, craved something desperately. I think A-Rod’s case, it was more than fame, though he wanted that. It was more than money, though he wanted that too. It’s corny and amateur psychology, but I do believe he’s just wanted to be loved. And here is Alex Rodriguez. He has hit 553 home runs, and he has won three MVP awards, and he has made every All-Star Game for more than a decade, and he is rich, and he is famous, and he is a star. And, also, he’s facing two hip surgeries and an uncertain future except for the certain boos that will surround him in every ballpark he will visit. It’s a hell of a thing about life. You never know the ending until you get there.
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Sounds right about A-Rod wanting more. Your post from awhile back nailed it, that he never realized he was the kid that the others wanted to be.
How many pitchers have great seasons the first year after signing the big FA contract? I’m not too sure about C.C., and that’s not even considering the workload that Yost gave him.
The Latin etymology clarifies things. The word “labrum” means wash basin. . . . Wait, nevermind, that doesn’t clarify things at all. I wonder if our bodies have other basins.
Labrum: In medicine, a ring of fibrocartilage (fibrous cartilage) around the edge of the articular (joint) surface of a bone.
The glenoid labrum is a ring of fibrocartilage that runs around the cavity of the scapula (wingbone) in which the head of the humerus (the bone in the upper arm) fits. The labrum deepens this cavity (the glenoid cavity) and effectively increases the surface of the shoulder joint.
The acetabular labrum is a ring of fibrocartilage that runs around the acetabulum (cup) of the hip joint and increases its depth. (all definitions courtesy of MedicineNet.com)
In other words, labrum is a word like ligament or cartilage or even bone. You have it in many places in your body. Usually in baseball we talk about the glenoid labrum, which gets shortened by non-medical sportswriters to labrum, but that isn’t the only labrum your body has.
Will the MLB Network show the surgery live or just clips of the most important moments? I can see Doc Medich doing the color along side Costas as stich-by-stich man…
Spud, I seem to recall Johan Santana pitching well last year in the first year of his big deal with the Mets.
I believe you have a Pozterisk with no corresponding note.
Joe – as a Yankee fan I can’t argue with most of what you say, except for two things:
1) the up-the-middle defense being “brutal.” Hard to say – although Jeter is certainly among the worst shortstops defensively, the numbers suggest that when he’s healthy (by no means a guaruntee) he’s only a bit below average. Cano, to my eye, is an average-or-slightly-above 2nd baseman, but the numbers might say otherwise. And in center, well, we don’t know who its going to be just yet, but neither Melky nor Brett Gardner is a late-career-Bernie statue. Calling in “brutal” is a stretch.
2) Bullpens by their very nature are unpredictable, but as these things go the Yankees are actually pretty promising. Beyond Mo (who is, yes, 39, but the way he pitches I honestly think he might be the Highlander), you have a top-4 of Domaso Marte, Brian Bruney, Edwar Ramirez, and Jose Veras. Veras had a great year last year; Edwar did too for the most part except for a few bad outings, and he has some of the best K numbers around; Bruney has shown plenty of promise and looked great last year before his injury; Marte has run hot and cold, but use him as a LOOGY and he will help you out. Add to that the Yankee’s pitching depth in the minors, which is surprisingly quite good, and the fact that Girardi seems to know how to spread a workload around (unlike Torre). There’s plenty that can go wrong, of course, but there’s also plenty of upside, and you can’t ask for much more out of a bullpen.
To go with your LT/LT analogy, another set of misused initials that make me cringe:
JT now is used, almost solely in reference to Justin Timberlake, as if the other more talented, more prolific and more lyrical JT never existed. For those under 30, his name is James Taylor.
God help us all.
Just an aside….Your #10 man on list, Tim Wallach, is now the first year AAA manager for LA Dodgers in Albuquerque. The Dodgers moved their AAA team back to Albuquerque after being in Las Vegas the past 8 years. Previously, LA had been teamed with AAA Albuquerque from 1972-2000.
Sorry, I know more about Albuquerque minor league baseball than labrums…torn or otherwise.
[...] to Pos, the Yankees are a very “flawed team”: But to me this was a very flawed team before A-Rod got hurt. They are brutal defensively up the [...]
Their defense is pretty brutal up the middle. Counting Posada you can’t expect him to be anything defensively. He could still hit well enough to deal with it, but that doesn’t make him a good defender.
Now that Michael Young has moved to 3b, Jeter is now definitely the worst fielding ss in the league. Michael Young won a gg this year and they still moved him.
Cano has been good in the past and was horrible last year. I assume he’s somewhere in between. Maybe he needs to hit well to field well, still not a reliable ‘great’ fielder.
Melky has a good arm but has no range, so if you count him as the starter it really is brutal up the middle. Gardner can track down anything, if he starts maybe it goes from brutal to just plain bad…
Andy L: I’ll hazard a guess that it’s a 9-9-09 pozterisk that’s missing.
Interestingly, Baseball Prospectus pegs the Yankees as a 95-win team without A-Rod. Of course, PECOTA:
a) thinks Jose Posada can catch 55% of the team’s games despite having no right shoulder;
b) thinks Joba Chamberlain is pitch-for-pitch the best starter in baseball;
c) thinks Sabathia and Burnett will combine to make 61 starts, giving the Yanks 3 viable Cy Young candidates; and
d) thinks nothing too bad will happen to any of the Yankees’ imminently combustible players (e.g., Damon, Matsui, Jeter).
I shared Joe’s sentiments before the A-Rod injury; this is an awfully shallow team, particularly when compared with the phenomenal depth in TB and pretty good depth the Red Sox have assembled.
Andy –
I fully expected to see the Pozterisk after Rose’s name correlate to:
*09/09/09
Steve B – you are correct, although technically Johan was not a free agent and that’s what I was thinking of. But he did get a big contract so your point is correct.
In science teacher speak the labrum is the cup that the ball end of the bone of ball and socket joints fits into. we have them in our shoulders and hips and allow us to rotate the limb. Yes the hip joint is designed to allow the leg to rotate but only contortionists make use of that ability.
Shoulders and hips have layers of cartilage, tendons, ligaments, and muscles radiating in a somewhat circular pattern. Lots of places for things to go wrong. It is amazing the injury list isn’t a lot worse.
Anybody know how Bo Jackson is doing?
I think we can allow our Yankee fans their optimism, however delusional.
you never disappoint joe – nice piece
Since the A-Rod scandal broke, I’ve been telling my friends that I’d bet A-Rod retires within 3 years. I think he’s smart enough to know he can’t handle the storm for the rest of his contract. The hip is the seed that will lead to him hanging it up early. In one last attempt, this time through pity, to be liked.
[...] Joe Posnanski, Kansas City Star: I think it’s possible because they do have the makings of a dominant starting pitching staff. But to me this was a very flawed team before A-Rod got hurt. They are brutal defensively up the middle. Brutal. That will not help the starting pitching. Their bullpen before Mariano is shaky at best, and heck, even Mariano is 39 years old. [...]
Alex Rodriguez is a shortstop playing third base. So when he reaches 37, he can become a third baseman playing third base. Maybe when he is 39, he can become a third baseman playing left field. Capice?
I think “brutal” is a bit strong. According to BP, Jeter’s Rate last year as a SS was 87, which is unequivocally brutal, but Cano was 107 as a second baseman, which is good. Cabrera was 97 in CF, a touch below average, but Gardner was a lights out 122 as a CF. The worst of the lot is Posada, a hideous defensive train wreck with a 69 Rate at catcher last year. Even healthy, it’s doubtful a 37-year old catcher is going to bounce back much.
So that’s two clear “brutals”, but also two clear “good/excellent” spots, which I guess makes them a collective “adequate”.
I think the guy who has the most reason to be pissed off once the steriod dust settles in the Bronx is Derek Jeter. Here’s a guy who (allegedly) worked hard, played hard, lived relatively clean and is a shoe-in for the Hall of Fame. Yet littered around him are the confessions/allegations of Jeremy Giambi, Roger Clemens, Andy Petite, A-Rod. It’s guilt by association, and he’s done nothing to deserve it.
Allegedly.
I can’t believe I’m kinda feeling sorry for a Yankee.
Given all the strikeouts and flyballs that will come from Sabathia and Burnett, I’m not sure the Yankees’ defense is the issue it could be.
You could not be more wrong about the Yankees bullpen. Do some research before you put statements like that up. It will be one of the top 5 pens this year in baseball – mark it down. Also, not sure why everyone jumped off of Xavier Nady bandwagon, but the guy is only 31 and has had a couple good years in a row.
I thought the Xavier Nady bandwagon was decommissioned in 2005? Am I thinking of the Tagg Bozied Limited?
You guys are overlooking something I’ve been saying for years:
Chipper Jones is the most underrated (or underappreciated) superstar of this generation (with all respect to Frank Thomas). He’ll be the guy who, when his name comes up five years after he retires, people will be saying, “Man, I never realized that guy was THAT GOOD! He’s a slam dunk.”
174 OPS+ at 37?? !!! Look at this:
April 13 – June 12, 2009 (50 games):
.421/.516/.710/1.226 77 hits, 36 walks
Sure he’s been oft injured the past half-decade, but he still holds up. I would GLADLY take even 120 games of Larry Wayne Jones. The guy is money.
Sure he’s been oft injured the past half-decade, but he still holds up. I would GLADLY take even 120 games of Larry Wayne Jones. The guy is money.
Yeah, but if that’s not a Bacne article waiting to happen…
I think the prediction models have a right to be just as skeptical of Boston and Tampa as NY. NY made up some ground by getting CC and Burnett and the prospect of 15 more starts from Wang. You’ve kept Pettitte around to show the new guys the rituals when the crunch time comes and he’ll be an average starter. Even if he misses a few games, and can’t play much outfield which would be bad anyhow, just having Matsui will help that lineup. You’ve got Nady or Swisher on the bench to spell some positions. If Posada catches more than 30 games, that’s a big improvement too, maybe he mostly catches CC and Pettitte’s starts to cut down on steal attempts. A-Rod played 138 games last year, if he rehabs to be back in May, he misses 30 games, and probably can still manage 120. This might actually force the Yankees to get a decent backup infielder which would make them even better. As long as the likes of Rasner, D.L. Pavano, Sidney Pontoon aren’t getting 42 starts, probably they can win a few more than they did last year without ANY luck. 94-95 is still a fair guess, after all that’s only 6 or 7 wins more.
“I can’t believe I’m kinda feeling sorry for a Yankee.”
Good thing he can cry himself to sleep on a pile of money surrounded by the likes of Jessica Alba and Minka Kelly. :>
Good post and thread. I don’t see the Yanks as better than either Boston or Tampa. They got Tex, they got a very good starting rotation, they got Rivera. They also got a lot of players getting older, and no idea if or when or how well A-Rod is going to play. They’re an outside bet for the wild-card, mostly because neither the Central nor the West is going to produce it.
I feel like a bandwagon fan, and my heart is with the Royals, of course, but I like the Tampa organization. It’d be great if they somehow came in first.
I have some fairly major concerns about the rotation, also.
Sabathia has been horribly abused for two years now (his pitch counts were ridiculous before Milwaukee rode his arm).
A.J. Burnett is Gil Meche-lite, not an $82.5 Million Man. His ERA+ on his career is 111, and he hasn’t exceeded 120 since 2002.
Joba Chamberlain has pitched how many innings as a starter? I don’t think he’ll tank necessarily, but New Yorkers are expecting the second coming of Christ, and that’s not likely to happen.
I’ve never been a big Chien-Ming Wang backer, and since he pitches to contact more than any other Yankee, he’ll likely be screwed a lot more than any other pitcher by their substandard defense at seemingly everywhere but first base.
Andy Pettitte has been extremely hittable for the past four years, is 37 this summer, and is likely to have an ERA in the mid-to-high-4.00s with a WHIP in the 1.40 neighborhood.
Color me unconvinced on that front as well.
“Sphincter” is another one of those fun medical multi-purpose words…
Pete S,
I think the reason that everyone jumped off the Nady bandwagon (if there ever was one) is that Nady’s solid 2008 was largely a product of his half-season in Pittsburgh (.330/.383/.585), not his half-season in pinstripes (.268/.320/.474). His HR/FB% was a ridiculous 19.0 in NY, which is 5.3 points higher than his career average, more than aptly explaining the jump in home runs (more dingers than doubles is not likely to continue either) in New York. Furthermore, his ridiculous numbers in Pittsburgh in the early part of the year were aided by an unrepeatable .367 BABIP.
I, for one, was never on any Nady bandwagon, as I’d seen his streaks before only to see Icarus come crashing down to earth.
Another wonderfully thought out piece Joe!
Thanks for the observations on A-Rod … the man.
[...] Trying, Really… 2009 March 10 tags: Insight, Research, Statistics by Kaitlin B But Joe Posnanski makes it difficult to stop writing about more than the Yankees when he goes a little afield on my [...]
I was also surprised to learn that the labrum isn’t just a shoulder thing, I suppose because the overwhelming majority of labral tears (baseball-wise, at least) are shoulder injuries. Given that, it’s not like saying that Johnny Pitcher has a torn labrum is quite as vague as saying Frankie Outfielder has a pulled muscle.
Onto the subject of the Yankees, though, I was fully expecting them to win the East this year, and I say this as someone who dislikes the Yanks. They’ll likely still be in it until the end, though they’d do well to give Swisher plenty of playing time since he’s one of their few good defensive players and is a good candidate to rebound with the stick. Compare that to Nady, who’s basically a league average hitter and middling fielder who’s due for a downturn after a career year and the choice seems pretty clear.
Depth is a problem for them at third, but a lineup with Damon, Jeter, Teix, Matsui, Posada, Cano and four months of A-Rod will cover up a lot of problems. Add to that the fact that, even if CC and AJ struggle they can’t help but be an improvement over the Ponson/Rasner scrub club the Yanks threw out there a lot last year. If one of their OFs goes down, they have some depth there – Melky and Gardner can both play around the outfield and Matsui could hobble out to left if the need arose. Betemit would have been good to have as infield backup, but then the Yanks wouldn’t have Swisher, who can play all three outfield positions and back up at 1B. Middle infield, 3B and catcher, though? Yikes. Those are some ugly options.
Defensively, the team is admittedly a nightmare. Posada’s a massive question mark and – contrary to some claims – Jeter’s long been a terrible shortstop. There have been plenty of studies ranking shortstops using various methods (none of which, admittedly, include “heart” or “number of World Series rings” as criteria) and they tend to rank Jeter anywhere from bottom three to far and away the worst. Bill James even speculated that Jeter could be the worst defensive shortstop EVER:
http://www.billjamesonline.net/fieldingbible/jeter.asp
I’m not much of a A-Rod fan, so to see him fall off, while it’ll be tragic in the sense that’s it’s sad to see potential robbed away, wouldn’t really affect me all that much. But I can’t agree that just looking at how third baseman in history have aged necessarily applies to A-Rod. Because the thing is, those great third baseman didn’t have the athleticism to play shortstop and A-Rod does. When you’re looking at how third baseman age, or left fielders or DHs, or whatever position, you’re going off the athletic selection process that already played out that put them at those positions. A-Rod’s situation is unique because he’s only playing third because captain Jeter can’t be made to move. A-Rod is a whole another athlete compared to Boggs or Schmidt or Mike Lowell. The player most athletically similar would be Chipper and he gives a positive spin on how A-Rod might age.
No more “greenies,” no more PEDs (?)–if these guys start playing like their ages say they ought to, NY’s patching a ship with no hull.
“So now, that’s the labrum of choice — it’s sort of like when Kurt Warner replaced Curt Warner or when football Larry Johnson took over for basketball Larry Johnson or when LT came to mean LaDainian Tomlinson to a new generation (when LT will forever in my mind represent Lawrence Taylor).”
Or when “auricle” was supplanted by “atrium”. (I suppose “auricle and ventricle” were too “mnemonical” — had to make it harder for the schoolkids.)
Or “arteriosclerosis” by “atherosclerosis”.
Or “myocardial infraction” by “myocardial infarction”. (No, I suppose it never was an infraction.)
Or when NFL “running” stats were supplanted by “rushing” stats, and “rushing” became something that both sides of the line of scrimmage undertook and endeavored.
“Extra points” –> “PATs”
Or wait — no, it’s not like none of that. It’s something different. Sorry.
(Maybe “courtesy” and “curtsy”?)
I for one am thrilled that there are three teams in the AL East with question marks. It will make for an actual competition instead of everyone just knowing the Yanks and Sox would make the playoffs.
Paul #39: I would think that unless the ‘27 Yankees are back and playing in the AL East, there are exactly five (5) teams in that division with question marks…The degree of and how many is what normally decides a 162 game season schedule.
For my $$$ the TB Rays have the fewest but so often a solid young team plays up to or beyond its potential in its early existence and then sinks a spot or two the following year before re-emerging. I’m thinking of the ‘71 Redlegs here although I’m not yet ready to say that Joe Maddon’s group will become a ‘Big Blue Machine” that Joe will be writing about 30+ years from now…
It’s too bad Toronto’s lost most of their rotation, they could have been right there too.
I hate the yankees, but i dont think Jeter has been tainted. He, and the rest of the American WBC team, have also been admirable in, at least their reported, team effort (ie jeter and rollins not caring about who plays).
as far as underrated. chipper has been terrific. you know how they award utley the mvp every year before the season starts. I never understand why berkman doesnt get more respect. (and yes the cardinals have a pretty good first baseman)
“I thought the Xavier Nady bandwagon was decommissioned in 2005″
They started it back up when the Yankees signed him only to have it decommissioned a couple months later when Yankee fans finally realized Xavier Nady wasn’t going to carry them to the playoffs. That really showed how dilusional Yankee fans are and how readily they drink the kool-aid.
Alex (#7)–
“There’s plenty that can go wrong, of course, but there’s also plenty of upside, and you can’t ask for much more out of a bullpen.”
Let’s take stock, shall we?
One above average LOOGY, Damaso Marte.
One guy (Bruney) with a career 6.42 BB/9. He did find a modicum of control last year, but can he keep it up?
2 pitchers (Ramirez and Veras) coming off their first full seasons in the big leagues with 155 career IP between them.
Finally, we have the “Highlander”, as you call him, with his magical pitch. Mariano’s cutter is so magical, in fact, that he threw it 82% of the time in 2008. “So what”, you say. “That’s all he’s ever thrown”, you say. No. No it isn’t. In 2007, 73.2% of his pitches were cut fastballs, in 2006 – 43.4%, and in 2005 54.8%. There is a pattern forming there. God forbid something happens to that cutter in his old age. He’s not surviving on guile.
Personally, I could ask for much more out of a bullpen.
But hey, if Bruney has found control at long last, if Ramirez and Veras avoid sophomore slumps, if Mo hangs onto that wicked cutter for one more year, and if everyone stays healthy, you’ve got yourself a top notch bullpen. Plenty of upside, I guess?
If I put together this (from Bellylard at #27), “I think the prediction models have a right to be just as skeptical of Boston and Tampa”, with this (from Bellylard at #41), “It’s too bad Toronto’s lost most of their rotation”, with A-Rod’s injury and the rest of the Yankees’ woes, does it mean (to paraphrase Lloyd in Dumb and Dumber), Baltimore’s got a chance?
Wasn’t there a former St. Louis Cardinal – Tito Labrum???
how many teams are there for which you could NOT construct a plausible hypothetical where their bullpen, behind the closer, stinks?
easy answer: none.
you contruct middle/setup relief from marginal arms.
that said, those who are Yankee fans know the Yanks are loaded with young guys who throw hard. as for Mo, I wanna see some signs of a collapse, before I predict one. I’d agree with the guy upthread who says “top 5 mlb pen.”
“LT” is Lawrence Taylor. Period. End of story.
Call me crazy, but I see ARod retiring from baeball because of his hip in a few years and going to Hollywood to become a movie star. The tabloids would adore him, he could still make tons of money and it would, I think, be a much better fit for his personality than MLB is. Think about it. (smile …)
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