Good times? That was one of the worst signings ever, at the time! It didn't look good at all until November of 2001.
Consider this: prior to the 2001 NLCS, Randy Johnson was a great regular season player, but could not do anything in the postseason. He won his first two playoff decisions in 1995 -- then proceeded to lose his next seven decisons. Seven! Seven times when the game was on the line and his team needed a win, Johnson came up short. He was not a winner, he was not a leader. And it took him even longer to get his first championship than ARod has been in the league.
The fact is, if Mike Matheny, and not Tony Womack, had singled in the ninth inning of Game 5 of the 2001 NLDS, the Randy Johnson signing would be among the worse in ML history.
(If you cannot tell, I am being sarcastic. Anybody that thinks the Yankees are better off without ARod does not understand the first thing about baseball. If the wall in Fenway Park was six inches higher, and Tony Clark's ninth inning double in Game 5 of the 2004 ALCS bounces off the wall instead of over it, Ruben Sierra scores easily from first, the Yankees win, and we are not having these conversations.)
BTW, Mr. World Derek Jeter actually went 3 for 17 this October -- with 3 GIDP, meaning that he essentially produced an out every time he stepped to the plate. Wonderful. And the ultimate team player stayed at shortstop, despite the fact that he is a much worse fielder than ARod, while me-first ARod eschewed his chances of becoming indisputably the best shortstop in ML history by moving over to third.
I don't post much, usually just lurk, but some of these comments are so inane, I just had to say something.
