Apr
09
2008
A-Rod gets a Golden Sombrero
Posted by: Richie Rich in Golden Sombreros, Royals, Yankees
The Golden Sombrero
Four At-Bats, Four Strikeouts.
It’s a badge a hitter doesn’t want.
And it rarely happens to the best hitters in the league. And it should NEVER happen to a three-time MVP who happens to be the highest paid player in the history of the game.
But it did last night.
Against the Kansas City Royals, Alex Rodriguez struck out looking three times against Brian Bannister (!) and flailed away against Ramon Ramirez. Watch for yourself.
Travis Buck, Matt Holliday, and Chris Young (D-Backs) have all worn the Golden Sombrero this season.
Entries (RSS)
April 9th, 2008 at 4:40 pm
Clearly, he missed Derek Jeter in the line-up!
April 11th, 2008 at 8:00 am
Those were all great pitches and fortunate calls. The only odd thing about this is it happened three times in a row.
April 11th, 2008 at 8:42 am
Matt -
After the 2nd time A-Rod saw a pitch on the corner of the plate called for a strike … shouldn’t he recognize the umpire’s strike zone and expect Bannister to go there again?
April 11th, 2008 at 2:16 pm
Not _sure_ any of those third strikes from Bannister actually _were_ strikes, but you have to give him credit for recognizing where the zone was that day. The ptich from Ramirez, however, was just wicked nasty.
April 11th, 2008 at 3:03 pm
This is actually the 4th time A-Rod has achieved a Golden Sombrero. The other 3:
1995, June 22 against ChiSox (4 Ks vs. Jim Abbott)
2006, July 22 against Toronto
2006, Aug 25 against Angels (4 Ks vs. Lackey)
That’s 1 in his rookie year and the other 2 in his “troublesome” season of 06.
April 11th, 2008 at 3:24 pm
Other 3-time MVPs to record a Goldie include:
Mike Schmidt (6 times, the last of which occurred as he was securing his 3rd MVP in 1986),
Barry Bonds (4 times, the last of which occurred in 2000 when he had gathered 3 of his 7 MVP awards),
Mickey Mantle (8 times, 7 of which occurred after his 3rd MVP season).
Both Schmidt and Bonds also hold the distinction of being the highest paid players in the history of the game prior to their final Goldie.