A-Rod: the latest victim of "The Mattingly Theory"
Witnessing the Red Sox stunning comeback win over the Yankees, I couldn't help but think about the Pistons' win over the Lakers last summer. In both cases, you have the sport's darling franchise that has a recent history of championship glory, and after an offseason of big acquisitions they began the season as heavy favorites. In the playoffs however, they were upended by a scrappy bunch of gamers who simply played better as a team. But then I broke it down even further and thought about the fact that all this happened despite the trumpeted arrival of Alex Rodriguez to New York.
The Sports Guy has "The Ewing Theory," a phenomenon in which a team improves significantly after losing its star player. Well, I think we now have "The Mattingly Theory," in which a championship team obtains a great player, only to fail to reach the same heights with that player. To wit:
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Don Mattingly. This list is named after Donnie Baseball because he did the impossible: he pulled the Yankees down from their World Series heights. The Yanks won the World Series in 1981. Mattingly joined the team in '82 and had a great career, becoming the face of the franchise. But he never managed to lead his team to a pennant, and retired after the 1995 season. The Yankees won the World Series in 1996. 'Nuff said.
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Charles Barkley. The Houston Rockets won championships in 1994 and '95. Seeking to bolster their lineup and return to glory they acquired Barkley in 1996. But alas, Sir Charles was past his prime by the time he got to Houston and could never elevate the Rockets and achieve the championship ring that so eluded him.
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Terrell Owens. The brash young talent was drafted by the San Francisco 49ers in 1996, 15 months after they won the Super Bowl. While he served as the heir to Jerry Rice's throne and eventually became the team's best player, Owens could never deliver the Lombardi Trophy back to the Bay.
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Rasheed Wallace & Jerry Stackhouse. In 1993 North Carolina famously defeated Chris Webber and Michigan for the NCAA title. The Tar Heels entered the '93-'94 season poised to repeat, having added two outstanding recruits in Wallace and Stackhouse. But the two superstars fouled up team chemistry and Carolina never won it all in the two years before the pair bolted for the NBA.
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Karl Malone & Gary Payton. The two future Hall-of-Fame free agents decided to hitch on to the Shaq-Kobe Laker dynasty in the summer of 2003, hoping to win their first title. But, as we all remember, the collection of superstars went home empty-handed.
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Alex Rodriguez. The $25.2 Million Dollar Man figured he couldn't lose by trying on the pinstripes. He was having a great playoffs until Game 4 of the Red Sox series, after which he looked like a guy who couldn't deliver when it mattered. For all his immense talent, the lasting image we'll have of A-Rod's season is his open-handed bitch slap of Bronson Arroyo's glove in Game 6.
Curiously, A-Rod is both an example of “The Mattingly Theory” and “The Ewing Theory,” as his former teams improved meteorically after his departure. The 2001 Mariners won a record 116 games and the 2004 Rangers were in the playoff hunt until the final week of the season. Is there a more star-crossed star in all of sports?
