Bob Cook

George Steinbrenner, upset at high-profile, highly paid superstar Dave Winfield’s flop in the 1981 World Series, ripped him by calling him “Mr. May.” Steinbrenner’s latest rant about a high-profile, highly paid superstar makes one wonder whether he wishes Alex Rodriguez could even live up to that dubious title.

As Steinbrenner rants go, “I’m upset at a lot of them... the third baseman,” is hardly as blistering as “I got rid of Mr. October (Reggie Jackson) and got Mr. May.” But it does signal an understandable change of heart for Steinbrenner, who sat tight-lipped as Rodriguez melted under playoff pressure two years in a row, but is now getting those lips looser as he watches his $25-million-a-year man struggle in the early part of this season.

Steinbrenner’s calling out of Rodriguez occurred after A-Rod led the Red Sox to a 14-3 victory over the Yankees by making two errors, leading to four unearned runs, while going 0-for-3 at the plate. That batting performance — part of a .189 slump the past 10 games — lowered Rodriguez’s average to .259. If this performance keeps up, Steinbrenner is going to be tempted to hire a known gambler, such as Howie Spira or John Daly, to dig up dirt on A-Rod.

Looking at Rodriguez’s career as a New York Yankee, it’s a tribute to how much owner Steinbrenner has mellowed that it took him more than two seasons to rip him. After all, it took only one lousy World Series in his first year as a Yankee for Winfield, whose 10-year, $23 million contract was the richest in baseball at the time, to get on Steinbrenner’s permanent bad side.

I mean, you would think that if Rodriguez’s flameout over the final four games of the infamous, blowing-a-3-games-to-none dive against Boston for 2004 wouldn’t get Steinbrenner blowing up, nothing would. Or, Rodriguez’s 2005 debacle in the playoffs against the Angels, in which he followed an MVP regular season by batting .133 with zero home runs and zero RBIs, and a ninth-inning double-play groundout in the final game, in a 3-2 series loss.

MESSAGE BOARDS

Instead, it’s watching Rodriguez botch two ground balls against Boston in May. The odd thing is, though that puts Rodriguez’s fielding percentage at a career season-low (.961, right behind his .962 in 1997), Rodriguez is improving at third base. His range factor — a measure of how well he gets to balls — has gone up from a lowly 2.39 in 2004, his first year at the position after switching from shortshop, to 3.39 so far this year, good for fourth among AL third basemen. But no one ever said Mt. Steinbrenner’s blowups were predictable.

Manager Joe Torre said Steinbrenner called him Wednesday and told him his comments were misinterpreted, the Associated Press reported. Torre said The Boss told him he never meant to “get on” any of his players, the AP reported.

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“It wasn’t an apology. It was basically that he doesn’t feel that way. That’s the best I can give you,” Torre said, according to the AP.

A clarification, he was asked?

“A clarification,” Torre said.

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