And if anyone had a right to be ticked off, it’s A-Rod. After all he’s done to be perfect, here are the Red Sox, a scruffy bunch of boors, making fun of his talents, dissing him in print, laughing about him on the public airwaves.

But Rodriguez hasn't retorted, and his Yankee teammates haven't exactly run to his defense. When asked to respond to Nixon's remarks, shortstop Derek Jeter, catcher Jorge Posada and manager Joe Torre all gave diplomatic answers, and not the ones you'd expect from guys ready to dive into a fox hole with A-Rod.

Rodriguez tried being the perfect athlete last year, and look where it got him: a .286 average, 36 home runs and 106 RBI. He wasn’t even the third-best third baseman in the American League let alone the best player in baseball.

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His manager, Joe Torre, said A-Rod tried so hard early in the season that he couldn’t see, particularly when he went 1 for 17 in the Yankees’ first visit to Boston. He repeated the performance in October, hitting .258 in New York’s historic ALCS collapse.

But he never took a bat to the water cooler, never threw a batting helmet, never blew off the press in the clubhouse. Instead, he slapped the ball out of Bronson Arroyo’s hand after hitting a weak, rally-ending ground ball.

I don’t blame him for trying to knock the ball away, even if it was illegal. At that point, you’re just trying to get on base and you let the ump sort out the legality of your actions. But I’d have preferred if he had run Arroyo over — that would have been a better way to vent frustration and anger at himself for such a weak at-bat and at the Red Sox just for being the Red Sox. And no one would have said anything other than that it was a hard-nosed play.

He had a lot of time to think about how he behaved, a lot of time to build up a head of rage at Boston, a lot of time to think of a way to strike back.

And what does he come up with? They’re right? That’s an answer?

Even if they are right, A-Rod can’t think that. I want rage. I want passion. I want a guy determined to go out there and make those arrogant S.O.B.'s eat their words.

I’m tired of perfection, and he should be to. It’s a new season. If there’s still a human being inside the shell of A-Rod, it’s time to let him loose.

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