There was a good piece on Alex Rodriguez and clutch hitting by a guy named Darren Everson in the Daily News this past Tuedsay. Don’t know if anyone caught it. But it was on-point. It seems that Reggie Jackson isn’t a huge Rodriguez fan yet:

“Great clutch players don’t get questioned,” Reggie Jackson said before last night’s 6-3 loss to the Blue Jays. “They don’t question (Mariano) Rivera. Or (Bob) Gibson. Or Whitey (Ford). The great clutch players of the past, you saw enough, you viewed enough, you witnessed enough that I don’t need statistics.”

Everson talks about the perception that many of Rodriguez’s dingers come in garbage time:

A closer examination reveals otherwise. It shows, among other things, that 17 of Rodriguez’s homers have either tied a game or put the Yankees ahead – one more than Gary Sheffield. Sheffield, universally regarded as an MVP candidate, has hit 10 home runs in the seventh inning or later this season. A-Rod, the defending AL MVP who has hardly been mentioned in connection with the award this year, has hit nine.

Nice observations by Everson.