Alex Rodriguez is the all time Yankee third baseman.

Through May 13, 2015 50.4% of the career plate appearances (PA) of Alex Rodriguez have been with the New York Yankees: 5,786 of 11,473.  By any reasonable measurement Alex Rodriguez is a New York Yankee.  Yankee fans are treating him that way this season, cheering one of their own for his performance and possibly also because they do not want Yankee haters to dictate to them how they should feel about a Yankee.  After all, New England Patriot fans are supporting Tom Brady in his time of need after he was suspended by the NFL this week.

1901 to 2015, played 50% of games at 3B, at least 3000 plate appearances, sorted by greatest Adjusted OPS+

Rk	Player	OPS+	PA	From	To	Age	G	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	BB	IBB	SO	HBP	SH	SF	GDP	SB	CS	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS	Pos
1	Alex Rodriguez	141	5786	2004	2015	28-39	1324	4936	928	1430	240	9	317	999	699	56	1109	99	0	52	132	145	30	.290	.385	.535	.920	*5D/H63
2	Graig Nettles	114	6248	1973	1983	28-38	1535	5519	750	1396	202	20	250	834	627	55	739	31	8	62	115	18	25	.253	.329	.433	.762	*5/HD6
3	Red Rolfe	99	5406	1931	1942	22-33	1175	4827	942	1394	257	67	69	497	526		335	10	42		14	44	20	.289	.360	.413	.773	*5/6H
4	Wid Conroy	95	3300	1903	1908	26-31	796	3005	356	750	111	59	12	266	198		306	16	81			184		.250	.299	.338	.637	*576/8439
5	Clete Boyer	86	4037	1959	1966	22-29	1068	3658	434	882	140	25	95	393	297	51	608	15	27	38	81	27	12	.241	.298	.371	.669	*56/H4
6	Joe Dugan	82	3325	1922	1928	25-31	785	3043	426	871	147	27	22	316	156		183	22	107			12	16	.286	.326	.374	.700	*5/H4

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 5/13/2015.

Red Rolfe 1934 Goudey baseball card via Wikimedia Commons

Rodriguez has a much higher OPS+ than his predecessor, Graig Nettles, as the greatest Yankee third baseman, although Nettles has 8% more Yankee PA; Nettles Yankee PA are 61% of his career PA.  Rodriguez won two of his three MVP awards as a Yankee.  Both played 11 seasons with the Yankees.

So why don't the Steinbrenner Kids treat Rodriguez with the kind of respect that his standing as a Yankee and all time great would suggest?  The simple answer is that Rodriguez disgraced himself, the Yankees, the Major Baseball League (MBL) and all of humanity by being over charged and grossly over punished for his tacky involvement with performance enhancing drugs (PED), which provoked an over reaction for unknown reasons.

Note that the Kraft family is staunchly supporting Tom Brady after Brady was found guilty of cheating by the NFL.  Rodriguez never failed a drug test but then neither did any of the other 13 players suspended in 2013 in the Biogenisis scandal.  More on the juxtaposition of Brady and Rodriguez in a future post.