A lot of people are crediting movie actress Kate Hudson with calming down her New York boyfriend, Alex Rodriguez, who, you know, suffered from a kind of performance anxiety in the clutch. He had a weak bat when it counted. A-Rod? Uh, I don’t think so.
More like A-Limp.
OK, that’ll do with the double entendres.
Throughout the baseball playoffs and World Series, I kept hearing that Hudson deserved a ring if the Yankees went all the way because she had somehow worked her magic on Mr. Rod.
By ring, I don’t mean an engagement ring, but a World Series ring. (That’s the 2008 Phillies ring below.)
World Series rings are highly coveted. When a team wins the Fall Classic, everybody on the team gets one—from the owner down to the guy who picks up the jock straps.
The rings are also very valuable. A writer by the name of Brian Joura researched the subject and found out just how valuable they can be when they come up at auction. According to Joura, a 1962 World Series ring that belonged to Mickey Mantle, fetched $164,000 at an auction. That was the highest price in his list of the top ten.
I sincerely wonder if Hudson knows anything about baseball. She may even hate the sport.
But there she was at the games, sitting and rooting her man on like the sunbathed, golden goddess played by Glenn Close in “The Natural.”
Hudson kept the slugger out of trouble, out of the glare of the New York tabloid media. At least that’ the going theory. I’ve heard that they’ve found a refuge in good old boring Westchester, shacking up in a rented home in exclusive Purchase and going out at the lux 42 night spot in downtown White Plains.
Maybe she does deserve the ring.
The other day I asked Richie Coletti, the owner of Rye Ridge Barber Shop in Rye Brook what he thought. Richie is a big Yankee fan. He used to cut Don Zimmer’s fringe when “Zim” was the Yankees bench coach.
“Do you mean an engagment ring?” Richie began. No, I explained, a World Series ring.
“I would think for straightening him out—yes,” he continued. “For making him a better ball player—yes. But as far as a better person? No. It’s like I used to say about Bill Parcells. Great coach, not a very nice man.”
That’s good enough for me.