That's An Odd Way Of Not Caring

This morning Craig from Shysterball/Circling The Bases brought forward a quote a quote K-Rod gave last year, which would seem to contradict the his motives for confronting Brain Bruney in the outfield during BP on Sunday:

"The only thing I have to worry about is getting the job done, and I don't have to worry about anyone else."

However, Rodriguez acknowledged he's heard grumbling over his career.

"All the time. I don't care. Why would I care about that? I only care about my job," he said. "I'm not changing it. I don't care what people say. That's my way. People can say I'm arrogant, a (jerk), anything they want to say. But me, I'm going to live my world. I don't care what people think or say."

The type of person who celebrates wildly after converting three outs before giving up three runs isn't likely to be the type who brushes off comments from opposing players about doing so. In fact, earlier in that article, he drops a hint as to why criticism from someone like Bruney might have pissed him off:

I don't hear any complaints from veteran hitters, superstars... I'm going to hear from a bench player?

Yes, that's exactly who you are going to hear it from. A guy like Bruney who would probably kill to be good enough to be paid tens of millions of dollars per year and be heralded as one of the best closers in the game. He is the perfect example of someone who is going to resent K-Rod for his displays. Hence, he is going to resent the fact that K-Rod goes off after converting a save, something Bruney would never do.

Mariano Rivera, on the other hand, can expose K-Rod for the attention slut that he is by simply walking off the mound after converting a save. He would never be on either side of a frivolous "story" like this. If anything, the little tiff between these two should make you appreciate Rivera and the way he conducts himself even more.