No More A-Rod!

This made me quite sad Khayr I’m a loyal Yankee fan, I guess A-Rod juss didn’t have that true Yankee spirit in him and that he juss swung his career away.

A-Rod to Opt Out of Contract

Newly crowned Aaron Award winner ends Yankees tenure

By Bryan Hoch / MLB.com

NEW YORK — Alex Rodriguez has opted out of the final three years of his contract with the Yankees and will become a free agent, likely ending his four-year stay in New York.

Rodriguez’s decision was first reported by Sports Illustrated’s Web site on Sunday evening. According to the report, agent Scott Boras sent word of the opt-out in writing and left phone and text messages for general manager Brian Cashman on Sunday.

Boras later confirmed the opt-out in an e-mail sent to the Associated Press. The decision was made public during Game 4 of the World Series.

Rodriguez, this season’s likely American League Most Valuable Player, will be forfeiting the final three years and approximately $81 million on his record $252 million contract.

The Yankees have said numerous times that if Rodriguez opts out, they will not pursue him as a free agent, sentiments that were voiced earlier this month by both senior vice president Hank Steinbrenner and Cashman.

“Alex made the decision today,” Boras told SI.com. “I thought we should notify the club.”

Cashman did not immediately return a telephone message.

Yankees Senior Vice President Hank Steinbrenner reiterated the club’s stance to the New York Daily News.

“We’re not going to back down,” Steinbrenner said. “It’s goodbye.”

The Yankees had been constructing what figured to be a lucrative contract extension in order to keep Rodriguez, who led the Major Leagues with 54 home runs, 156 RBIs and 143 runs scored this season, batting .314 while helping the team to the AL Wild Card.

According to the report, the Yankees were never able to present the offer. Through Boras, Rodriguez — who had said numerous times during the course of the season that he “loves” New York and wants to stay — turned down a request to meet with club officials.

“It’s clear he didn’t want to be a Yankee,” Hank Steinbrenner told the Daily News. “He doesn’t understand the privilege of being a Yankee on a team where the owners are willing to pay $200 million to put a winning product on the field.

“I don’t want anybody on my team that doesn’t want to be a Yankee.”

Boras told the Web site that Rodriguez felt he could not make a decision to stay in his allotted time period — technically, he had until 10 days after the World Series to trigger his opt-out — since a number of situations remain unsettled for the Yankees.

The club has not yet named Joe Torre’s successor, though either Joe Girardi or Don Mattingly is likely to be announced as the new manager early this week. Having conducted an interview process over three days last week in Tampa, the team has also not yet made significant progress with such key free agents as Jorge Posada, Mariano Rivera and Andy Pettitte.

“Alex’s decision was one based on not knowing what his closer, his catcher and one of his statured pitchers was going to do,” Boras told the Associated Press. “He really didn’t want to make any decisions until he knew what they were doing.”

Following the Yankees’ AL Division Series loss to the Cleveland Indians, Rodriguez and his wife, Cynthia, spent time at Boras’ Newport Beach, Calif., estate for an information-gathering and strategy-planning session. Boras also visited Rodriguez last week in Miami as he mulled his future.

Rodriguez was named as the AL’s Hank Aaron Award winner on Sunday prior to Game 4 of the World Series, but he was not present for the ceremony at Colorado’s Coors Field. Commissioner Bud Selig said that Rodriguez had a scheduling conflict.

Rodriguez, 32, was acquired by the Yankees from the Texas Rangers on Feb. 16, 2004, with cash, in exchange for Alfonso Soriano and a Minor League player. The Yankees had said that pursuing Rodriguez as a free agent would not financially make sense because they would lose the approximately $21 million still owed to them by the Rangers over the final three seasons of the contract.

“If it’s true, that’s obviously good news from our standpoint,” Rangers general manager Jon Daniels said. “But I’m going to wait to hear about it officially.”

If indeed Rodriguez’s Yankees career is over, he leaves New York having played in 629 games over four seasons with the Yankees, batting .302 with 173 home runs and 513 RBIs.

Source

More Articles:

For Rodriguez and Yankees, It’s All but Over

Hank Steinbrenner on A-Rod: ‘He Doesn’t Want to Be a Yankee’

Once Again, A-Rod Makes Himself Bigger Than the Game.

A-Rod Opts Out of Yankees Contract

A-Rod, Yankees’ News Yanks Spotlight from Sox

Weekend Intensive with Sidi Khalil Moore

 

To learn more about this event click here.

Please remember to register here.

See you there inshaAllah.

 

Spring’s Gift

This poem is so beautiful. My brother (who is too lazy to post it on his blog) showed it to me:

Spring’s Gift
Hamza Yusuf

I envy the sand that met his feet

I’m jealous of honey he tasted sweet

Of birds that hovered above his head

Of spiders who spun their sacred web

To save him from his enemies

I envy clouds formed from the seas

That gave him cover from the heat

Of a sun whose light could not compete

With his, whose face did shine so bright

That all was clear in blinding night

I envy sightless trees that gazed

Upon his form completely dazed

Not knowing if the sun had risen

But felt themselves in unison

With those who prayed, and fasted too

Simply because he told them to

With truth and kindness, charity

From God who gave such clarity

His mercy comes in one He sent

To mold our hearts more heaven bent

I envy all there at his side

Who watched the turning of the tide

As truth prevailed and falsehood fled

And hope restored life to the dead

Men and Women through him found grace

To seek together God’s noble face

I envy the cup that gave him drink

His thoughts that helped us all to think

To be one thought that passed his mind

Inspiring him to act so kind

For me this world is not one jot

If I could simply be a thought

From him to God throughout the ages

As revelation came in stages

I pity all who think it odd

To hear him say there is one God

Or he was sent by God to men

To hone their spirits’ acumen

It’s pride that blinds us from the sight

That helps good men to see his light

He taught us all to be God’s slaves

And he will be the one who saves

Humanity from sinful pride

Muhammad has God on his side

So on this day be blessed and sing

For he was born to grace our Spring

With lilies, flowers, life’s rebirth

In a dome of green like his on earth

Eid Mubarak

Eid Mubarak everyone! I hope you all took advantage of this Ramadhaan, inshaAllah all of our good deeds will be accepted. Enjoy your day

-radf

Hunger/Eid Banquet

 

HUNGER BANQUET

HUNGRY? WHAT IF YOU HAD TO WAIT?

 

Hunger/Eid Banquet will be hosted by NYPIRG (New York Public Interest Research Group) and the Old Westbury Muslim Students Association.

Come join us on Wednesday, October 17^th 6-9pm

Located in the Student Union in Multipurpose Rooms A,B, and C.

There will be guest speakers and Free Food for All!

We are asking all to fast from sunrise to sunset that day and together we will break our fast- it’s just one day please don’t let that keep you from coming.

All proceeds will go to Islamic Relief, please think of those that are less fortunate than you and how you can help those less blessed than you are.

So please come and stop by.

 

Please come and help out our little MSA, if you have any questions you can ask me, if you know of anyone that can help sponsor us please let me know. JazakAllah khairun for any efforts made and I hope to see you all there. (223 Store Hill Rd, Westbury NY 11568) If you have a facebook visit us here.

Take care inshaAllah, keep us in your du’aa so that we may have a successful banquet and try to keep the spirit of Ramadhaan throughout the whole year

-radf

 

Updated Thursday October 11th 2007- 3:02pm

All that I have seen teaches me to trust the Creator for all that I have not seen

Ya Allah, I want to visit Makkah and Madinah so badly. There are so many people around me that have been there and all I can do is make du’aa, wait and InshaAllah when Allah allows me to I can visit these cities as well. The following video is my favorite Nasheed: Burdah(no beat) by Muhammad al Husayn, I juss thought it was a nice little video.

Take care and make lots of du’aa inshaAllah because Ramadhaan as we know it is slipping away faster and faster and this is the time to ask for forgiveness.

-radf