the book.His place in history will be a permanent debate.If he had any kind of person | Forum

MILAN -- Who needs Gonzalo Higuain, the record goalscorer in Serie A, when you have Dries Mertens?Mertens emergence has eased the pain caused by Higuains departure in the off-season. Nike Blazer Mid Mens . Not content with bagging a hat trick last weekend, the diminutive forward netted four on Sunday to help Napoli to a 5-3 win over Torino.Mertens completed a hat trick in nine first-half minutes and then saved the best until last -- a sublime chip into the far corner in the 80th minute.Mertens is an extraordinary player, but the team makes it easier for him with the type of football they are playing, Napoli coach Maurizio Sarri said. But we have to grow mentally. It should have been a match that was definitively over once we went 3-0 up and it wasnt.We conceded goals with three stupid mistakes, carelessness that we absolutely cant commit, but it was a very high level performance.Napoli leapfrogged above AC Milan into third, a point behind second-place Roma. It can be joined on 34 points by Lazio if the capital team beats Fiorentina later.Higuain transferred to Juventus for an Italian-record 90 million euros ($100 million) after breaking a 66-year-old Serie A record with 36 goals for Napoli last season.Arkadiusz Milik was signed to replace him and scored seven goals in eight matches, but tore the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee while playing for Poland in October.As a result, Sarri has been relying on a three-man forward line with Lorenzo Insigne and Jose Callejon flanking Mertens -- and the trio is starting to gel.Napoli opened the scoring in the 13th minute. It had taken short corners many times this season but to little dividend. However, this time it worked as it was played for Callejon, who crossed for Mertens to fire in on the bounce.Mertens doubled his tally five minutes later, winning and converting a penalty after being pushed over by Antonio Barreca.The 29-year-old forward completed his second successive hat trick in the 22nd minute.Torino goalkeeper Joe Hart did brilliantly to keep out a powerful shot by Callejon, only for Mertens to fire in the loose ball at the second attempt after his initial effort was cleared off the line by Luca Rossettini.Andrea Belotti got Torino back into the game shortly before the hour. It was the Italy forwards 12th league goal of the season and moved him level with Inter Milan forward Mauro Icardi and Romas Edin Dzeko at the top of the scoring charts.Napoli restored its three-goal advantage in the 70th when Callejon rolled a low cross across face of goal and Vlad Chiriches tapped it in at the far post.Torino again reduced the deficit when Pepe Reina spilled Adem Ljajics free kick and Rossettini was on hand to prod it in. But Mertens scored his fourth four minutes later.Iago Falque converted a penalty in the 84th for Torino.---LAZIO 2, FIORENTINA 1Lazio continued its good run of form as it moved level on points with Napoli in third place, while Fiorentina fell to its second successive defeat.Lazio took the lead in the 23rd minute with a well-worked move. Sergej Milinkovic-Savic collected Felipe Andersons through-ball before passing it on for Keita Balde Diao to sweep into the far corner of the net.Lucas Biglia doubled Lazios lead with a penalty in first-half stoppage time after Nenad Tomovic bundled over Milinkovic-Savic.Fiorentina should have got back into the match immediately after halftime but Lazio goalkeeper Federico Marchetti saved Josip Ilicics penalty after Biglia had fouled Sebastian Cristoforo.It did pull one back in the 64th minute through substitute Mauro Zarate, who had only been on the pitch a few minutes.Fiorentina thought it had leveled seven minutes from time but the goal was ruled out for handball and any thoughts it had of snatching a point evaporated when Stefan Radu sealed the result.Fiorentina slipped to eighth and faces Napoli on Thursday in its final match before the winter break. Lazio visits Inter Milan on Wednesday.---GENOA 3, PALERMO 4Palermo remarkably fought back from two goals down in the second half to end a run of eight successive defeats.Robin Quaisons brilliant solo goal for Palermo canceled out Giovanni Simeones opener to leave it all even at the break.Simeone, the son of Atletico Madrid coach Diego Simeone, headed in a second and also set up Genoas third for Nikola Ninkovic in the 65th.But Edoardo Goldaniga pulled one back for Palermo four minutes later and Andrea Rispoli leveled two minutes from time. Genoa players were furious as Rispoli appeared to be offside.Genoa pushed forward for the winner but it was Palermo that snatched all three points as Aleksandar Trajkovski finished off a counter attack.Genoa goalkeeper Mattia Perin was sent off for pushing Ilija Nestorovski over when the forward tried to delay a free kick in stoppage time, completing a miserable night for the hosts.---OTHER MATCHESInter Milan is finding its feet under new coach Stefano Pioli and won 1-0 at Sassuolo for its fourth win in five matches -- between Serie A and Europa League.Antonio Candreva scored the only goal of the match two minutes into the second half. Inter midfielder Felipe Melo was sent off in stoppage time for a second bookable offence.Bologna ended its goalscoring drought by winning 3-0 at 10-man Pescara, which played with 10 men for an hour after Valerio Verre was sent off for a dangerous tackle.Elsewhere, Chievo Verona beat Sampdoria 2-1 and Cyril Thereau scored twice as Udinese beat Crotone 2-0. Nike Blazer Sale Online . Isner, ranked No. 14, won his eighth career singles title and took the title in New Zealand for the second time after his victory in 2010. The match was similar to Isners quarterfinal victory over fifth-seeded Philipp Kohlschreiber which went to three sets, all tiebreaks and contained no breaks of serve. Cheap Nike Sb Blazer Low .B. - Sebastien Auger made 44 saves as the Saint John Sea Dogs edged the visiting Acadie-Bathurst Titan 2-1 on Saturday in Quebec Major Junior Hockey League action. http://www.cheapblazershoes.com/ . -- Edmontons Val Sweeting is two wins away from a trip to Winnipeg to play in Canadas Road of the Rings in December. NEW YORK -- Alex Rodriguezs time with the New York Yankees will be remembered for one World Series title, two MVP awards and countless controversies.And for him not being Derek Jeter.When Im amongst Yankee fans and the conversation turns to him, hes not held with great fondness, said Marty Appel, author of Pinstripe Empire: The New York Yankees from Before the Babe to After the Boss.There was just something about the way he related to people over the years that fell short of a warm embrace, whether it was body language or dating celebrities, said Appel, a former Yankees media relations director and television producer. The rank-and-file lunch-box-carrying people just never really took to him.Perhaps the most talented and notorious player of his era, Rodriguez is set to play his final game for the Yankees on Friday night at home against Tampa Bay. New York plans to release A-Rod after the game, even though the team must pay him about $7 million for the rest of this season and $20 million more next year.I think its going to be a crazy, electric stadium. I think there will be plenty of applause and there will be plenty of boos because people love to hate him, said Bald Vinny Milano of the Yankee Stadium Bleacher Creatures, who became an A-Rod fan after meeting him at a charity event. There are always going to be Yankees fans who hate the guy, no matter what his on-field accomplishments were, no matter how great of a player he was on the field. Outside influences affect their opinion of the guy -- whether theyre right, wrong or indifferent. They attack his personality or his attitude. But if you look at baseball only, theres no way you cant say hes one of the best who ever played the game.Mariano Rivera got a sendoff tour, leaving the Yankee Stadium mound for the final time in tears when Jeter and Andy Pettitte removed him three years ago, setting off a thunderous 4-minute ovation.Jeter, like Rivera a five-time World Series champion, got another round-the-league farewell and hit a game-winning single versus Baltimore on his final swing at Yankee Stadium in September 2014, raising both arms in triumph.Mark Teixeira is still starting and will remain with the team until the end of the season after announcing this will be the final season.Rodriguez, usually Yin to Jeters Yang, has been told pretty much to hit the road quickly with his .199 average as the Yankees turn to youth. He is being given a position as an adviser to mentor prospects next year, and his goodbye takes place with an undertone of good riddance.My job description does not entail a farewell tour, manager Joe Girardi said Wednesday, explaining Rodriguezs disappearance from the lineup.A-Rod, who turned 41 last month, has hit .283 with 351 homers and 1,095 RBI for the Yankees, helping lead them win their 27th Series title in 2009 but often failing in other postseasons.But for some fans, he will never be in the same category as Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Joe DiMaggio, Yogi Berra and Jeter.A-Rods career was tainted by his 2009 admission that he used performance-enhancing drugs while with Texas from 2001-03 and his season-long suspension in 2014 for violations of baseballs drug agreement and labor contract. Fans at ballparks on the road held up signs deriding him as A-Roid and Cheater.Before the World Series title, he was considered an automatic October out, his stature diminished by an 8-for-59 (.136) postseason funk from 2004-07 that included 18 consecutive hitless at-bats with runners in scoring position. And he leaves with just six postseason RBI in his last 79 at-bats.Still, he did hit .365 with six homers and 18 RBI in the 2009 postseason. He did have 13 consecutive seasons with at least 30 homers and 100 RBI, seven of those years with thee Yankees. Nike Sb Blazer Low Sale. And 1,578 of his 3,114 hits and a majority of his 696 home runs have been for New York.He was on the field for spring training workouts at sunrise, perhaps the hardest worker on a team of proven professionals. He became a 14-time All-Star, two-time Gold Glove shortstop and the 1996 AL batting champion. He trails only Barry Bonds (762), Hank Aaron (755) and Babe Ruth (714) in home runs, and his 2,085 RBI are second to Aarons 2,297 since RBI became an official statistic.But Rodriguez was never just about baseball.He made tabloid headlines for his divorce; dating Madonna, Kate Hudson, Cameron Diaz and Torrie Wilson; for sunbathing shirtless in Central Park; walking through a Toronto hotel lobby with a blond stripper; participating in high-stakes celebrity poker games; selling his Miami house for $30 million; and living in a Manhattan condominium with tax abatement.There were the lawsuits, later dropped, against Major League Baseball; the Major League Baseball Players Association, Yankees head team physician Dr. Christopher Ahmad and New York-Presbyterian Hospital.Who brought more shame to the franchise? How many Yankee immortals sued the team doctor? The players association? Baseball itself? said broadcaster and baseball historian Keith Olbermann, whose family had Yankees season tickets from 1972-2012. Reggie (Jackson) got to three World Series in five seasons. Billy Martin? Seven in 15, right? Alexs era with the Yankees is one of the most barren in franchise history. There will be no reason for the fans to recall him fondly or even positively.Even before Rodriguez was dealt to the Yankees by Texas in February 2004, he often was in the center of a storm. His record $252 million, 10-year contract with the Rangers in December 2000 put A-Rod in a permanent spotlight. In the April 2001 issue of Esquire, he transformed from Jeters friend to frenemy.Jeters been blessed with great talent around him. Hes never had to lead, Rodriguez was quoted as saying. You go into New York, you wanna stop Bernie (Williams) and (Paul) ONeill. You never say, `Dont let Derek beat you. Hes never your concern.Former manager Joe Torres 2009 book with Tom Verducci said some teammates referred to Rodriguez as A-Fraud and compared A-Rods supposed obsession with Jeter to the movie Single White Female. That same year, Details magazine ran a photo of Rodriguez kissing his reflection in a mirror. Always concerned about his appearance, Rodriguez always emerged from the showers fully clothed in the clubhouse at new Yankee Stadium, never wanting to be seen getting dressed.A-Rod famously was called out for interference when he swatted at Boston pitcher Bronson Arroyos glove and knocked the ball loose during the 2004 AL Championship Series, three months after Arroyo hit Rodriguez with a pitch, causing A-Rod and catcher Jason Varitek to spark a brawl.Rodriguezs decision to opt out of his $252 million contract became public during the final game of Bostons 2007 World Series victory. His record $275 million, 10-year deal to stay with the Yankees was finalized on the same day the Mitchell Report on drugs in baseball was released.With A-Rods body broken down from six trips to the disabled list since 2008 and his skills diminished, the Yankees have no use for him.In making his announcement last weekend, Rodriguez admitted hes been to hell and back, and made every mistake in the book.His place in history will be a permanent debate.If he had any kind of personal epiphany at the end it came, like any Shakespearean tragic hero, too late, Olbermann said. Macbeth was still a villain. This guy, too. ' ' '