I like tooting my own horn, so let me play the trumpet a little bit and remind folks new to the blog what I wrote about A-Rod the day after he decided to opt out of his contract with the Yankees: "Alex Rodriguez informed the New York Yankees last night - via text message by the way - that he is officially opting out of his contract and will become an unrestricted free agent when the offseason begins in the next few weeks. It was a classless, lowlife act by a prima donna, whiny, pretty boy who still believes that being booed at Yankee Stadium is this generation's version of being fired on at Bastogne.Now comes the hard part. The Yanks have said there is NO chance they will get back involved with the mega-talented anchor and they HAVE to stick to their guns. Why? Will the Yanks, on the field, be better off without him? Of course not, but the truth is that, eventually, someone has to yell ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!!!!!!!!!!!!"
Instead, the Yankees resigned the man to a 10-year, $300 million contract that will take him through the age of 40 and essentially my 30's as a Yankee fan (I'm 31 right now).
Now, I'll admit, I did have a change of heart somewhat when the Yankees began to throw around replacement names at third base, but what that post proves is that first impressions are usually right.
Alex, two years into his new contract, is already an utter nightmare. He is officially a steroid user, meaning his future pursuit of all-time records will be more Barry Bonds-eian in feel than inclusionary and redeeming. Did I mention A-Rod will be paid millions each time her tarnishes.......um, I mean passes another homerun record in the dust? Great marketing Yanks.
His health has to be a concern at this point. A former steroid user experiencing a cyst on his hip that will require two surgeries? No chance this is just the beginning of his medical condition as he gets older, right? I didn't think so.
And as much as you might want to blame the media for the neauseating coverage he receives, only the most maddeningly blind A-Rod fan would refuse to place much of the ownous on the man himself. As Peter Abraham pointed out on his blog today, while A-Rod was dating the Material Girl, Madonna (while still married by the way) one of his seven publicists would routinely contact the media to "tip them off" as to where the couple might be that night.
That isn't the actions of a man looking for peace and quite outside the public limelight.
And if he is acting this way at 32, why would anyone believe that he is due for an infusion of maturity anytime soon? Nope, you can expect some sort of Page Six story popping up at least twice a year for the next nine years, no question.
But all of this might be overlooked if A-Rod can perform at a level worthy of his obscene contract. That, of course, has to be called into question at this point.
Forget the injury issues, which could turn A-Rod from a 158-game mainstay at third into a "he needs a few days off a week and at least one stint on the DL a year" type of player very quickly. How, in all that is holy, can anyone expect that A-Rod's lofty numbers weren't very much influenced by his drug use?
Only the most naive would have believed that Alex gave up roids when coming over to the Yankees. Would it stand to reason that, perhaps, A-Rod's best season, 2007, was influenced by a return to the drugs which had helped him so obviously while in Texas? And, if that is the case, would it also be out of the realm of possibility that, now forced off the drug because of the intense scrutiny he will receive, his production will fall off dramatically? What if the Yankees, starting this year, realize they are paying $27 million a year for Joe Crede?
And unlike other contracts that have seemed impossible to move, this on will be a conversation stopper. NO ONE is taking A-Rod. NO ONE!!!!!. That means, good, bad, ugly, the Yankees have this man for the next decade.
Now on to Selena Roberts.
As you could tell from the above comments, I am not exactly erecting a shrine to A-Rod any time soon. But that doesn't mean I think Roberts is innocent of any wrongdoing here. The woman, to me, is everything wrong with the media, and I am saying that as a member of the media. Let's not forget that Roberts is the same classless reporter who soiled the reputations of the Duke lacrosse players years ago and still refuses to apologize. Imagine that level of arrogance and simple lack of conscience where you can help to destroy a group of young mens' lives and, when you are proven abslutely wrong, still find a way to justify your actions. To me, that SHOULD call everything she has to say into question.
I haven't read the book, and I don't plan to. Besides some accusations that A-Rod's steroid use was more pervasive than first reported and that he might have tipped pitches to opposing batters in the hope they would do the same for him (the most serious accusation to come from this tell-all) the rest of the book seems filled with stories about his bad tipping at Hooters and his affairs with strippers. Wow!! Let me get my money ready.
But the problem have with the book is not just that the information seems silly and selacious, it also seems to be based solely on accusations made by people unwilling to go on the record.
Much of what Roberts reports seems to have stemmed directly from people who refused to lend their name to the rumors.
Some fellow reporters have made the claim that Roberts has the "right" to write any kind of book she wants and that, as evidenced by the Sports Illustrated story, written by Roberts, that outed A-Rod as having failed a drug test in 2003, she has gotten it right about the slugger in the past. But just because she got it right once doesn't mean she got it right this time. Not to beat a dead horse, but she couldn't have gotten the Duke case more wrong, yet that hasn't seemed to signal a problem with her credibility in some people's eyes.
And even if all of these accusations are true, why would a truly professional journalist report such scandalous rumors without demanding people put their names out there for scrutiny? How can she, as a person, feel comfortable leveling such scathing stories with nothing to back it up other than a journalistic promise that, "I really trust my sources, even though I won't tell you who they are."
The idea that no one within the media has questioned Roberts' motivations and techniques is beyond me. Some, including my favorite blogger Abraham, have ways to excuse Roberts. The fact that she has written a tell-all book about a seemingly uninteresting athlete is explained away as being her "right," as if simply having the right to do something means it is excuseable. Then, the fact that the book's release date was moved up to coincide with A-Rod returning from the DL is excused as simply a "money-making tactic" that, again, is justfied on the premise that greed is understandable.
I guess it comes down to the fact that some of us expect people to be as decent as possible and not simply take the low road because it is unobstructed.
And then we come to Joe Girardi.
Today, GI Joe evidently became very, very emotional when talking about Alex. His defense of his slugging star is expected and, in many ways, noble. I give him credit. But Girardi, first, needs to be smarter when addressing the media. Just say "we are moving forward" and let it stand at that. Would some members of the media try and make a story even out of that? Sure, but what is a juicier story, the one that is obviously contrived out of think air or the one that centers on the manager's overly emotional reponse to a question about A-Rod?
Joe, just worry about managing the game and try and diminish the attention a story gets, not inflate that story.
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