A-Rod: your thoughts about him… as an athlete? As a man? Or otherwise?

The Game Room
21

I ran into Rodriguez once in NYC, almost literally. I was walking down 60th street and he suddenly popped out of an unmarked door with another man. I was surprised at his size. He’s only an inch taller than me, but he appeared to be twice as wide.

I would have preferred that the Red Sox trade had been approved. I didn’t want Clemens either, but that’s another story. There were rumors going way back that Alex was juicing in high school, and I believe it. The accusations against him during the Biogenesis scandal (towards the end of his career) included micro-dosing testosterone. I believe that too. He just couldn’t accept being very good…he had to be great. So yeah, an ego thing.

Still, I don’t hate the guy. He’s complicated, just like the rest of us. Younger players loved him becase he was patient and encouraging with them. He clearly loves the game and wants to be involved for the rest of professional life. I can’t say I care for him as a broadcaster, though. His speaking voice is not pleasing.

Fun A-Rod fact: the same day he was released by the Yankees, Aaron Judge made his debut in pinstripes. A kinda poetic passing of the torch. Aaron Judge may be as interesting as Wonder bread off the field, but after the circus, that’s just fine.

22

Up here, where Mariners fandom reigns, he is known as “Pay-Rod”.

23

The Mariners should have paid. Can you imagine that 2001 team with A-Rod joining Ichiro, Edgar, Cameron, Boone, Olerud et al.?

24

I’m not sure if they could have afforded to; alternately, maybe they could have afforded him, but not the other good players as well.

The Mariners’ entire payroll in 2001 (the year that Rodriguez left for Texas) was $75 million (and was only $59 million in 2000); ARod’s contract with the Rangers was for at least $22 million a year.

25

I have a cousin who’s worked in journalism. She interviewed Rodriguez sometime in the last few years, I forget why, and said he was one of the most interesting/best interviewees she’s had in that time span. For what it’s worth.

26

Derek Jeter said similar things. Alex Rodriguez is a big guy.

@Ulf_the_Unwashed I have no doubts he can be interesting if he wants to be.

@Loach I think you pretty much nailed it about him.

When watching the 3 episodes, and from this thread, I’m reminded of Barry Bonds. Because I’m an SF Giants fan I’m much more familiar with his case. Both AR and BB seem to be doing quite a bit of personal growth since their playing days, but the question that comes to mind for me, is why? Are they maturing after their playing days, being given some perspective on their lives overall? Perhaps. Or are they trying to re-brand themselves in order to position themselves better for the Hall of Fame? I think this is more likely. Are they stumping for more adulation from the common public? I think this is also likely. They’re no longer receiving the praises from the fans in the stands as they played ball at the great levels that they did, and that can be a ‘drug’ that they miss.

About the millions that they made, the big contracts that they signed, I don’t blame them. I don’t fault them. Which one of us, doing the work that we do well, and enjoy, would turn away from a huge salary if it were offered to us? Anyone who says they would turn it down, is kidding themself.

About the steroids, it was a phase that the game went through and everyone involved is to blame — the players, the team owners, much of the media who covered them, and also the fans. Sure, I knocked BB and his growing larger with bigger muscles as he got older, but I also enjoyed watching him play and was amazed at his prowess. I believe that for as long as I live he will be the greatest player I ever saw play — or at least, among the very greatest. AR was an amazing talent. Similarly great.

Anyway about this 3 episode show, it’s really about getting people to empathize with AR, to ‘drink that Kool-Aid’. They showed his daughters saying how great a father he is to them, and him saying that fatherhood and family are so important to him — the shows is simply trying to get the viewers to say he’s a great guy.

And I’m not quite buying it.

27

Bullshit. Speak for yourself. That’s just insulting to the thousands of players that refused to cheat. While it was no where near the level of a professional athlete, I absolutely turned down lucrative professional opportunities that comprised my morals.

28

I don’t understand why this makes either of them a jerk. Draft pick negotiations are tilted heavily against the player. Why not use the only leverage he had? It certainly worked well for the Mariners, who got the best player in baseball at way under market value. It may also have helped future number 1 picks gets paid a little better.

Arod was a generational talent, who had basically no flaws as a player. He was great from the moment he started until injuries wore him down. We like to bring down our heroes, so when things started to go poorly he got a lot of blame for things that weren’t his fault. The Mariners didn’t win because they never had enough pitching. He lived up to his contract in Texas, but since he had little talent around him, he got blamed for the team’s failures. With the Yankees he should have been the shortstop, but Jeter didn’t want to defer, so he moved to 3rd like a good team player. When they didn’t win he got blamed again, even if he played as well as the “true Yankees.”

This isn’t to say Arod didn’t have flaws. For me his steroid use was more egregious then someone like Bonds or Mcgwire who did it when it wasn’t against the rules. I think it is understandable though. For guys like Arod, who have spent their whole life making every sacrifice they can to be the best player they can be, it is hard to see where the line is. It is easy for me to say I wouldn’t have done it, but I also wouldn’t have put in the work to get as good as Arod was in the first place. It doesn’t make right, but I also don’t see it as necessarily making someone a bad person, particularly when we are less harsh on things that cause real damage to innocent people like abuse or drunk driving. For me, I’m content that he got caught and punished, but we should move on, and not discount what he did accomplish.

29

True, but you don’t have to continually insult the team that drafted you to do it.

30

What were the insults that Rodriguez or Boras said to or about the Mariners?

31

That doesnt make sense as a reply to that paragraph.

32

FWIW, Rodriguez’s use of PEDs started in 2001 (according to him) and possibly earlier than that; that was the exact same era in which Bonds, McGwire, Sammy Sosa, Roger Clemens, etc. were all clearly juicing.

And, it wasn’t that using steroids was not against MLB’s rules at that time: it was against the rules, as of 1991. But, the rules were lax and unclear, and enforcement was sporadic; it wasn’t until the early 2000s when MLB made the rules clearer, began more extensive testing for it, and imposed penalties for those caught using it..

33

Yeah, you’re correct. Rescinded.

34

I would argue that if a rule wasn’t clear, not enforced, and not collectively bargained, than it isn’t really a rule. Running over a catcher was also against the rules, but you wouldn’t expect a player not to do if it was encouraged at the time. Arod didn’t stop when they became explicitly against the rules though, so this argument is less important in this case than with Bonds/Mcgwire.

35

My recollection from the years when they finally started to crack down – and dozens of players were named in the Mitchell Report – was that, because steroid use, though technically against the rules, became so widespread by the late '90s and early 2000s, many players felt that they “needed to” start taking PEDs in order to compete, and keep their jobs; the alternative was to potentially fall behind their peers, who were juicing. And, this seems to have been Rodriguez’s claim, at least for his early use of PEDs.

It wasn’t that baseball “encouraged” it, so much as turned a blind eye to it (which, I suppose, could be considered to be tacit encouragement). MLB leadership certainly was enjoying the revival of interest in the sport (which had declined after the labor strife of the early '90s) that the home run surge, and the McGwire/Sosa race to break Roger Maris’s record in '98, had fueled.

36

The players in the 90s who were juicing knew perfectly well that they were cheating and would be penalized (at the very least in the court of public opinion) if they were exposed. They didn’t get prescriptions from legitimate doctors; they used cut-outs, fake names, under the table cash and good old-fashioned, illicit drug dealers. And when they were confronted with using P.E.D.s, to a man they lied and lied. A-Rod wasn’t any different than all the rest of them.

37

How much they sucked and that’s why he didn’t want to play for them.

38

I was talking about salary. Money. Not PEDs. You’re taking me out of context.

Added — @Loach already caught that.

39

And already rescinded.

40

Oh. Geez. Missed that. Thanks.