Tagged: Alex Rodriguez
A-Rod out? Now what?
By Jon Lane
So A-Rod is reportedly having hip surgery that will keep him out of action from anywhere between six and 10 weeks.
Whoa boy.
Alex Rodriguez, thus far the polarizing flavor figure of 2009, is apparently facing another round of adversity. But let’s be fair. I am not a doctor. I am nothing close to a medical expert, so I am not going to even attempt to figure out a connection between a cyst, hip surgery and steroids. We’re talking strictly baseball here and it’s the way it should be.
Here’s what’s known and been reported:
A link to the ESPN/ESPNdeportes report, which quotes A-Rod’s older brother, Joe Dunand, saying that immediate surgery was recommended. “It’s a big blow for the whole family. Alex is destroyed,” Joe told Enrique Rojas. A source close to this added that the surgery is scheduled for Monday, March 9, in Colorado.
According to Jack Curry, a club official said there would be an announcement about Rodriguez’s situation later today. This morning, wrote Peter Abraham, Joe Girardi claimed he didn’t know anything about this situation. Pete Caldera added Girardi was going to speak with general manager Brian Cashman to learn more.
However this turns out, look at it this way: This was discovered now, not in August or September. And if it’s more or less than 10 weeks, A-Rod will be back and in position to make significant contributions to the 2009 Yankees.
Anyone who suggests that the Yankees are better off without A-Rod has no clue. In five seasons with the Yankees – do not bring up steroids and not even the postseason since Game 3 of the 2004 ALCS – Rodriguez has averaged 42 home runs, 123 RBIs and 119 runs scored while batting .303 and winning two AL MVP Awards. You try replacing those numbers. Furthermore, who’s batting cleanup? Who is protecting Mark Teixeira? The last thing the Yankees can afford is a slow start, but this offense is suddenly drained of a major power source.
Here are some of the names being bandied about as possible stopgap replacements.
Cody Ransom
Angel Berroa
Eric Duncan
Blake DeWitt
Corey Koskie
Adrian Beltre
Bill Hall
Mark Teahen
The simple solution is to stay within the organization. Ransom, 33, has been in and out of the Majors with three teams since 2001 and batted .302 in 33 games with the Yankees last season. Most people will be clamoring for a “name,” but acquiring for a “name” costs both money and players and the Yankees won’t do anything stupid just to acquire a band-aid. And in just speaking with Joe Auriemma, he reminded me how the Yankees handled Derek Jeter missing 43 games with an injured shoulder in 2003. He’ll have more later on Erick Almonte and how the Yankees can go about weathering this storm.
Why not Ransom? He’s the best athlete on the Yankees.
Why not Duncan? Well, the Yankees’ first-round pick in ’03 wasn’t invited to the big-league camp. He’s been working out at the team’s Minor League complex, but the window of opportunity may be shut.
The around and about
By Jon Lane
A few takes on the latest happenings around the Yankees.
Alex Rodriguez is in the news – again. A-Rod could be held out of the World Baseball Classic because of a cyst on his right hip, which is something Joe Girardi said today bothered the third baseman last year. Rodriguez will be examined by Dr. Marc Phillipon in Vail, Colo., today.
In light of this, I don’t see A-Rod representing the Dominican Republic. A cyst is easily treatable, but love him or not Rodriguez is extremely important to the Yankees’ chances in 2009. Forget about his history with PEDs; that’s not what I’m talking about. Can you honestly say the Yankees are better off without the numbers A-Rod puts up year after year?
What you can’t ignore is A-Rod’s penchant for putting his size 12 square into his mouth. He told reporters on Tuesday he wished Jose Reyes played for the Yankees. Does it ever stop?
Jeter was with the Yankees this morning and told reporters: “I’ve got nothing to say, man.”
‘Nuff said.
Speaking of the Captain, we here on The YES Blog love pushing your buttons! Steven Goldman was being realistic that Father Time eventually catches up with everyone. Joe Auriemma spoke from the heart and of Jeter’s true value to a ballclub.
May these two, and fans with dissenting opinions, duke it out in a 15-foot high steel cage. I choose not to worry about this until I have to: at the end of the 2010 season. This is like wondering what would happen if Jeter got hurt and Cody Ransom had to play shortstop every day. Why concern yourself with hypotheticals?
Glenn Giangrande writes the Yankees should consider trading Hideki Matsui. When Matsui is healthy he can hit with power and produce in the clutch, but since he’s limited to being a designated hitter, it creates a logjam. Guys like Johnny Damon and Jorge Posada will need at least half-days off, which means Matsui wouldn’t play. If the Yankees can find a taker for someone willing to push the envelope and test Matsui, in the final year of a four-year, $52 million contract, in the outfield, more power to them. That won’t be easy.
The Yankees will return to Grapefruit League action today, traveling to Lake Buena Vista, Fla., to meet the Atlanta Braves at 1:05 p.m. Ian Kennedy makes his second spring start against Kenshin Kawakami. Among the players in the Yankees’ lineup will be Johnny Damon, Gardner and Xavier Nady.
The lineup:
Johnny Damon LF
Brett Gardner CF
Xavier Nady RF
Juan Miranda 1B
Angel Berroa 2B
Jose Molina C
Kevin Russo 3B
Ramiro Pena SS
UPDATE: The Yankees lost, 3-2, to the Braves to fall to 2-4-1 on
the Grapefruit season. Damon went 1-for-2 with an RBI triple to deep right-center while Dan
Giese, in relief of Kennedy, added a base hit of his own. Kennedy,
however, struggled in his second spring start, allowing two runs and
three hits in three innings. Giese was also touched for a run on two
hits in three frames.
Surprising reaction to the Lightning Rod
By Joe Auriemma
With all of the news about Alex Rodriguez and steroids this offseason, you knew that he was bound to get booed at other stadiums around the league. In fact, during the first exhibition game against the Blue Jays in Dunedin, FL, A-Rod did get booed.
What was a little surprising to me was that he got a mixed reaction when stepping up to the plate at George M. Steinbrenner Field in his first “home” plate appearance. Now the Yankees were playing the Rays, who might have had their own fan base at the game supporting the team, but it still was a little shocking.
A-Rod has been accused of having a fragile psyche in the past and does seem to try to hard in key situations, so this was probably not what he needed to hear at the start of the season. The bottom line is that he is under contract to be the Yankees’ third baseman for the next nine seasons. If you are not a fan of A-Rod and what he did, but a fan of the Yankees, it’s really a Catch-22. In order for the Yankees to compete for a World Series, they need A-Rod to produce. There is no way around it.
I’m not saying that fans need to give him a standing ovation, but I hope that the Bronx and the beautiful new Yankee Stadium can be a safe haven for a player that is going to have to deal with a lot of abuse on the road.
The New Stadium
On Wednesday morning I got to see the new Stadium and took a tour of the new Monument Park; the Yankees held an event to put the Babe Ruth monument into its new home. My first reaction was that it’s quite amazing. Yankee Stadium, and from what I’ve seen of CitiField in Queens, are as grand as the city they call home.
As I stood in the new Monument Park, I realized that hitting a home run to dead center will now make the monuments, plaques and retired numbers vulnerable to being hit. Even the restaurant above the Monument Park is bound for an assault from a monster home run shot. It’s going to make the game much more interesting to watch. It looks as if the Stadium is going to be much more fan friendly then the previous facility. The upper deck isn’t as steep, making each seat closer to the field.
I’m certainly going to miss the feeling I got when walking into the old Yankee Stadium, but I think that over time, and when baseball is being played in this new park, that old feeling is bound to come back.
And we're off and running ….
By Jon Lane
Game 2 is on the air. Michael Kay and Ken Singleton are in the YES Booth and I’m at MLBAM headquarters to provide some commentary.
Some quick hits from Peter Abraham’s blog:
- Mariano Rivera has been playing catch and will get on the mound for the first time next week.
- Brian Cashman has no information as to whether Alex Rodriguez will meet with MLB investigators today and was asked about Yuri Sucart driving his players to and from games.
“It has been handled,” he said. “That’s all I want to say, it has been handled.”
- George Steinbrenner is at his game. The temperature in Tampa, Fla., is sunny and 73 degrees. Not to shabby, eh?
1:15 p.m. Michael Kay mentioned the team feels relaxed and confident, this in spite off all the A-Rod melodrama. That is a good sign. Bernie Williams threw out the first pitch and looks and feels great. Phil Hughes hits Adam Kennedy to being the game. Not a good start.
1:27 p.m. Hughes survived two hit batsman to get Gabe Kapler to pop out to short, but threw threw 18 pitches (13 strikes), continuing a disturbing trend. Hughes averaged 78.8 pitches in his eight starts last season while pitching into the sixth inning only three times, the last when he went eight strong September 24 against the Blue Jays.
1:32 p.m. Mark Teixeira’s first at-bat as a Yankee ends with him chasing high heat on Wade Davis’ 2-2 pitch as the Yankees go quietly in the first.
1:45 p.m. Alex Rodriguez is met with a smattering of boos, but mostly cheers while stepping into the batter’s box. Like many, Ken Singleton expressed disappointment in A-Rod using PEDs and couldn’t understand why he chose to do it in the first place.
A-Rod goes down swinging. The catcalls grow a little louder. It’s plainly obvious he’ll be Lightning Rod all season. What cannot go unnoticed is how Joe Girardi handles the pressure of being asked about this day in and day out.
1:54 p.m. Phil Coke pitches a scoreless third. I like this guy a lot. He works fast, changes speeds and is fearless, and got the third out by breaking Willy Aybar’s bat (with help by a nice play from Robinson Cano). He and Damaso Marte have the potential to be an effective lefty combination out of the bullpen.
1:55 p.m. Jorge Posada crushes one over the right-field fence to give the Yankees a 1-0 lead. That surgically repaired shoulder had better hold up. I can’t stress enough the importance of a healthy Posada to this team.
1:57 p.m. Melky Cabrera flies out to center. He’s already trailing Brett Gardner in the center field derby. This is only the second Spring Training game, and Cabrera’s first, but Glenn Giangrande has already deemed Gardner the winner.
2:17 p.m. A-Rod’s second at-bat is met with louder boos that drowned out some cheers (one man yelling “Go A-Rod!” made it through). Rodriguez wastes Teixeira’s one-out single by grounding into a 5-4-3 double play. No boos, but a collective groan, one all too familiar during A-Rod’s Yankees years.
2:25 p.m. A svelte Brian Bruney works a clean inning, hitting as high as 95 MPH on the radar gun. With Joba Chamberlain the Yankees’ undisputed fifth starter, Bruney has to be the eighth-inning bridge to Rivera. During the top of fifth, Girardi told Kay and Singleton that Posada will start his first game behind the plate on March 15.
2:30 p.m. Posada doubles home the Yankees’ second run. He’s 2-for-2 with both RBIs.
2:59 p.m. The Yankees lowered the price of about 600 obstructed-view bleacher seats at the new Yankee Stadium from $12 to $5. It’s a good deal when you think about it. Fans who purchase these tickets get access throughout the new palace. That includes the sports bar adjacent to the bleachers that I believe will be an open air facility. That to me is a great way to spend a summer’s day or evening, watching a ballgame on site while in the atmosphere of a sports bar.
3:12 p.m. Remember Shelley “Slam” Duncan? He crushed a three-run home run to left field to give the Yankees a 5-1 lead in the bottom of the seventh. Duncan’s power and energy burst upon the scene in 2007 by hitting three home runs in his first two games and eventually drew comparisons to Kevin Maas, which wasn’t exactly a good thing. Like Maas, Duncan faded and was designated for assignment in the offseason. Having received a non-roster invite to Spring Training, Duncan is trying to bash his way back on the roster. He’ll just have to learn to hit a breaking ball.
3:22 p.m. Three up and three down for Mark Melancon in the eighth. This kid has got the goods to either be a dominant late-inning set-up man and possibly Rivera’s eventual successor.
3:35 p.m. Yankees win 5-1 to move to 2-0 on the Grapefruit season. Tomorrow brings a two-hour-plus bus ride to Fort Myers for the chosen players.
A-Rod's called shot, Reggie's disappointment
By Jon Lane
Word from the beat, in this case Pete Caldera’s blog, is that Alex Rodriguez called his home run in the dugout. According to Yankees PR head Jason Zillo, A-Rod told him during batting practice that he’d go yard during his second at-bat.
Reggie Jackson met the media after the Yankees’ 6-1 win and shared an interesting story. A “stern” Hank Steinbrenner told Mr. October to send a message to Rodriguez: “You tell him to hit the damn ball, and hit it when it matters.”
Jackson, who had dinner with A-Rod Tuesday night, said he was “disappointed” and at times angry after learning of A-Rod’s PED usage while with the Rangers.
“I get angry sometimes,” Jackson told reporters. “I’ve been reprimanded by the commissioner and the president of our team. I’ve pleaded with them to understand that I’m personally affected; I’m personally involved. I’m hurt; I’m bewildered. I don’t know that we ever get past it.”
Jackson also related this personal message to Rodriguez, whose 553 career home runs are 10 behind Jackson’s for 11th place on the all-time list.
“My dad said you can control the story as long as you have a chance to hit. Edit your own story with the bat. As long as he does that, he has a chance to change things around him.”
I remember after working a game during I think the 2005 season when Gary Sheffield, in the throes of a slump, delivered a big hit to spark the Yankees to a win. A cordial Jackson chatted with us and told us what he told Sheffield: “As long as you have the bat in your hand, you can change the story.”
Jackson has made it one of his priorities to look after Rodriguez. Now more than ever, A-Rod needs to listen to everything Jackson tells him — and listen very carefully. Jackson’s tenure in the Bronx had absolutely nothing to do with PEDs, but he lived through the good, bad and the very ugly times of the Bronx Zoo. He won two World Championships, came through virtually every time when everything was on the line and weathered every storm that came his way, self-inflicted or not. When Reggie talks, you listen. Bottom line.
That didn't take long
By Jon Lane
1:04 p.m. First report from Dunedin, Fla., courtesy of Peter Abraham: Leadoff hitter Brett Gardner blasted Brett Cecil’s second pitch over the right field fence to make it 1-0 Yankees. Stepping up to the plate, Alex Rodriguez was booed loudly and jeered about Madonna and steroids before drawing a walk.
Numbers game: Melky Cabrera now wears Bobby Abreu’s old No. 53. Brett Tomko, today’s starter, took Cabrera’s No. 28.
1:20 p.m. Tomko pitched a 1-2-3 first. Talk about a difference of opinion. This from Mark Feinsand of The New York Daily News: Tomko is “a decent pitcher during his career, and could be a find as a long man. It appears to be between Tomko, Dan Giese and Alfredo Aceves for the spot.” Steven Goldman wrote about Tomko this morning and pulled no punches.
Tomko’s line: two scoreless innings, one hit. Jose Veras in.
1:48 p.m. Tied at 1 after Alex Rios’ sacrifice fly. Veras got into immediate trouble after allowing a double, hit a batsman and threw wild pitch. He’s looking smart for declining the Dominican Republic’s invite to play in the WBC. Spots in the underbelly of the Yankees bullpen will be scarce.
2:05 p.m. A-Rod smacks a two-run homer off Ricky Romero to put the Yankees ahead 3-1 in the top of the fourth. Yankees fans cheer, everyone else boos. One pitch before the blast, writes Feinsand, a fan shouted, “That was a steroid-induced foul ball!”
2:18 p.m. 4-1 Yankees at the end of 3 1/2 thanks to Todd Linden’s RBI single off Blue Jays closer B.J. Ryan. This morning, commenting on an earlier entry, The Max touted Linden to start Opening Day in left field. These boys live in an alternate universe, but are a lot of fun.
2:25 p.m. Quick Mets update: Luis Castillo has driven in four runs. Castillo for NL Comeback Player of the Year and Jerry Manuel for Manager of the Year.
2:37 p.m. 6-1 Yankees, bottom 5. A-Rod went 1-for-1 with two walks and two RBIs thanks to that fourth-inning homer. The Bergen Record‘s Pete Caldera gauged a 70-30 cheers-to-boos ratio when Rodriguez stepped up for his final at-bat of the day.
Dan Giese pitched a scoreless fourth, allowing one hit. Hold your breath, Kei Igawa is next in line.
2:49 p.m. Stop the presses! Kei Igawa allowed only a hit in the fifth, striking out one without walking a batter. Igawa = AL COY.
4:02p.m. Yankees win 6-1. David Robertson finished up with two strikeouts and a walk in a scoreless inning. Looks like Robertson and Giese moved up the bullpen pecking order while Veras was knocked down a few pegs.
Bring it on!
By Jon Lane
Finally it’s upon us, baseball! The Yankees open their Grapefruit season today at 1:15 p.m. against the Blue Jays in Dunedin, Fla., in which their full roster will be intact before many players leave to prepare for the World Baseball Classic.
This game is neither televised nor over the radio waves – I wish it was because Alex Rodriguez is playing and it would have been interesting to gauge fan reaction – but we’ll do our best to provide periodic updates. A-Rod is braced for a hostile reception, but to him that’s nothing new.
News flash: Joe Girardi announced the order of his rotation this morning, reports The Journal News‘ Peter Abraham.
CC Sabathia
Chien-Ming Wang
A.J. Burnett
Andy Pettitte
Joba Chamberlain
Many of you were hoping Wang would be No. 2 between Sabathia and Burnett. You got your wish and it’s a good decision by Girardi to separate two power pitchers with Wang’s nasty sinkerball, which helped win 19 games in consecutive seasons. Not a bad No. 2, eh?
Furthermore, the plan is for Chamberlain to make roughly 30 starts. Chamberlain will be carefully monitored, but the last thing you want to do is handle him with kid gloves. Let him go out and show what he’s all about.
Today’s lineup:
Brett Gardner CF
Derek Jeter SS
Robinson Cano 2B
Alex Rodriguez 3B
Nick Swisher RF
Shelley Duncan DH
Juan Miranda 1B
Todd Linden LF
Kevin Cash C
The starters: Brett Tomko vs. Brett Cecil
The Yankees agreed to a Minor League contract with Tomko on Friday and invited him to Spring Training. The veteran right-hander turns 36 on April 7 and split last season with the Royals and Padres. In 12 seasons, Tomko is 95-99 and a 4.68 ERA in 368 games (260 starts) with the Reds, Mariners, Padres, Cardinals, Giants, Dodgers and Royals. His chances at the making the Yankees are a longshot – and our Steven Goldman is not a big fan – but he’s another veteran arm that could be stashed away just in case.
Tomko, incidentally, will wear Bobby Abreu’s old No. 53.
The rotation: Tomko, Kei Igawa, Christian Garcia, Mike Dunn, Dave Robertson, Dan Giese and Jose Veras.
About the Blue Jays
Remain a middle-of-the-road team off a fourth-place finish in the AL East … pitching staff is anchored by Roy Halladay, who has thrown 220-plus innings in three consecutive seasons while averaging 17.3 wins … injuries limited five-time All-Star Scott Rolen to 115 games (.262-11-50), but he batted .307 with three home runs and 11 RBIs over his final 25 games … Vernon Wells suffered a left hamstring injury in drills on February 23, and might miss the remainder of spring training … manager Cito Gaston returned for his second stint as Jays pilot when he took over for the fired John Gibbons on June 20, 2008 and signed a two-year extension that September.
Jeter: Get over it
By Jon Lane
Derek Jeter addressed the media on Wednesday about A-Rod’s press conference, expressing disappointment yet support for his embattled teammate. The overall message was that it’s time to get over it. Amen.
“First and foremost, I don’t condone anything he did,” Jeter said. “He understands that it is a mistake. He’s trying to get past his mistake. He admitted to his mistake and I know there’s going to be people out there saying this and saying that, but he admitted what he did and it’s time to move on.”
Jeter’s best words were about how kids can learn lessons about drug use from the embarrassment many players have endured. As my YES colleague Joe Auriemma wrote, it’s up to A-Rod to be front and center in that campaign.
Eureka! A few TV types actually asked baseball questions! Jeter shared his takes on the revamped Yankees and the hotly-anticipated AL East race.
According to Peter Abraham’s Journal News Yankees blog, A-Rod was the last player to take the field. He was cheered. Reporters waited at his locker after the workout but he walked past and said, “Talk tomorrow, guys.”
Now let's move on from it
By Jon Lane
Alex Rodriguez issued a mea culpa to the media, his team, his superiors and his viewing public Tuesday afternoon.
Great. Thank you A-Rod. Now we can move on.
Easier said than done. A-Rod lied about PEDs and Selena Roberts. He came across very strange with this story about “the cousin” and how they brought this over-the-counter substance from the Dominican Republic to the United States, and how his “cousin” injected him with this stuff for THREE seasons without any knowledge of potential side effects or long-term damage.
With A-Rod there are always more questions, and you know that this story – unfortunately – just will not go away. But quite frankly, I don’t want anymore. A-Rod is not going to give you anymore. His teammates are sick of talking about it; players who have been Yankees for a few years are fed up with the annual distractions that have descend upon Yankeeland like midges.
And you can debate until you’re dark blue about whether or not A-Rod belongs in the Hall of Fame. Let me break it down for you: The fact that he admitted he did it – unlike Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens or Mark McGwire – is a step in the right direction. Let this play out – and hopefully go away one of these years – for the rest of his career, wait five years after that and then decide.
Today, right here, right now. I’m through with this BS. Everyone I speak with are done with it and are anxious to talk baseball, talk about how this Yankees team is loaded on paper and whether it will translate to ultimate success on the field. Put it to you this way: The New York Daily News was forced to pull two of Anthony McCarron’s features, one on how Jesus Montero is Jorge Posada’s heir apparent at catcher and Phil Hughes’ approach to Spring Training 2009 – thanks to Alex Rodriguez.
The Yankees spent $400 million on people in the offseason. Nobody has cared. There’s heavy anticipation with the move into the new palace and excitement over what should be a hotly-contested battle for the AL East title between not two, but three teams, one which by the way is the Tampa Bay Rays, the reigning AL Champions. Few people are talking about it or anything else baseball-related, so time to change the subject.
Here’s my 2009 prognosis on Alex Rodriguez the baseball player.
A-Rod will have another HUGE season. The last time he got a heavy burden off his chest was 2007 when he admitted that he and Derek Jeter were no longer close friends. That season he batted .314 with 54 home runs (a franchise record by a right-handed hitter), 156 RBIs and 143 runs scored. This time King Kong is off his back (you’d like to think), he’s batting cleanup between Mark Teixeria and a healthy Hideki Matsui, and it’s an odd year. A-Rod won his MVPs in 2003, ’05 and ’07.
A couple of anecdotes from 2007: Gary Sheffield, traded from the Yankees to the Tigers that offseason, had a hunch about A-Rod in the spring, predicting a monster season. Then on Opening Day at Yankee Stadium, A-Rod misplayed a pop fly that dropped behind him in foul territory with two out in the first. He was 0-for-3 when he led off the seventh, fresh off the Yankees’ sixth-inning rally that tied the game. He poked a single to left, and then decided to take the game in his own hands by stealing second base – on his own – before scoring the tiebreaking run. In the eighth, his two-run homer iced the game. Fans who jeered him for the error and a strikeout about 90 minutes earlier showered him with cheers.
Doug Mientkiewicz, his Yankees teammate in ’07 who played with Rodriguez at Westminster Christian (Fla.) High School and is great with the media, told me this after the game:
“No one can ever possibly fathom what he has to go through, and I will never sit here and try to speak for him,” Mientkiewicz said. “The biggest thing for Alex is to relax and understand that you’re surrounded by 24 other guys who know how to play the game too.”
A-Rod’s insecurities need to be coddled and massaged. The Yankees will do that, like it or not, because they need a relaxed A-Rod who is “simply a baseball player” to win. And you know the deal in Yankeeland: Win or else.
A-Rod's next mission
By Joe Auriemma
The YES Blog is here and I’m pleased to be making the first entry. My colleagues Jon Lane and Glenn Giangrande will also be contributors to this new forum. One thing is certain: we are excited that we have a place to talk Yankees and sports. We can’t wait to get feedback from so many diehard fans that are passionate about their Yankees and sports in general.
It’s probably not going to be shocking to most that the first entry is going to revolve around Alex Rodriguez and Tuesday’s press conference upon his arrival in Tampa.
One positive is that he has admitted to steroid abuse. Just look at the Mark McGwire case. He has become the Howard Hughes of the 500 Home Run Club, going into complete exile. In the case of Barry Bonds, he most likely will not make the Hall of Fame and is guilty in the court of public opinion.
Now that A-Rod has come clean, this is a golden opportunity for him to revive his legacy. He truly is the first of the Hall of Fame caliber players to have this black cloud of steroid abuse around him in the prime years of his career. Those other players, such as McGwire, Sammy Sosa, Bonds, Roger Clemens and Rafael Palmeiro, to name a few, all had this mountain of evidence against them at the end of their career. A-Rod has an opportunity to show everyone that he can pass every drug test for the rest of his career and continue to play at a Hall of Fame level.
He can become an ambassador to young players by teaching them that the use of performance-enhancing drugs does more harm than anything else. To me, this is now the legacy of this player. He can cite that the years he was on steroids statistically were not much better than his clean seasons. In fact, he has since won two MVP awards, had seasons of both 54 and 48 home runs and performed at a very high level every year.
As far as the press conference is concerned, this was supposed to be a time that A-Rod was going to clear the air and move on with this baseball season. I don’t think that happened. There are still many questions that need to be answered, and I believe that some new questions have come up. These questions will continue to be asked until the answers finally surface. The distraction surrounding this team is that these same inquiries will be asked to all of his teammates.
There will always be the black cloud surrounding him, but unlike those other players, he has many more years, barring major injury, to turn his image around.
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