Say It Ain't So - Redux

Okay, I Admit It, I Stayed Up Late To Watch The Grilling

So I watched the statement on video, and I watched the other bits of the Q&A. A-Rod really does himself no favors. He's a terrible interviewee in that he looks evasive all the time. It makes it hard for anybody not to lend the basic charity of understanding to his statement. Instead it provokes more questions than answers, and frankly, do we want more dodgy answers to what is already a dodgy situation? I think I've had my fill.

For A-Rod's part, we have to concede a few things to him. He's given the most outspoken admission in Baseball apart from Jose Canseco. He's come cleaner than McGwire, Bonds, Sosa, Palmeiro, Clemens, and even Pettitte and Giambi. Asking for more detail is a little unfair given that he was outed through the inaction/incompetence/faith-breaking of the MLB and MLBPA combined, and the US government that subpoenaed those results.And it's only because some body leaked them that we're all here saying "say it ain't so A-Rod and where's your fucking mea culpa?"

That's right: Let's not forget that the public was not to be privy to this information from 2003, and now that it is, we're collectively making A-Rod pay for all those 104 names. It's way too rich for the press to claim some kind of high ground as it accuses A-Rod of being evasive. And those 103 other guys sure are getting off lightly. They need to send A-Rod a very big Christmas hamper for taking ALL the heat.

As for the Yankees, they seem to be getting very tired of these PED-admissions-biennale. Giambi's "sorry, but I can't admit to what I did" thing was one thing; Pettitte saying, "yes I did, but only once' was another; now with A-Rod saying "I was young, naive and stupid, I wish I'd gone to college where they teach you this stuff" routine must have had the Yankee brass' collective stomachs churning. I like how Cashman said he liked it when A-Rod emphasised the 'stupid' part more than the 'young' part. Indeed, good sir.

Many people give Brian Cashman a hard time for being the GM of the team with the highest pay-roll, as if he's got some wasy, cushy job; but it's in these moments that I think he's gold. He sure doesn't sugar-coat things. If having to organise these horrible moments for the press with a marquee, mics, PA, etc. every couple of years, front up and keep a straight face when you want to chew the players' heads off for their stupidity... I think it would be tough. Really. You have to take your hat off to the man.

Phil Pepe sasy it's a different kind of Bronx Zoo now, but it's  a Zoo all the same. I tend to agree with that easy summation too. I think about those guys now and it seems a world away. I mean, imagine if it turned out Reggie Jackson was on steroids when he hit those 3 homers in that World Series game in 1977? This is a little bit like that hypothetical. Pardon the jokey pun, but this is the Bronx Zoo on steroids. :)

If one had 10 lifetimes, in one of them I think we'd all like to have been an elite athlete. I would've loved to have been the slugging 3B for the Yankees. I wanted to be like Graig Nettles, y'know? Crack some homers, crack some funnies at the journos. He was the man!

When the current guy filling the job description turns out to be a media-circus scandal-sheet-headline and bad-PR rolled into one entity, you wonder how such an endowed human being who is living  dream, turn his dream into such a nightmare? I mean, how do you fuck up something so good, so right royally A-Rod?

*Ugh*. But today is another day. The players are filling into spring training. There are sounds of balls being hit. The guys who got signed look good, the injured guys from last year look fresh, the guys looking to make the team look keen and pretty soon it will be the regular season!

What do the Yankees have going? They have a lineup that has A-Rod and Tex in the heart. It might be the best combo since Mantle-Maris. You'd think this thing has got to score a lot of runs. I hope they kill the league pitching. I really do - as I do every year.