Nobody around here is going to sniff at Derek Jeter winning SI’s Sportsman of the Year honor. That’d be like moaning about Paul Newman finally winning an Oscar for The Color of Money. Over in the Post, however, Joel Sherman wonders if Alex Rodriguez isn’t a better cherce:
Sports Illustrated should not run from an atmosphere it helped create. After all, SI is the entity that outed A-Rod as a steroid cheat.
And Rodriguez should win this award. He embodies where sports are now. He is the intersection of illegal performance enhancers, advancements in sports medicine, celebrity and on-field genius.
Rodriguez could end up in People or US Weekly because of Madonna, Kate Hudson or his inner Centaur. Or he could end up in the New England Journal of Medicine for his rapid, successful return from major hip surgery. He could be in a game of shadows over “boli” or playing his game, baseball, brilliantly.
And his 2009 story also included redemption. He became a better teammate — less obsessed with himself — and as the hitting star of the postseason, he freed himself from the choking shackles.
