Quelle Horreur! Our pal Emma defends Alex Rodriguez:
In the wake of the Biogenesis clinic scandal, Major League Baseball would plainly love to see Alex Rodriguez ride off into the sunset. And lord knows the Yankees would like to get out of the massive payments they owe their injured and PED-tainted albatross. There’s just one small problem: The evidence simply isn’t there, at least not yet. Maybe you believe that’s because it never existed; maybe you believe Rodriguez paid to have it destroyed, as “sources familiar with MLB’s investigation” have told ESPN. Either way, though, that means Rodriguez is probably not going away any time soon. Which means we — me, you, the media, the Yankees, the league — are going to have to make some sort of peace with his continued presence in the game, or risk going completely insane.
Given all that, the battle that Major League Baseball is waging against Alex Rodriguez — its own star, and not so long ago one of its most marketable — is, if not quite unprecedented, still fairly astounding. Some obvious comparisons leap to mind: Pete Rose, of course, and Shoeless Joe Jackson, who were each banned from the game. Yet neither hung around for years being loathed before their sentences were handed down, and both have plenty of defenders, even now. By the end of his career, MLB was none too fond of Barry Bonds, who felt (not without reason) that he was being blacklisted and forced into retirement; other PED users have also gotten a cold shoulder, but some, like Mark McGwire and Jason Giambi, have been forgiven. And Bonds and A-Rod’s fellow Biogenesis-linked bête noir Ryan Braun at least has a home team and fanbase that appreciates and enjoys him.
The same cannot be said of Rodriguez. It has been suggested that he should be banned from baseball, that he should be arrested, that he should be sued — just about everything short of Yankees general manager Brian Cashman killing him and making it look like an accident for the insurance money, and a poll would probably find some fans supporting that, too. There’s so much piling on, it’s almost enough to make you take the unnatural step of defending the guy.
Between some of the garbage written about A-Rod being history's greatest monster, and the CHB's asinine screed against Big Papi (though to his credit, the CHB actually questioned Papi in the clubhouse*), it's enough to make a person not want to read the columnists in some of the papers anymore. Sheesh.
There are so many terrific beat writers - Chad Jennings, Andy McCullough, Tim Britton, among others - who double as great writers, that I eagerly look forward to the day when they replace the drivel.
*and to Papi's credit, he didn't beat the CHB to a bloody pulp, which Carl Everett almost certainly would have done; dude knows how to handle the Boston media, and I respect the heck out of him for that, no matter how much I wish he would stop hitting and retire already
[1] Way ahead of you in not reading certain columnists, but to me personally it's become a blanket condemnation of the whole profession. I simply do not enjoy reading about sports anymore because of the predominant negativity in the coverage (fueled by corporate greed perhaps, perhaps not), which has in my mind obscured the writers who resisted that and write from a more balanced perspective. I guess I'm alone on this, but I have other things to be preoccupied by besides blowhard negativity. At some point I'd like to see the greater writers hold themselves and each other accountable for the problems they are generating for themselves, if they even see that there is a problem.
Some people seem to like baseball for the celebrity/gossip/scandal aspects. I don't get it. I try to focus on the game on the field and ignore this nonsense.
First place in the division. We don't have Granderson, Texiera, Jeter, Arod, a legit hitting catcher and we do have a starting rotation that is inconsistent. Yet we are still in first place!
I don't know how this team is winning. Based on our Pythagorean, we should be in 4th place in our division:
http://www.baseballprospectus.com/standings/index.php?dispgroup=div&standings_sort=pct3
Yes, I know it's still early. But if we get Texeira and Granderson back, that really should help our offense and defense -- assuming Grandy plays left field, not center.
Yeah, the pythagorean record worries me.
I hope getting those guys back helps enough to compensate. And Youk.