Wednesday, September 20, 2006

The Agony Of Being Slappy

Today, a great article from Tom Verducci of Sports Illustrated came out about the struggles of Alex Rodriguez, called, "A-Rod Agonistes." No matter where you stand on the subject of Rodriguez, it's worth your time to read it, and the New York media feeding frenzy has already begun on it.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2006/magazine/09/19/arod0925/index.html

There are a lot of great lines and quotes in it, like this one:

For 11 summers Rodriguez had been the master of self-sufficiency, a baseball Narcissus who found pride and comfort gazing upon the reflection of his beautiful statistics. His game, like his appearance, was wrinkle-free. Indeed, in December 2003, when the Red Sox were frantically trying to acquire Rodriguez from the Texas Rangers, several Boston executives called on Rodriguez in his New York hotel suite after 1 a.m. Rodriguez answered the door in a perfectly pressed suit, tie knotted tight to his stiff collar. The Red Sox officials found such polished attire at such a late hour odd, even unsettling.

And this:

"I can't help that I'm a bright person," he said last month. "I know that's not a great quote to give, but I can't pretend to play dumb and stupid."

And another:

"One thing people don't like," said one teammate, "is his body language. Too much of what he does on the field looks ... scripted."

It's without question an article that most people who follow baseball will be talking about. From the article, it sounds like Rodriguez is not exactly a beloved figure in the Yankee clubhouse (and the backhanded slaps he takes at teammates like Mike Mussina and Jason Giambi won't help his case). He sounds like a lonely man in that place, and he wants the whole world to love him. But he also sounds way too self-absorbed, which is hardly a rarity in any baseball clubhouse. Most Yankee fans see right through him, and have decided to beat him up for every little thing, whether deserved or not.

I'm not a Yankee fan. Rodriguez wears the pinstripes, and makes an eight-figure salary yearly. No sympathy from my corner of the world.

Take the time to read it, and reach your own conclusions.

7 comments:

Christine E. said...

Hey Q:

Well, THAT's 20 minutes of my life I'll never get back...LOL

Thanks for posting the link, and sharing your thoughts....no one was more happy than I when the A-Fraud to Boston deal fell through..it obvious he is clueless--and the funniest/saddest part of all is he has NO CLUE how clueless he really is...

Hope you are well!

We cannot lose to a man named Boof!

Go Sox!

BklynSoxFan said...

That's 3 hours of my life I'll never get back...watching the Sox lose to a guy named Boof!

Thanks for checking in Christine. Always nice hearing from you.

MattySox said...

Boof...I am now a Twins fan, at least as far as they'll go...if you've seen the great movie, "Beautiful Girls," you may remember the exchange where Michael Rappaport says to timothy Hutton, re: Noah Emmerich's character, "Look at Moe. Wife. Kids. He's done. And he couldn't be happier. He's like the retarded guy who's so retarded, so he doesn't even know he's retarded. So he's perfectly happy." I thought about that line while reading that article. It's no wonder his former teammates in Seattle and Texas refer to him as "The Cooler," as in, when he gets somewhere he cools the team down. What did Seattle and Texas do after he left? They got better. Some MVP.

Michael Leggett said...

A Suit & Tie @ 1:30 AM?

What planet does he think he lives on?

Michael Leggett said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Peter N said...

The planet AROD. Undiscovered planet always in the shadow of Jupiter. Unmarked, featureless, for the gravity field of the huge Jupiter has shielded it from asteroids, planatery objects, and common sense althogether. Riveting stuff Q.

Peter N said...

And thanks for the opening line, Michael. Couldn't resist.