Alex Rodriguez always struck me as being more ditzy than despicable. More tone-deaf than a terrible human being.
Part of this is because I made peace with the use of steroids and performance-enhancing drugs years ago, a qualifier I feel still needs to be made because a remarkably high number of folks still can’t or won’t.
It’s also said with a realization that for Toronto Blue Jays fans the image of A-Rod hitting home runs against them stands out less than his role in what should have been a routine out in a game on May 30, 2007.
A-Rod destroyed the Blue Jays less than most of the game’s big sluggers — his Rogers Centre power-numbers were hardly awe-inspiring and his average here was one of the worst posted in visiting ballparks — to the point where he’s remembered more here for his infamous shout at Howie Clark while he ran past the journeyman infielder as he was settling under a Jorge Posada pop-up. Clark pulled away thinking teammate John McDonald had called for the ball. But he hadn’t. The Yankees rallied to win and A-Rod later said he might have said ‘ha’ or some such drivel. It was cheap. Tawdry. It was A-Rod.
And now it seems he wants to buy the New York Mets.
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There were, of course, many faces of the steroid era. Some have enjoyed a kind of serendipitous anonymity as suspects, all the way into the Hall of Fame in some cases. But others have been publicly stained, either by admission or suspension. Andy Pettitte became beloved because of a painful, public acknowledgement of human growth hormone use and when his career ended he was one of the game’s grand old men, welcomed today in every ballpark and schoolyard. Pettitte was unfailingly gracious to everyone before and after his admission and didn’t burn through one per cent of the currency he’d accumulated. Mark McGwire’s trembly-lipped appearance before Congress preceded a silent disappearance before a low-key return as a hitting coach. Barry Bonds made a bizarre return in 2016 as a hitting coach with the Miami Marlins but was so lazy he just kind of — poof! — evaporated into the ether.
But A-Rod just keeps coming back. Few great athletes have been as chronically unable to get the hell out of their own way. Bonds didn’t need no stinking pandemic to master social-distancing. He was practising that on his long, sad, assault of Henry Aaron’s career home run record — but he at least had a home-field advantage in San Francisco. Giants fans made a deal with the devil: he’s here, he’s ours, might as well cheer for him. A-Rod never had that. A-Rod always seemed an impediment, specifically to New York Yankees fans. I would argue that no athlete in the history of North American sports spent as much of their career being treated as an unwanted houseguest in his own stadium or arena.
Yet now he’s on TV as an analyst… and a really good one at that, so good that a lot of us remember those few interviews he’d do every now and then where you’d come away thinking: this guy is a freaking hitting savant. He’s generously tossed millions of bucks into his alma mater, the University of Miami, and has somehow become a financial maven. Far from being blackballed, he’s greeted with open arms around the batting cage. Commissioner Rod Manfred doesn’t run from him. Neither does anybody else. He’ll be eligible for the Hall of Fame in 2021 and while he won’t get in on the first ballot, I’m willing to bet he gets more love the first time out than either Bonds or Roger Clemens. Just watch.
As for purchasing the Mets? The interest he and Jennifer Lopez have in doing so is now a matter of public record. They are, it is said, lining up financing. In the end, my guess is the fact that the Wilpon family’s desire to hive off and retain ownership of Sportsnet New York — the Mets’ flagship cable network that is both a financial and artistic success, in stark comparison to the team itself — and their apparent failure to realize that they have a distressed asset is going to make this tough for J-Rod to navigate even if Jenny From The Block keeps A-Rod away from the sharp objects and instead makes him go colour at the kitchen table or do some vacuuming. The Mets stink, but that ballpark is pretty swell and once baseball comes out of this pandemic the last thing the commissioner’s office will do is allow a fire-sale. Because if the Mets don’t get market value…
At any rate, I’d love to see this sale come off. It’s not a matter of finding it amusing to cheer for chaos; the pandemic has kind of taken the fun out of that particular pastime. Rather, it’s that baseball needs as many savvy, diverse owners and faces as it can find. If J-Lo wants to be that face and bring along the dingbat fiancé? So be it.
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QUIBBLES AND BITS
• Speaking of A-Rod, it was 16 years ago Sunday that he was traded from the Rangers to the Yankees in return for Alfonso Soriano, three seasons after he’d signed a 10-year, $252-million free-agent contract with the Rangers. It was thought by many that Soriano was going to be one of the next great Yankees cornerstones after coming close to a 40-40 year in 2002 (he hit 39 bombs and stole 41 bases) but he ended up being traded two years later to the Nationals for three members of that team that moved to D.C. from Montreal: Brad Wilkerson, Terrmel Sledge and Armando Galarraga.
• I guess I’d know this if I paid more than passing attention to the NFL, but as someone who grew up not liking the Raiders but loving their scraggly-haired, dirt-bag quarterback Ken (The Snake) Stabler and then watching Steve Young pass his way to the Hall of Fame, it surprised me to find out that Tua Tagovailoa is the first left-handed quarterback to be selected in the first round since Tim Tebow (woof!) in 2010 and that no lefty passer has started an NFL game since Kellen Moore in 2017.
Stabler (second round, 52nd overall, 1968); Young (first round, supplemental draft, 1984) and fellow long-term lefties Jim Zorn (undrafted); Mark Brunell (fifth round, 118th overall, 1993) and Boomer Esiason (second round, 38th overall, 1984) were all later round picks. Michael Vick, of course, was the first pick overall in 2001, while Michael Penix, Jr. of Indiana is on scouts’ radar for next season. I mean, I probably should have been aware that there’s a righty bias in field positioning and offensive line construction but considering how in other sports being a lefty either provides an edge, is a complementary skill-set or no great shakes one way or another, it’s just kind of weird.
• Speaking of lefty QBs: Bobby Douglass of the Bears, everyone.
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• I get that the province of Alberta and its public health officials have given themselves enough wiggle room to make it possible that Edmonton is one of the regional host cities should the NHL and NHLPA return to play, as was reported last week. I also understand that allowing 70-100 odd people to play in and run a game behind closed doors is different than packing in folks to watch the Calgary Stampede but, man: good luck getting the folks in Calgary to swallow Edmonton holding NHL games while they’re left with a whole lot of nothing.
• Among the things I wonder about: when this is all said and done — whenever it’s all said and done — will North American reporters continue to enjoy the locker room access they have taken for granted?
Considering Major League Baseball general managers have tried for more than a decade to end reporter access before games only to receive push-back from the commissioner’s office, my guess is this particular crisis will see reporter access either shut out or greatly increased. Players have little to gain from reporter access any more — social media takes care of that — and with leagues running their own websites and networks looking to squeeze every ounce of revenue out of their rights purchases … well, two plus two equalled four even before Rudy Gobert jokingly touched all those microphones and turned into Typhoid Mary.
I expect this is going to be a flashpoint soon. It’s an easy mark considering the wider public won’t have a great deal of sympathy for reporters.
• I asked one player agent this weekend whether he’s concerned baseball owners and players are going to have a difficult time agreeing on salary adjustments if the game returns with no fans in attendance. Baseball clubs generate more revenue from in-stadium attendance — between 30-35 per cent — than any of the other major sports leagues. “If they treat this like a crisis, they’ll come together and get an agreement. If they view it as a collective bargaining session and try to draw lines in the sand, we’re screwed,” he responded. It’s remarkable how concerned some in the industry are that the two sides are going to pooch this.
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THE ENDGAME
It is no great surprise that North American sports leagues are keeping a collective eye on what is going on with European soccer leagues, since it can be argued that the nature of holding soccer matches behind closed doors has more in common with, say, the NHL, NBA or MLS than the baseball games currently being played in Taiwan and, soon, Korea.
The reporting last week on La Liga’s proposal to kickstart Spanish soccer — all 23 pages of it — and details surrounding the Bundesliga’s planned return, which could include 15-minute stoppages for players to change masks, show the practical and logistical hurdles to actually conducting games, beyond those involved in limiting the amount of movement to and from stadiums.
No wonder, then, that while Italy’s prime minister on Sunday raised hopes of Serie A fans by greenlighting sports teams to resume training next week on an individual basis, with group training possible two weeks later, the brakes were tapped ever so slightly on what seemed to be a desire by La Liga to actually get ahead of Spain’s gradual re-opening.
That country’s health minister, Salvador Illa, announced a moratorium was being placed on player testing for now and suggested there may not be any organized sports in the country until July. The Bundesliga, meanwhile, is awaiting final government clearance which could come on Thursday amidst signs that the optimism of a May 9 start might be premature. As part of the negotiations with the Italian government, Serie A teams have reportedly agreed to a “testing neutral” plan where teams would agree to purchase a replacement test for each test used.
But coupled with the NBA’s apparent willingness to allow teams to open training centres depending on jurisdictional approval, the way forward seems thus: as a first step, small training groups of five or less followed by larger groups and then actual games.
Jeff Blair hosts Writers Bloc with Stephen Brunt and Richard Deitsch from 2-5 p.m. ET on Sportsnet 590 The Fan. You can also hear the show live on the Sportsnet app at Sprtsnt.ca/590listen or tell Google or Alexa to “play Sportsnet 590.” Rate, review and subscribe to the podcast at here.
