My final thought on this before hopefully moving on to baseball this week is this-
Yes, Rodriguez took steroids. So did Pettitte, and we cheered him. So did Giambi, and we had mustache day at the Stadium.
Yankee fans are going to have to get over the fact that Rodriguez took steroids. We have to rally around our team and support them. There was going to be more than enough vitriol coming from all angles this season anyway, now it's going to be tenfold. It will be detrimental to the team to boo A-Rod, so get over it.
You know if this was David Ortiz, or Josh Beckett, or Kevin Youkilis, that the fans in Boston would have their back. We've got to be able to stick up for our team, no matter how much we probably dislike the player.
This team is too good to have it torpedoed by some stupid bullshit from six years ago.
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Roberts, Harvey Dent, San Mariano de Panama
Yes she got the story, and was obviously right about it. That doesn't change the fact that Selena Roberts is a self serving bitch.
She buried the Duke Lacrosse kids a few years ago during the entire proceeding. Even after they were exonerated, she refused to paint the kids in a positive light. Her bleeding heart attitude toward the poor stripper who falsely accused college kids of rape says a lot about her character. (Side note- is there anything more brazenly selfish than making up a rape charge? It destroys the character of who you are talking about and is a slap in the face to anybody who has had to deal with actually being raped. That's disgusting.)
I'm sure Rodriguez is telling some form of truth about how aggressive she was while "investigating" him. Get on Rodriguez all you want, "this lady" is no saint in this. She wasn't doing this for journalistic integrity or righteousness. She's been writing a book about Rodriguez and has been trying to dig up dirt on him.
If her sources can get her one name, her sources can get her the rest of the names. She didn't push for it because she got the name that will sell her books.
I can't help but compare Alex Rodriguez to the Harvey Dent character from the Dark Knight. He was supposed to be the one who rescued us from the evil of steroids by making the homerun record pure again. But in the process he was corrupted by the evil around him, and became the poster child for the problem. The problem is there is no Batman to fall on the sword for A-Rod, and Two Face is now known publicly.
This whole mess has left me even more cynical than I was before about professional athletes. The only two guys left who it would kill me to hear took steroids are Jeter and Rivera. And even Jeter... it wouldn't be the most unbelievable thing in the world. Look at his rookie card vs. when he was banging Jessica Biel.
http://www.homeruncards.com/imagesrc/jeterud.jpg
http://rpjsyndicate.files.wordpress.com/2007/12/jeter_biel4.jpg
And his numbers in say, 1999, are way up there compared to everything else he's put up.
Sigh. Who knows. I hope he didn't.
That leaves me with Rivera, who I sincerely doubt has ever taken them. He's been consistently lanky and dominant his whole life. That's our hero in this mess.
She buried the Duke Lacrosse kids a few years ago during the entire proceeding. Even after they were exonerated, she refused to paint the kids in a positive light. Her bleeding heart attitude toward the poor stripper who falsely accused college kids of rape says a lot about her character. (Side note- is there anything more brazenly selfish than making up a rape charge? It destroys the character of who you are talking about and is a slap in the face to anybody who has had to deal with actually being raped. That's disgusting.)
I'm sure Rodriguez is telling some form of truth about how aggressive she was while "investigating" him. Get on Rodriguez all you want, "this lady" is no saint in this. She wasn't doing this for journalistic integrity or righteousness. She's been writing a book about Rodriguez and has been trying to dig up dirt on him.
If her sources can get her one name, her sources can get her the rest of the names. She didn't push for it because she got the name that will sell her books.
I can't help but compare Alex Rodriguez to the Harvey Dent character from the Dark Knight. He was supposed to be the one who rescued us from the evil of steroids by making the homerun record pure again. But in the process he was corrupted by the evil around him, and became the poster child for the problem. The problem is there is no Batman to fall on the sword for A-Rod, and Two Face is now known publicly.
This whole mess has left me even more cynical than I was before about professional athletes. The only two guys left who it would kill me to hear took steroids are Jeter and Rivera. And even Jeter... it wouldn't be the most unbelievable thing in the world. Look at his rookie card vs. when he was banging Jessica Biel.
http://www.homeruncards.com/imagesrc/jeterud.jpg
http://rpjsyndicate.files.wordpress.com/2007/12/jeter_biel4.jpg
And his numbers in say, 1999, are way up there compared to everything else he's put up.
Sigh. Who knows. I hope he didn't.
That leaves me with Rivera, who I sincerely doubt has ever taken them. He's been consistently lanky and dominant his whole life. That's our hero in this mess.
Re-Tard
We all knew A-Rod was going to pass Barry Bonds one day, just not in this manner.
His interview with Peter Gammons confirms exactly what I've thought about him since this Madonna thing came out. Rodriguez is dumb. Really dumb.
Here he is, hands down the most talented guy in the league, putting shit in his body given to him by meatheads in Texas. Here he is, role model for what's special about the game, and he's still taking steroids before a survey test done by the MLB for steroids.
But why are we surprised? This is the guy who dissed his best friend Jeter in a magazine article for no reason. This is the guy who turned down the offer from the ready-to-win Mets to take more money from the Rangers. The guy who gave both his kids the same middle name, Alexander. He has two daughters.
He cheated on his supermodel wife with a butch stripper. Then he cheated on her with a singer who is more used up than everyone else on TMZ combined. The guy who listened to Scott Boras and thought it was a great idea to opt out of his contract, and do so during Game 4 of the World Series.
He bought into Kabbalah.
He is an idiot.
For this reason, I take him at his word that he took steroids without knowing exactly what it is. Fuck, Palmiero probably asked Alex to try out his brand new syringe kit.
A-Rod is the type of guy who would reply to the Nigerian prince via email, or comply with the wallet inspector.
The interview was basically a cakewalk for Alex and I'd imagine that if and when he meets with the New York media, he's going to have to do a lot better. He didn't specifically say when he started, he didn't specifically say who turned him on to it. Those are things he's absolutely going to have to address going forward. If he's trying to go the Andy Pettitte route, which is probably his best course of action, he's going to need to be 100% honest.
By not mentioning who introduced him to steroids, Rodriguez leads me to believe it was another ballplayer and not somebody from the gym. He didn't want to throw another union guy under the bus.
I don't buy that he got the wakeup call when he got a strained neck, or whatever bullshit that was about. He got the wakeup call when they made steroid testing mandatory for everyone in 2004. He's not that stupid.
But I also do not buy the idea that they made him the player he is.
He played in Texas and posted numbers that fall in line with his career averages when you take park considerations into account (ie. Texas is a bandbox, and that had more to do with his homerun numbers than any drug he took.)
He posted higher OPS+ numbers before he left Seattle, and twice in his four years with the Yankees.
Look. He got the richest contract in baseball history before he took steroids. The steroids did not make him a great player. You're not the number 1 overall pick, let alone playing in the big leagues at 18, because you're taking steroids. He is a great, great player.
Like I said with Bonds, it's a shame he took steroids. I'd have loved to see his numbers stack up cleanly with the greats in history, but that's an impossibility now.
To those fucking morons who are saying the Yankees should cut him loose, shut the fuck up. First off, he didn't test positive for steroids today. He did in 2003, before he was with the Yankees, anonymously. The Yankees have no grounds to get out of the contract. And if they tried to push it, they'd be laughed out of court.
Even ignoring of all that, why in God's name would the Yankees want to get out of his contract? He is still in the prime of his career. This isn't a washed up Jason Giambi we're talking about here. This is the best hitter in the American League. After all that work they put into fixing the hole in the lineup by getting Teixeira, they're going to get rid of the guy who lead the league in SLG% last year?
The Yankees (like the other teams in baseball) don't give a shit about past steroid use, they care about production going forward. It's why Giambi got a contract in Oakland, Pettitte is still in pinstripes, and A-Rod is going to be an integral part to Yankee success the next nine seasons. At least.
His interview with Peter Gammons confirms exactly what I've thought about him since this Madonna thing came out. Rodriguez is dumb. Really dumb.
Here he is, hands down the most talented guy in the league, putting shit in his body given to him by meatheads in Texas. Here he is, role model for what's special about the game, and he's still taking steroids before a survey test done by the MLB for steroids.
But why are we surprised? This is the guy who dissed his best friend Jeter in a magazine article for no reason. This is the guy who turned down the offer from the ready-to-win Mets to take more money from the Rangers. The guy who gave both his kids the same middle name, Alexander. He has two daughters.
He cheated on his supermodel wife with a butch stripper. Then he cheated on her with a singer who is more used up than everyone else on TMZ combined. The guy who listened to Scott Boras and thought it was a great idea to opt out of his contract, and do so during Game 4 of the World Series.
He bought into Kabbalah.
He is an idiot.
For this reason, I take him at his word that he took steroids without knowing exactly what it is. Fuck, Palmiero probably asked Alex to try out his brand new syringe kit.
A-Rod is the type of guy who would reply to the Nigerian prince via email, or comply with the wallet inspector.
The interview was basically a cakewalk for Alex and I'd imagine that if and when he meets with the New York media, he's going to have to do a lot better. He didn't specifically say when he started, he didn't specifically say who turned him on to it. Those are things he's absolutely going to have to address going forward. If he's trying to go the Andy Pettitte route, which is probably his best course of action, he's going to need to be 100% honest.
By not mentioning who introduced him to steroids, Rodriguez leads me to believe it was another ballplayer and not somebody from the gym. He didn't want to throw another union guy under the bus.
I don't buy that he got the wakeup call when he got a strained neck, or whatever bullshit that was about. He got the wakeup call when they made steroid testing mandatory for everyone in 2004. He's not that stupid.
But I also do not buy the idea that they made him the player he is.
He played in Texas and posted numbers that fall in line with his career averages when you take park considerations into account (ie. Texas is a bandbox, and that had more to do with his homerun numbers than any drug he took.)
He posted higher OPS+ numbers before he left Seattle, and twice in his four years with the Yankees.
Look. He got the richest contract in baseball history before he took steroids. The steroids did not make him a great player. You're not the number 1 overall pick, let alone playing in the big leagues at 18, because you're taking steroids. He is a great, great player.
Like I said with Bonds, it's a shame he took steroids. I'd have loved to see his numbers stack up cleanly with the greats in history, but that's an impossibility now.
To those fucking morons who are saying the Yankees should cut him loose, shut the fuck up. First off, he didn't test positive for steroids today. He did in 2003, before he was with the Yankees, anonymously. The Yankees have no grounds to get out of the contract. And if they tried to push it, they'd be laughed out of court.
Even ignoring of all that, why in God's name would the Yankees want to get out of his contract? He is still in the prime of his career. This isn't a washed up Jason Giambi we're talking about here. This is the best hitter in the American League. After all that work they put into fixing the hole in the lineup by getting Teixeira, they're going to get rid of the guy who lead the league in SLG% last year?
The Yankees (like the other teams in baseball) don't give a shit about past steroid use, they care about production going forward. It's why Giambi got a contract in Oakland, Pettitte is still in pinstripes, and A-Rod is going to be an integral part to Yankee success the next nine seasons. At least.
Monday, February 02, 2009
I can't think of a more uplifiting final post for 2008
I love that last post. Pretty much summarizes what happened the last two months of the season. A lot has happened since then. The Dev... Rays won the American League, the Yankees flexed their money muscles, and Joe Torre threw his former players under the bus.
You know all that, so I'll just hit on what's relevant right now. I've had the itch to write about this stuff for a few days now.
Up until Christmas, I was legitimately worried about the lineup. You don't know what you're getting from Posada and Matsui, and to a lesser extent Nady, Swisher, and Damon. Centerfield is a black hole offensively with Melky and Gardener, Jeter played hurt all year, Rodriguez had a down year without protection offensively, and Cano was miserable up until he was benched.
Then Cashman went all ninja and signed Teixeira from under the Red Sox noses, and cured lots of my fears. Not only were they able to replace Giambi's contract with Teixeira's, but you take what Giambi did well (batting eye, power) and add them to what Tex can do (glove, average, switch hitter). Perfect move, which bolsters the lineup and makes the infield defense (and pitching) better all over.
However, there's a catch here. Teixeira is a noted slow starter, and gets better as the season progresses. His OPS basically improves every month from .787 in April to .997 in September. Maybe Girardi gets him in shape and hitting early, but I wouldn't be surprised to see him start off similar to his career line, and have the media get on him right away.
The same seems to go for Sabathia, who's April numbers are not pretty on a whole. Add in the adjusting to NY bullshit that everyone goes through, and it could be a rough start. The biggest X-Factor to me is going to be Rodriguez. If he has his odd-numbered year MVP season, he'll make it easier on everyone in the lineup.
There's a million things to go over, and I will hit on some of them as spring training opens. Some of my favorites are the rotation and the bullpen.
Cashman has played this offseason as well as I could have hoped, so I'm looking forward to an outstanding season.
Just don't be shocked by a slow start. It's a road-heavy April, with trips to Tampa and Boston. If they come through the month a few games over .500, we'll be sitting pretty.
You know all that, so I'll just hit on what's relevant right now. I've had the itch to write about this stuff for a few days now.
Up until Christmas, I was legitimately worried about the lineup. You don't know what you're getting from Posada and Matsui, and to a lesser extent Nady, Swisher, and Damon. Centerfield is a black hole offensively with Melky and Gardener, Jeter played hurt all year, Rodriguez had a down year without protection offensively, and Cano was miserable up until he was benched.
Then Cashman went all ninja and signed Teixeira from under the Red Sox noses, and cured lots of my fears. Not only were they able to replace Giambi's contract with Teixeira's, but you take what Giambi did well (batting eye, power) and add them to what Tex can do (glove, average, switch hitter). Perfect move, which bolsters the lineup and makes the infield defense (and pitching) better all over.
However, there's a catch here. Teixeira is a noted slow starter, and gets better as the season progresses. His OPS basically improves every month from .787 in April to .997 in September. Maybe Girardi gets him in shape and hitting early, but I wouldn't be surprised to see him start off similar to his career line, and have the media get on him right away.
The same seems to go for Sabathia, who's April numbers are not pretty on a whole. Add in the adjusting to NY bullshit that everyone goes through, and it could be a rough start. The biggest X-Factor to me is going to be Rodriguez. If he has his odd-numbered year MVP season, he'll make it easier on everyone in the lineup.
There's a million things to go over, and I will hit on some of them as spring training opens. Some of my favorites are the rotation and the bullpen.
Cashman has played this offseason as well as I could have hoped, so I'm looking forward to an outstanding season.
Just don't be shocked by a slow start. It's a road-heavy April, with trips to Tampa and Boston. If they come through the month a few games over .500, we'll be sitting pretty.
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