Monday, February 09, 2009

Zen Dayley: All the news about Rodriguez is a lot of Huey

Don't call him A-Rod, A-Roid, A-Fraud, A-Hole (nice one, New York Post), or even A-Bastard.

It should be just plain Alex Rodriguez. The first thing you do, since it would take too long to kill all the lawyers, is to strip away all the iconography and just realize Rodriguez is a very flawed man; he's. Marvin Miller was right all along when he said the ballplayers' union never, ever should have agreed to any drug testing.

How reasonable is it to wonder if Rodriguez, who is choosing the beg forgiveness route, knew this might be coming out and if that influenced his choice to play for the Dominican Republic in the World Baseball Classic? One might have little to do with the other, but the Dominicans play their round-robin games in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Team USA's first games are in Toronto. One is a little cheaper for a media outlet to send someone to these days.

Here's a fairly representative collection of the thoughts today;

Deadspin: "Well, that's everyone. Any baseball player who has done anything notable in the last ten years did so while hopped up on goofballs. So I guess baseball is canceled now?"

Craig Calcaterra, ShysterBall: "In any event, it is my view that long after the Alex Rodriguez-specific portion of this drama has played itself out with an apology, a press conference, and a .300/.400/.600 season, this episode will be remembered mostly as the first known instance of the MLBPA truly betraying the interests of its own players. That, my friends, will have longer legs than anything else that broke on Saturday.

"And of course, let us spare no ill feelings when it comes to whoever in the government leaked this stuff. Look, I don't sit in my study wearing a tinfoil hat all day, but you don't have to be someone like that to wonder why, if the feds have had this information for years, it's only coming out now. To me this leak smells like a calculated and maybe even a vindictive move, designed to thrust the steroid story back into the public eye on the eve of Barry Bonds' trial ... it is certainly the case that the federal government's investigation of steroids in professional sports has gotten out of hand, both in terms of the reources spent and in the amount of zeal with which it is apparently being pursued."

Curt Schilling: "I'd be all for the 104 positives being named, and the game moving on if that is at all possible. In my opinion, if you don’t do that, then the other 600-700 players are going to be guilty by association, forever."

Bill Madden, New York Daily News: "(The Yankees) should do what's best for the organization:

"Cut him loose - no matter the cost.

"As difficult as it is to imagine eating $270 million, the Bombers will be making a statement, not just for the Yankee brand but for baseball as a whole.

"They will be applauded for it."

Anthony Rieber, Newsday: "... when A-Rod's name comes on the (Hall of Fame) ballot, whatever year that will end up being, I plan on voting for him, too, even if he breaks down at a news conference next week and admits sticking needles in his tush every year of his career.

" ... We just will never know who did and who didn't take steroids and HGH during the home-run happy 1990s and 2000s. Heck, we will never know who is and who isn't taking steroids and HGH today, since there is no test for HGH.

Jeff Blair: "The allegations surrounding Rodriguez won't kill baseball. In the end, it will be part of the price fans pay, like overpriced watered-down beer and lousy hot dogs. But make no mistake: This is the single most devastating development for the game since this whole process of self-analysis and self-flagellation started."

Scott Carson, sportsnet.ca: "Especially tough questions should be directed at (Gene) Orza (of the players' association - ed.), who we are led to believe, was giving certain players warnings about when random drug tests would be heading their way. Anyone that doesn’t find this inherently wrong probably also thinks that professional wrestling is real and that Charles Manson was just a misunderstood hippie. And the fact that Selig and Fehr knew of a positive test by A-Rod and chose to stifle that information, probably won’t sit too well with the politicians in Washington who have been trying to get to the bottom of this whole steroid mess.

"In the end, this will be all about spin and super agent Scott Boras will do everything within his power to protect his client and the millions of dollars that A-Rod represents to him. In due time, A-Rod will come forward and – hopefully – will truthfully give his side of the story. But with the verdict having already been handed down in the court of public opinion, it says here that no matter what Rodriguez tries to sell us, it won't amount to a hill of beans."

A Large Regular suggested whoever does the in-game music at various parks should play forgotten corporate rockers Huey Lewis and the News' I Want A New Drug when Rodriguez comes to bat. This is the first recorded instance of anyone wanting to hear Huey Lewis, and for that, Alex Rodriguez should burn, especially when he went to such great lengths in the past to say in not so few words, "I have never done steroids."

3 comments:

Mike Radoslav said...

Good job Neate! Baseball has a PR mess to clean up, there are plenty of questions the non-hardcore baseball fans will need answers to before the sport reclaims a positive light in the public eye (the hardcores will likely just grumble, but the casual fans...?)

I may be one of the few who really enjoyed Baseketball (own the DVD in fact), so to me it's just funny to see how well they went about predicting the future of sports :)

sager said...

"Soon it was commonplace for entire teams to change cities in search of greater profits. The Minneapolis Lakers moved to Los Angeles, where there are no lakes. The Oilers moved to Tennessee, where there is no oil. The Jazz moved to Salt Lake City, where they don't allow music. The Oakland Raiders moved to Los Angeles and then back to Oakland. No one in Los Angeles seemed to notice."

Mike Radoslav said...

"First they tried interleague play, then intersports play..." (cuts to a clip of a pitcher throwing to a batter dressed in full football gear, the batter hits the ball into the outfield but before the Center Fielder can catch it he gets tackled by a free safety, and a ref runs in to rule the play incomplete)

Love it! :)