Hey A-Rod! Stop Talking!

Is it too late for the Yankees to hire someone to make sure that A-Rod never speaks?  You’d think somewhere along the line that this guy would have learned how to handle the media, yet amazingly this has somehow eluded him throughout his career despite being the most scrutinized player in the game today (read: since Barry fell out of the league).  The things he says are just ridiculous, or at least they are made out to be.  It’s getting to the point where he needs to be locked in his house and only let out when it’s time to swing a bat, or so they would have you believe.

It amazes me how this man can be so naïve after the beating he has taken in the media over the years.  It seems like every year, as we’re turning the clocks back, A-Rod comes through with an idiotic quote, giving the talking heads a foundation to build their attacks on for the rest of the season. 

It’s not that what he says is wrong, he just says too much, and the way he goes about getting his message across is a little unorthodox, to say the least.  Take last winter for instance.  The big story of the offseason was his deteriorating relationship with Derek Jeter.   All he had to say to the media was that they are still friends but they aren’t as close as they used to be.  Instead, it turned into a full blown fiasco, which resulted in one of the most infamous quotes of all time.

“The reality is there’s been a change in the relationship over 14 years and, hopefully, we can just put it behind us.”  Rodriguez explained.  “You go from sleeping over at somebody’s house five days a week, and now you don’t sleep over. It’s just not that big of a deal.”

If he would have just ended at ‘put it behind us’ he would have been fine.  That’s all he needed, but, in classic A-Rod fashion, he went too far and used some wild analogy.  It’s never a good look for a grown man to talk about having slumber parties with their buddies.  The truth is, A-Rod never meant to paint that image, but he should have known how the media likes to take things out of context and imply the worst. 

After that whole incident it seemed that he learned his lesson for the most part.  Save for a little hiccup a few weeks ago, he’s gotten by fairly well since then.  Apparently it was just an illusion, otherwise the conversation he had with columnist John Harper never would have happened.

“I went for the contract when my true desire was to go play for the Mets,” Rodriguez said of his decision to ink his $252 million deal with Texas eight years ago. As A-Rod looked back on the events of the past offseason, he seemed haunted by the idea that in breaking free of the Yankees he could have made another decision based strictly on money and wound up as unhappy as he was in Texas for three years. … “So to make the right decision just feels really good,” Rodriguez said, “versus being taken down a road where I’m like, ‘Oh, my God, where am I? Oh, $400 million to play in some place I hate? Great, I’ll blow my — head off.’
John Harper - New York Daily News

If you ask me it’s not as bad as it really looks.  The talking heads are going crazy, saying A-Rod is just all about the money and doesn’t care about winning, but that’s not it at all.

It’s no secret that this guy loves money, but who doesn’t?  I feel like people are too hard on him for being paid premium dollar.  It’s not his fault people are throwing these large sums of money at him.  Chances are if I put a quarter billion dollars on a table, a lot of you would do a lot worst then playing baseball for the Texas Rangers. 

That’s not what this about, though.  We constantly plead for our athlete’s to be honest with us, and that’s all he’s doing.  What this man is saying is that he made a mistake, and he’s learned from it.  He was 25-years-old and made a decision to assure that his grandchildren would have financial security, I can respect that, but now all he wants to do is win, which I respect even more. 

I know that he cried and whined during his tenure with the Rangers, which makes it a little hard to defend him, but I see a man that is older, wiser, and dedicated to getting a ring.  This is the very reason why he distanced himself from Scott Boras.  Give him a break.

There’s plenty of other things to go after this guy for, but this comment shouldn’t be one of them.