The circus comes to Tampa in a little more than a week, and I don’t mean Ringling Bros. No, I mean Yankee spring training and all the fuss that will no doubt be surrounding Alex Rodriguez.
I’m sure you know by now that A-Rod has admitted taking performance-enhancers from 2001-2003 while with the Texas Rangers. He swears he has been clean since and has asked fans and history to judge him on his production before and after that stretch of years.
While he averaged almost 55 home runs and 139 RBIs during his first two seasons with the Rangers, Rodriguez claimed the first of his three American League MVP awards after the 2003 campaign, when he hit .298 with 47 homers and 118 RBIs.
On Tuesday, the Baseball Writers Association of America said it wouldn’t attempt to take that 2003 MVP back. In addition. Congress won’t be going after him either.
Most seem to think A-Rod did the right thing by admitting he did cheat in that interview with Peter Gammons. Guys like Jason Giambi (sort of) and Andy Pettitte both apologized and both were basically forgiven by the masses. But A-Rod is a different breed here, because everyone thought he was the savior from Barry Bonds holding the home run record.
Many fellow major leaguers have supported A-Rod’s decision to fall on his sword, while fellow Yankee Derek Jeter said Tuesday he wasn’t going to address the issue until the Yankees reported for spring training in Tampa next week.
“I’m not addressing Alex’s situation until everybody’s here,” the Yankee captain said. “If you’ve got baseball questions, I’ll do that. “You know where I’m coming from, right? I don’t want to talk to you guys today and have three more people show up tomorrow. It’s better to get everyone together.”
Rodriguez and the rest of New York’s position players must report to spring training by next Tuesday. Pitchers and catchers are due in Friday.
Frankly, Jeter looks even better right now among the Yankee faithful, although no one is above suspicion any longer.
So what does this mean to the 2009 Yankees, who are the +225 World Series favorites on WagerWeb.com?
Well, they aren’t going to try to get out of that contract with Rodriguez, and he won’t be disciplined by Major League Baseball. So on the field, on the surface, nothing changes.
But it was ego that drove A-Roid to choose to take steroids, and I believe it will be that same ego that pushes him to a huge season. He wants, needs to be loved by everyone. Well, that’s not going to be the case any longer, but he can put the first major imprint on the new Yankee Stadium. So he will turn to his numbers this season and going forward – clean numbers – to regain the respect of the fans and his peers. Yes, his postseason record hints that he doesn’t succeed under pressure, but I think this focuses him that much more during the season.
MLB Betting at WagerWeb.com
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