Starting Five
1. “The Show”, Indeed
How many of these baseballs are currently available on eBay?
We are, alas, the product of our actions and of our choices. As Alex Rodriguez, once the brightest baseball nova in the galaxy, has discovered. A-Rod returned to “The Show” last night (disproving my assertion that he’d never play for the Yankees again) despite being banned by baseball for 211 games –through the end of next season — just a few hours earlier.
How convenient –serendipitous? coincidental? orchestrated? –that A-Rod was finally cleared to play and inserted into a Major League lineup after baseball had an opportunity to mete its harshest PED-related suspension in history. A-Rod’s suspension does not formally begin until Thursday, but he may continue playing for the bound-for-the-playoffs stumbling-toward-.500 Yanks until the appeals process is completed, which may take awhile.
Stuff:
1) The Captain, Derek Jeter, was not in the lineup, as he returned to the DL with a strained calf. So those two still have yet to take the field together since Game 1 of the 2012 ALDS.
2) Last night’s pre-game presser was, effectively, A-Rod’s final at-bat. And he whiffed. If Rodriguez had admitted to PED use, said, “See ya’ in 2015”, then metaphorically dropped the mic and exited, it would have won him a legion of fans. Instead he spoke fluent lawyerese and continued to be the disingenuous, bordering on phony, superstar athlete that fans have long accused him of being. To think that 13 other ballplayers accepted a minimum of 50 games as their suspension (former MVP Ryan Braun took more) for their connection with the Biogenesis clinic and that A-Rod is fighting his is just one more strike against his legacy.
3) ESPN analyst and former MLB All-Star pitcher Rick Sutcliffe before last night’s game: “He’s just going to flat-out embarrass himself by trying to play at the big-league level.” Did you ever think you’d hear someone say that about A-Rod, a three-time MVP?
“Dude, I knew we should have taken this class on-line.”
4) Yankee manager Joe Girardi pulled a Pope Francis when asked about A-Rod, saying, “I’m not here to judge people.” Girardi plans to celebrate mass this afternoon for a congregation of thousands on Oak Street Beach.
5) A-Rod spoke last night, as he often does, about celebrating the game of baseball and the people who play it. About taking the spotlight off him. The facts are these, however. He opted out of his first gargantuan contract with the Yankees during the deciding game of the 2007 World Series between the Red Sox and Rockies, or at least that is when his then-agent Scott Boras announced it. And he will become the biggest story in baseball for the remainder of the season, overshadowing stories such as the Pittsburgh Pirates’ and Kansas City Royals’ drive for a playoff berth.
6) Will New Yorker boo A-Rod in his return to Yankee Stadium this weekend? They’re already booing Mark Sanchez at Jets training camp, so fuggedaboutit.
7) First, Lance Armstrong. Now, A-Rod. The Sportsman of the Year may just be Karma.
2) “People Who Bought The Washington Post Also Bought…”
— Cheers to Mark Ennis (@Mengus22) for that line
WaPo: Add To Cart
The founder of Amazon.com, Jeff Bezos, personally purchases The Washington Post for $250 million. Each issue of the newspaper will now feature customer reviews and should reach your mailbox in three to five days. I know. The jokes are so obvious it’s almost redundant to print them.
3) Pet Shop Boys
Rule No. 58: Never sleep above an exotic pet shop. A python escaped from its cage at the Reptile Ocean exotic pet store in New Brunswick, Canada, slithered through a vent, and then strangled two young boys who were sleeping in a room above the store. Snakes: notoriously silent creatures.
4. MediumHappy.awesome?
The Washington Post –Jeff Bezos’ publication — has a story about how the list of domain suffixes is about to expand greatly. Another internet land grab is upon us.
5. It Goes To 11
The Atlanta Braves’ win streak, that is. The Braves beat Stephen Strasburg and the Washington Nationals last night, even though SS allowed just two earned runs (he has allowed two or fewer runs in three of his past four starts, all Nats losses). The Detroit Tigers have a nine-game win streak going, while the Kansas City Royals, perhaps most impressively, have lost just once in the past 13 games.
Gettin’ Miggy with it…
The Royals’ top hitter, in terms of average? Second baseman Miguel Tejada, 39, who is playing for his fifth team in the past four seasons. Tejada, hitting .298, was out of the game a year ago after failing to make the Orioles’ big-league roster.
Detroit, the city, may be bankrupt, but its baseball team may be the best in baseball. Instead of auctioning the Detroit Museum’s artwork, the Motor City may just want to see what it can get in exchange for Max Scherzer. If teams want to play that “We’re part of the community fabric” card when lobbying for a publicly-financed stadium, here’s one franchise’s chance to demonstrate that is a two-way street.
Baseball is a lot like the title of the Counting Crows’ debut album: August and Everything After is all that really matters. Unless you think it’s more like an Earth, Wind & Fire song: “September.”
Reserves
Zimmer: Does NOT have a plate in her skull.
If you think the woman playing Mitt Romney’s press secretary on “The Newsroom” looks familiar, that’s because she played Ari Gold’s paramour-or-less and frequent sparring partner on “Entourage.” The actress, Constance Zimmer, is 43 and has that rare distinction of having used the F-word on two different HBO series.
What I find interesting is how quickly Aaron Sorkin scrapped the toolbag Romney dude in favor of Zimmer as Jim’s adversary on the campaign trail in New Hampshire. The best possible explanation is that there will be some smoldering sexual tension between the two later in the series. Good thing for her that her name is not Evan. He hates that name. Almost everyone does.
Full disclosure: I have never been a fan of Alex Rodriguez. With that out of the way, he did not improve his position yesterday. Yes, I agree with what everyone is saying, all the standard stuff; he should have come clean, he should have apologized, he should shown some shame, remorse, etc. Had he I would have just kept him on my non-fan list. But no, he had to state “I’m fighting for my life” and quickly moved to a list I have yet to name. This is a man who has gotten so far from reality that no amount of navigational tools could help him to find his way back. “I’m fighting for my life.” Really? Without the drugs he was already a talented athlete who would have made millions playing a beloved game and had opportunities and privileges afforded to the very few who make it to “the show.” That was apparently not enough and Alex Rodriguez made a choice. He made a choice to cheat. To lie. To deceive. And now he’s facing the consequences of his choice. There are actually people who have lived good lives, normal lives, lives with mediocre jobs, with mediocre salaries, with families, mortgages, and all the rest of it who literally one day, through no fault of their own, actually find themselves fighting for their lives. In ERs. In cancer wards. In situations they never saw coming and no matter what they do, no matter how hard they fight, no matter how well they have lived their lives to this point, no matter their age or situation, they are not going to survive. By saying that he is “fighting for his life” Alex Rodriguez insults them, dishonor them, mocks them, and all the rest of us too. If only the people who are truly fighting for their lives could get an appeal and pending that appeal go back to living the lives they valued and were grateful for, mortgages, regular salaries, the minutiae of daily life and all. Maybe one day Alex Rodriguez, after taking all those drugs and knowing the risks, might actually be fighting for his life. I wouldn’t wish that on my worst enemy but it might just be the only thing that will teach this man some humility.
Interesting thing about the Royals, I believe they are now 15-3 since AS Break and because Tigers are 14-4, they’ve made up only one game.
I think you overlook very fundamental, important points:
1) We don’t know the quality, reliability, or provenance of the Biogenesis “evidence”; until we do…
2) he’s entitled to due process, as defined by the CBA and/or the Joint Drug Agreement. That hasn’t played out. One might not like the fact that (if he loses after due process) Arod’s considered a “first offender. One might not like the fact that the CBA/Joint Drug has a defined due process, or it’s precise definition of due process. If, indeed, one is at all bothered by these (or other) elements, then one needs to recognize realize that, in all this, A-Rod is not the only Major Chump.
3) The other Major Chumps are Bud Selig (Owners) and MLBPA. They together set all this up. And together they have backed themselves into a corner. Owners have “rolled” for years in a “wink-wink” system which (convenient to both sides) had Arbitrator “Wink-Wink” Das making decisions. And remember, decisions he made IN FAVOR of players never reached the light of day, so we never knew how many players he let off. (Das’ favorable Braun decision was made public through a back door.) And recall the phony outrage from owner’s when Das let Braun off, including strong affirmations that appeal would surely follow, and that Das’ decision would be made public in 30 days – Never happened. Owners and players at the time (relatively recently) were colluding, not to solve the problem honestly, but to continue to hide it, while trying to make the public believe otherwise.
Only the Biogenesis explosion exposed this “collusion to hide” between owners and MLBPA.
So I think MLBPA and owners are bigger chumps than His Royal Chumpness A-Rod. They thought they had successfully finessed the whole issue, til they got caught by Biogenesis.
And I’ll offer two less evidence-based speculations:
1) MLBPA might be the No. 1 Chump in all this; the owners didn’t have the evidence, or sway, to get thoroughly effective CBA/Joint Drug elements in place, which resulted in the wink-wink system;
2) The owners are probably over-reacting, by imposing on A-rod a period of suspension which is materially in excess of periods suggested by a combination of CBA/Joint Drug, for first-time offenders, because they earnestly want to force the hand – and embarrass- the too-powerful MLBPA, with the goal of insuring that, going forward, MLBPA will feel a force of public opinion will mitigate toward adoption of the most highly effective controls and sanctions possible.
A-Rod is the face and product of a dishonest system.