The Short Straw

My really good article on A-Rod. Just because it’s sports doesn’t mean it’s not smart. And I’m just arrogant enough to believe what follows is.

I know how many followers I lose whenever I post about sports but God damn people, we can be hipster tumblrs AND like sports. Many of my favorite blogs are just that, and you guys follow me too! Hey guys, you know who you are. Anyway, here’s how I feel about Alex Rodriguez.

Ian O’Connor, a member of the notoriously douchee New York Media, just published an article for ESPN (notably biased toward the Red Sox btw) under the headline 

“A-Rod can’t inject meaning into No. 600”

Mr. O’Connor claims A-Rod and his dubious past and admitted steroid use has completely “ruined the experience for everyone, most notably himself…” 

Dude, did you see the home run? Did you hear that crowd, did you see the entire team come out of the dugout and hug the guy? Derek Jeter, a man the New York Media has claimed once shared a deep friendship with Alex whic somehow went sour after Alex reportedly became an ass-hole completely out of the blue, Jeter and A-Rod hugged twice. Did you see the look on their faces, on Alex Rodriguez’s face? Mr. O’Connor, do you have a soul?

We are talking about Alex Rodriguez, the baseball player. That’s all he does. He plays baseball. He plays it extremely well and he has done so since childhood. And since childhood, your Media has told him so. It’s told him that we was the greatest. Sure all talented athletes are told their great, but your Media has told everyone who could hear that Alex Rodriguez was the greatest, you dubbed him A-Rod. You can bet Alex Rodriguez was listening.

Put yourself in his shoes. Your a 15 year old kid and people start to tell you that you are amazing, that you could become a legend. You are really good at baseball but that’s it, you can’t really believe it’s true. But the constant praise presestes and yet all you seem to be doing is playing a game. This goes on for years until some baseball team offers to give you more money then anyone has ever received just to come play the game for them. Now you start to believe it too alittle, but that is even more scary.

You start to feel the kind of enormous pressure $252 million can exert on one person. You take steriods to ensure you play well enough to deserve all that money. Alex Rodriguez really did the most perfectly natural thing. He was looking for insurance.

You may jump on the guy for this, he might even deserve it but let’s be honest, your Media and even specifically your ESPN jumped on A-Rod a long time ago. Oh wait it wasn’t out of the blue at all! Around about the time A-Rod went from Jeter’s best friend to just some complete ass was when he got traded to your hated Yankees. And don’t try to deny the fact that you are biased. ESPN’s journalistic integrity is a fucking joke. Blogs like this are more reputable than what that Disney conglomerate drivels out with. Check out the video above ESPN put together of A-Rod’s milestone home runs. Note the music. Is that not the most evil climatic music you have ever heard? Was that part of the Emperor’s theme from Star Wars? The song is down-right bombastic in its malevolence.

Your Media told some poor kid he was some sort of demigod and then turned on him completely one day out of the blue when all he was doing was playing the part you and everyone else wrote up for him. Yes, perhaps we are all to blame. The way we treat our celebrities in this country is ridiculous. Celebrity doesn’t even really mean the same thing here as it does in most other societies. Or at least it didn’t until the same money machine gobbled them up too. Maybe we are all to blame. But there is no denying that Alex Rodriguez was vilified and has been ever since he simply took a better paying job.  Do you really hate the guy for that? Do you really hate the guy for responding the way he did in today’s big market, big money, big pressure sport economy? For responding the same way a significant portion of all professional athletes have over the past few decades?

If you really feel the level of dismissal, despondence and defilement conveyed by your article  I feel bad for you. You are really missing out on a beautiful story about a human being. And that’s what sports is.

How have we forgotten that? When did we let things get so out of control to the point where we are letting our media, your Media, tell us some guy who plays a game is a superman? When did we forget the reason we loved the game in the first place was because it made everyone feel like a superman?

Have you ever hit a pitch? Stopped that small ball from whizzing by and making it jump off a stick no bigger than the width of your arm? The magic of the game is what we are all forgetting. We started to kid ourselves into thinking that people were magical. When they proved us wrong by doing their best to live up to our expectations we crucified them. Don’t forget, even Captain America needed the ‘super soldier serum.” we have forgotten that we are dealing with humans and all the drama attached. And maybe we don’t realize that this human baseball player has started to pick himself up again. Morally, after being stood up on a pedestal only to be knocked down to the ground.  

We created a monster by telling a man he was great. We forgot it was only because of the greatness of the game. Now, that very Frankenstein that only wanted people to accept him for who he is,  that kid, is beginning to grow up and journalists like Ian O’Connor continue to turn their backs on him. You’re missing out on a great story here. You’re missing out on great baseball.