I've written about this book before, over on the original site. My mother found the book for ninety-nine cents at some place and sent it to me. I decided to write about it today to coincide with a sports blog post about A-Rod trade rumors.
So...let's say you play baseball. You play hard, you practice hard, you're kicking ass all throughout high school and for a quick year at college before getting drafted in the early rounds. Finally making it and becoming a star, you're financial power secured for generations.
Then a book is published claiming you used steroids all throughout high school and in college and in the pros. Ah hell no! I don't fucking think so! Time to put that financial power to good use. If you're clean, you're suing the writer, the publisher, the parent company, every-damn-body, right? I would. I would grind everybody's face to dust over that shit, just like Curt Schilling said.
That's what this book is about; the little child that was abandoned by his dad, always needing reassurance, always needing to be the best, and using every opportunity to get to that spot. Selena Robert's book alleges is pretty exacting detail how steroid use appears to have started for Alex Rodriguez in high school, and continued all the way through his years with the Yankees.
She spoke with him directly more than once, trying to get some kind of reaction from him...and got nothing. At least not in the form of contradictory fightin' words. Or lawsuits.
So take it how you want. I don't put stock into the "that's so wrong I won't dignify it with a response" line of reasoning. We're talking about a baseball player who's totally obsessed with his stats and his place in baseball's history and his legacy, and that these allegations could compromise all that, but he's already admitted to doping at one point! How hard is it to jump to the conclusion that this book is accurate?
Undeniable fact: A-Rod came back after an off-season during high school with more than thirty pounds of lean muscle added to his frame. The odds of adding thirty-plus pounds of lean muscle in a few months even for high school aged kids is pretty low (read: nigh impossible)(unless you're Andre the Giant, maybe).
Alex Rodriguez is strange case. His numbers are through the roof. But the Bronx fans...I've been at games where they boo him. Possibly the greatest player ever (before the steroid revelations, of course) getting booed at his home park. I've even been at games where he hits a homer, and was groaned at, a nearby middle aged lady hollering, "Do it when it matters!" with a shake of her head.
You can't be a fake asshole in New York. They sniff that shit out right away. And that's one of the main reasons they don't like the West Coast. Being a fake asshole is the leading industry in LA.
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