A-Rod, in better times. Photo John Munson/The Star-Ledger via nj.com
When I last wrote about Alex Rodriguez, it was in August of 2013 in a semi vitriolic post about how slimy the whole situation seemed to be.
That was before I read the Steve Fishman‘s excellent article in the New York Magazine, published 12/1/13.
Its a good, long-form internet read. Eight pages/screens. Plenty of 4-letter adjectives if you’re sensitive to such things. The article seems to tell the entire narrative in a far more understandable way than I’d ever heard it, tying together the various incidents and episodes that now encompass the entirety of the story. And the lengths to which MLB has apparently gone in order to go after one player cause disbelief. As others have said better than I; its hard to make out A-Rod to be a sympathetic figure, but the tyranny of Bud Selig, Rob Manfred and the entire MLB organization in this situation is just beyond belief.
I think the best part of this entire story was the following. An ex-con stole a flash-drive with copies of the player’s names who were using illicit materials from the former employee who stole it from the discredited doctor Tony Bosch, who owed him exactly $4,000 despite the fact he was making tens of thousands of dollars in untraceable cash from the baseball players. The ex-con sold this information to MLB for $125,000 in cash, meeting in a diner wearing shorts and a t-shirt … but secretly video-taped the transaction so that he could then sell the video of the transaction to the A-Rod camp for $200,000! Only in America.
This absolutely has the makings of a movie like The Informant! in its future. If you have a few minutes to kill, give this story a read.
(Editor’s note: I edited this post and corrected the name of the magazine and one name after posting).