Daily Archives: February 17, 2009

Part One of Alex Rodriguez’s afternoon press conference (video from SNY):

And, Part Two:

Alex and Diane have done such a great job covering the Alex Rodriguez fiasco that I’ve been loathe to chime in with my, largely identical, reactions, but in light of Rodriguez’s confession to Peter Gammons last week, I wanted to take a look at the seasons during which Rodriguez admitted he had experimented with banned substances to see what impact, if any, those substances had on his on-field performance. The result was an article published over at SI.com at the end of last week.

Spoiler alert:

. . . if he is indeed telling the truth about his drug use being limited to his three years in Texas, the only noticeable benefit that Rodriguez derived from his experimentations with banned substances was his ability to play 485 of the Rangers’ 486 games during his three years with the club. That’s no small thing. There are some who believe that the most undervalued statistic in baseball is games played. It’s irrefutable that Rodriguez’s ability to take the field every day as a Ranger enabled him to put up the remarkable counting stats he compiled in a Texas uniform, chief among them his 57 home runs in 2002. Still, there’s no evidence that the drugs made him any more powerful, and significant evidence that his rate of production actually declined during what he claims were his doping years.

Meanwhile, feel free to use this post as a disussion thread for Alex Rodriguez’s Tampa press conference set to begin at 1:30 pm today.

(more…)

Today’s news is powered by a younger, more innocent Alex Rodriguez, as seen in this video:

• Jayson Stark takes us behind the scenes of the soon-to-be circus atmosphere of A-Rod’s news conference:

Have I mentioned that Mark Teixeira pulled into this clubhouse for the first time Monday? If you’re wondering, he was 8½ minutes into his first chat with the media before he got a single question fired at him that WASN’T A-Rod-related.

Later on, the manager plopped into a chair in his office for his daily dose of press banter. The conversation with Joe Girardi lasted 14 minutes. I timed it.

He took one question about his overpopulated outfield, and another about whether he expected all of his players to report on time. EVERY other question was about his third baseman.

So think about how much Girardi and that talented little $200 million baseball team of his can’t wait for this melodrama to be over. Hey, good luck on that.

But at least the manager has that part figured out. Asked Monday if there was a “danger” that this story might linger after A-Rod leaves the witness stand — er, news conference — Girardi never blinked.

“Obviously, I think it’s going to linger,” he said. “I don’t think we’re going to have a press conference [Tuesday] and then it’s just going to disappear.”

• ESPN ombusman LeAnne Schrieber takes a hard look at her network’s Gammons/A-Rod coverage.

My own assessment is that Gammons asked the hard questions — Did you take steroids? For how long? Where did you get them? Did you lie to Katie Couric? — but that after getting Rodriguez’s opening admission of guilt, he did not press hard enough when Rodriguez gave evasive or self-serving answers to the what/where/when/why questions. I also think Gammons’ lack of follow-up was attributable, in large part, to his genuine sympathetic engagement in the human drama of what the viewer somewhat cynically called “Rodriguez’s first step toward personal redemption.”

• SI’s Jerry Crasnick rates the Yankees OF situation as one of the top 9 position battles to be settled this Spring:

Johnny Damon, whose 118 OPS+ a year ago tied the best single-season mark of his career, will get the bulk of the left field at-bats, which leaves Xavier Nady and Nick Swisher in the mix in right and Melky Cabrera and Brett Gardner competing for time in center.

(more…)