1) Creating a PR stunt to coincide with his daughters visiting him at the World Baseball Classic
A-Rod's family is considerably closer to the location of the Dominican workout facility than to Tampa. It was an opportunity for his young daughters to see him in his home country's uniform. Like it or not, he is from the Dominican Republic.
2) Soliciting Katie Couric for advice on what team to play for prior to opting out of his contract in late 2007.
Rodriguez was likely speaking in jest. Absolute non-story manufactured by the media.
3) Insulting Derek Jeter by complimenting Jose Reyes.
Here is what A-Rod said:
"I wish he was leading off on our team, playing on our team," "That's fun to watch. Anytime you have that type of speed... I mean, we have a guy in (Brett) Gardner that'll be fun. That's probably the most you can have, watching those guys run."He was responding to a question about Jose Reyes taking an extra base and then stealing third in an exhibition game against the Marlins.
He was clearly just saying that Reyes is an exciting player. He probably should have said "I wish there was a spot on the Yankees for Jose Reyes." Have we not learned that A-Rod isn't the best speaker by now? Did anyone ever stop to think that English WAS NOT Alex's first language? This is going the extra mile to defend him, but the fact remains that he is an athlete, not a professor, and English is his second language. Can we ever cut him a break? By the way, how was what he said not more of a slight to the leadoff hitter of the Yankees, Johnny Damon. Last we checked, JD had an OPS+ of 118 last year and stole 29 bases - not too shabby!
The fact is, the NY media NEEDS to have an A-Rod story every day, because they are too lazy to research or investigate other stories. Some of them have personal vendettas against A-Rod such as George King III or Peter Abraham. It is just surprising they lumped all of this filler garbage in one 24 hour period - think of all the papers they could have sold if they spread this "news" out!
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6 comments:
I agree, it's gotten completely out of hand. I can only wonder if Alex is really that big of a jerk in real life that this many people seem to be out to get him.
Here's a fun game: every time someone in sports does something ask yourself, "What if A-Rod did that?" As an example, imagine if Alex stomped on a helmet-less player's head, ala Albert Haynesworth. Good times for the whole family!
I already bitched about this on my own blog at feenwager.com. It's just tiring.
Also, what does Pete Abe have against A-Rod? I've never really noticed his coverage being terribly slanted.
It's ridiculous that ARod is criticized for spending time with his family when he can when Spring Training is ALWAYS full of children there. Go to daylife or any photo aggregator and you see tons of pictures of professionals there with their children.
feenwager-
Go check out some of the comments after many of the recent A-Rod posts - even Abraham's most loyal readers are sick of him.
Also, check out Jimmy over at Fowl Balls as well:
http://www.thefowlballs.com/2009/03/is-this-what-we-are-reduced-to.html
A-Rod is not from the Dominican Republic. He is a natural born citizen of the United States of America. Him playing for the DR is a farce in the same league as Piazza being a hitting coach for Italy. Give me a break! His dumb comment on the Reyes thing has nothing to do with his ability to speak English. If you know Spanish and have heard him speak it you would agree that it is choppy to say the least. What he said was innocent and blown out of proportion. He is not the most eloquent and thoughtful speaker out there. Neither are a lot of people for that matter that innocently enough put their foot in their mouths when speaking or writing about Hispanics.
I'd love to know if Alex spoke English or Spanish when he was a child. I'm not sure, but I think he spoke Spanish first. Perhaps I am wrong - point me in the direction of some published literature and then you can feel free to call me out for being wrong!
It doesn't matter what language he spoke first. I don't have any published literature to point you in the direction you need but I can tell you of my own experience and compare to it to A-Rod. My first language was Spanish. Alex was educated in American schools from kindergarten on as I was making us both literate in English. Literate meaning the ability to read and write the English language. I am able to speak and understand Spanish but I do not possess the ability to write it or read with fluency. I spoke Spanish first but I think and interact on a daily basis in English. I'm willing to bet that A-Rod does as well. Living in the USA in professional circles as A-Rod and I both do our daily interactions are in the English language.
A-Rod's faux pas with the comment on Reyes had nothing to do with a deficient English language proficiency. To say so is a prejudgement of anyone with a Spanish surname. Rather what he said was off the top of his head with no regard for the impact of his words. Many would agree that he has a track record for saying dumb things. A-Rod should know that everything he says will be put under a microscope. He was irresponsible with his words not challenged in English linguistics.
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