Audio: A-Rod postgame in Clearwater
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- March
- 26
Here’s A-Rod after the game today. As you’ll hear, he wasn’t interested in talking about the Jose Canseco book. He did answer a few baseball questions before suddenly walking away.
Alex was 0 for 3 today and is hitting .432 this spring. His batting practice today was fun to watch. One ball cleared the roof of a bar that is set about 50 feet beyond the fence in left. Other was lined out to center and never got more than 30 feet off the ground before a fan caught it. All the players were gawking.
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on Wednesday, March 26th, 2008 at 4:45 pm by Peter Abraham.
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Peter Abraham
ale rodriguez is just like compton.
I would ignore the Canseco comments as well. Not worth commenting on.
poor guy
We get on athletes when they are snippy to reporters, but when at least I hear unedited audio like that, I don’t think I’d handle it any better.
mike & the mad dog are unlistenable… How did these guys get that gig… especially the mad dog… what a hack!
They have been going back and forth for what 30 minutes now.
Anyway I agree with Mike. Need a new ballpark.
Dog just hates the Yankees and doesn’t want to see the Yankees with anything nice.
Go A-Rod, standing up for yourself
I know it doesn’t make your job any easier Pete, but I love that Alex…doing what he wants to do and doesn’t care what anyone else things. And while you don’t like it I love that he just walks away when he’s done. I do that to telemarkters who keep asking the same question over and over again after I have said no thanks. (I’ll let them talk to the air or just hang up). I shouldn’t have to answer any more questions if I say no once.
*thinks not things
A-Rod in my pants!!!!!!!!
The J Train- Save The Drama For Yo Mama March 26th, 2008 at 5:16 pm
A-Rod in my pants!!!!!!!!
Jessica?? Is that you?
shhhhh
What R stinkin Mike & The Mad Dog arguing about?
Yankee Diva:
I’m not a telemarketer. I’m trying to tell fans about what the best player on their team thinks. While it’s fine for you to hang up on somebody you won’t know (I do it, too), would you just walk away from people in your workplace without another word?
I’ve been doing this since I was 17. I’ve never once seen an athlete do that. He’ll answer questions and then just suddenly walk away, regardless of what the questions are about, win or lose, good or bad. He just suddenly walks away without another word.
Most people say “Hey, I need to go” or “That’s all I have” or whatever. 99 percent of the players say “Thank you” and maybe chat off the record for a few minutes.
It’s his life, he can do what he wants. But if you saw me at a game and asked me about the blog and I answered one question before I suddenly turned my back on you and walked away, what would you think of me?
I’m not asking him questions for my own enjoyment. He’s the best player on the team and it’s reasonable to assume people are curious about what he thinks about the issues of the day.
Seems like what’s bad for his media relations is good for his on-field performance. Once he started telling the writers to buzz off he began hitting walk-off homers. Can’t deny the correlation to his newfound attitude.
I think that the guys would catch the hint if Alex said, “That’s it for today, guys. Thanks.” and then walked away. If they want to keep asking questions, they’d be talking to his backside.
Of course Alex has the right to do whatever he wants, but I’d feel like I was being dismissed if Alex just walked away from sessions without saying anything.
Peter, I get what your saying, but then, in your opinion, what do you think is the reason he does it? P.S. Did anybody read the gem that George King wrote in today’s post?
in one way I can understand it being better not to say anything cause you’re only helping Canseco sell books. I’m sure he will say something, he will be forced too. He’s already said though on 60 minutes, he never took steroids or hgh.
Given the treatment A-Rod has often recieved from the NY media and, yes, the fans (guilty as charged here), it doesn’t surprise me that he does that. Though which came first, I’m not in a position to declare.
YankeesLuv,
It’s not only understandable, it’s prudent. Any lawyer’s going to tell you not to respond. Especially if it’s not worth responding to.
I don’t think even the most ardent Yankee haters are going to believe Canseco. That’s how much water this holds.
Oh my god. King will never stop harping on this Santana thing. We get it. You flat-out stated that the Yankees WOULD–not might–miss out on the playoffs. Let it go.
Which article by George King?
Via River Avenue Blues: “Moving Chamberlain in front of Rivera wasn’t only the right move for 2008, but forever. finding someone to dominate the seventh and eight innings is much harder than finding a fourth or fifth starter.” The Honorable George A. King III Yes people, you actually read that right. George King called Joba Chamberlain a fourth or fifth starter! And King gets paid for writing this garbage. What a meathead.
Rebecca,
So this is going to go for 10 more years? I wonder if he even knows he’s doing it.
I’m sorry to hear that rudeness is routine for A Rod. I could see if he did it on a day like today where there’s the Canseco nonsense to deal with or when the tabloids send reporters to trail him.
I can’t imagine what it must be like for athletes in large sports markets. Of course, I can’t imagine what it would be like to make millions of dollars a month either. Talking to the media is akin to talking to the fans and thus talking to the folks that fill the bank accounts.
Hi Mel,
Even though I’m a Sox fan I am not a “Yankee hater”. Make no mistake about it, I think Canseco is a money grubbing bitter guy who wishes he was still playing baseball. I would lend more credibility to what he said about Arod if it was strictly about baseball, but I wonder how much Canseco’s jealousy about the alleged interest of Arod in Canseco’s wife has motivated Canseco’s words.
From the audio that Pete posts, the guys sound respectful. Some of them try to slide in questions that are off-limits, but what do you expect from vultures? (j/k, Pete. Well, sorta)
Now that’s not to say that some won’t pull a Jekyll & Hyde by going back to the office and doing a hatchet job on Alex. But it sounds like Alex is treated with care, kid gloves almost.
ray,
So you’re telling me that you almost believe him about A-rod?
I’m not an Alex homer, but if I had to name 2 clean guys, I’d say Alex & Jeter.
I’m I correct when I hear that Ordonez was also mentioned even though the feds were investigating Canseco for extorting Mags?
btw, good luck to your C’s tonight!
Did Alex walk away right as the audio ended? Because that is pretty uncalled for if that’s what happened, since nobody was asking him Canseco questions anymore after he requested they stopped (at least not that I heard). On the other hand, if someone did open their mouth and ask another Canseco question, then I think Alex had every right to walk away.
He’s handling it the right way as far as I’m concerned. Why even give Canseco the satisfaction?
Hey Mel,
I have to admit that if I was a betting man I would bet that both Arod and Jeter are clean.
I am sure that your good wishes extended to the C’s have nothing to do with the fact that they are playing one of the primary rivals of the Lakers….lol
Peter,
We get it. ARod answers a few questions and then walks away. You think it’s rude and unprofessional.
How many more times are you going to tell us this?
Okay guys. I think it’s time. You know what I’m talking about.
OPTIMISM CAMPAIGN 2008!
I get where you’re coming from, Peter, but no, I wouldn’t care. I don’t know you, you don’t know me. What I expect from you is to report on the Yankees. What I expect from players is to perform to the best of their ability on the field. I don’t really care if they’re nice or if they cheat on their wives or if they devote their every waking minute to charity. I care if they play well and win.
I realize that I may not represent the average fan, but it’s absolutely true for me. These players owe me, as a fan, nothing but their best play on the field. If someone is consistently rude, then sure, maybe they’re a lesser person; but, if it doesn’t affect their play, it makes no difference to me. On some level… sure, it’s nice to see good people do well, but I can’t know these guys, so I don’t care about that.
Clare:
I was answering Yankees Diva, not you.
Liberty Belle: I don’t care in the slightest what kind of people they are. I’d like them to answer questions reasonably so I can relay the information to fans. That’s all I ask.
I tell you Pete, you do a great job in your blog but trust me, the media will get ZERO sympathy from the fans, including myself. All of you guys are doing your jobs but when you decide to beat on a dead horse, you guys won’t stop until you see pulp. Alex’s new attitude has him producing and frankly, that’s all we fans care about. Its nice that you’re covering the team and giving us some news. 90% of the time is right on. But its stuff like this that we fans, could care less about and frankly, have no sympathy on how he treats you. Move on and keep doing a great job. Arod suddenly walking away when your peers want to puncture his dignity is exactly what the doctor ordered. Let him be. As long as he produces, i could care less how he reacts towards the media. Sometimes I think that some media members (not you Pete) feel that they’re the story instead of the team.
Don’t you think its rude though, Clare?
I like ARod. I think he’s gotten a really raw deal a lot of the time from some of the media and I don’t blame him one bit for being wary of them. But I think doing that is incredibly rude and unprofessional too.
I don’t see how rudeness=productivity.
lol, it can’t. He’s incredibly productive as a player despite the said rudeness. And as LB said, thats really the bottom line - how productive he is as a player. I just think if someone treated me like that constantly, I’d find them fairly strange as well.
But that’s all part of the same cycle, Peter. I don’t really care what they say. I really don’t. Now, obviously this cycle has already been created, and some athletes are darn good at playing the media game and building up quite a golden reputation. I get that some players make your job easier. I love reading about baseball… give me some uninterrupted time on BP, and I’m a happy girl. That’s the stuff I care about, not what a player says. I read game recaps to see what happened in the game, not what some player thought about what happened or what they think about some other issue. I’m not your target reader- I know that, but that’s my perspective.
“I’ve been doing this since I was 17. I’ve never once seen an athlete do that”,(Pete, means walk out on him).
Yet again Pete, you never seen another player do what A-rod does, have you. A-rod is the man shut up, and swallow the truth.
While I don’t think it was ok for A-Rod to just walk away, his “I’m excited about opening day, blah blah, March 31st” kind of sounded like “ok I’m done” to me.
We get the point. ARod isn’t as polite as other players that you are used to. I’d rather have a personality like ARod on my team than a guy like Curt Schilling who opens his big mouth every chance he gets embarassing his team in the process. ARod is taking the advice that people have been giving him for years - shut up and play, and its working.
How many times is this going to be a topic on this site in 08?
Pete I was not implying that you were a telemarkter just implying that I have done the same thing as Alex has done when I don’t want to talk to people who have asked the same question over and over again. At some pt you just give up and walk way. I mentioned I know that makes your job harder but I can completely understand why Alex does it. The media (including beat writers didn’t help him out in the slightest when he was drowning in 06 and he had to learn to cope on his on and in his own way, this works for him and that has helped the team so I can’t get angry with him for doing it).
i’ve heard a similar type of story (basicly blowing someone off) about alex from a friend of a friend who played HS ball with him.
he ran into alex at some type of function and introduced himself as so-and-so whom he went to school/played ball with. alex looked, but didn’t respond and kept talking with whom he was talking with. he introduced himself again, and alex responded “yeah, i heard you the first time” and that was it.
now i don’t know how credible this story is, but i heard it way before i started reading these tid-bits from Peter, and it just seems like it fits Pete’s description so i’m kind of inclined to believe it.
and this was supposedly a kid who would have team members (including alex) over his house for lunch and whatnot back in the day.
The audio speaks volumes (no pun intended) on this character that is our 3rd baseman for the next 10 years. I know he will put up his “numbers”, but what we will have to suffer and endure through the next 10 years scares me. Certainly, he is a good influence on some of the players via workout routines and providing the example of hard work, but the diva stuff and other potholes that the team is going to be subjected to in the next 10 years will have a deleterious effect imo. I wish that Hank had taken Cashman’s suggestion not to resign Arod. In Cashman we trust…not Hank.
Poor Pete…. Arod isn’t helping you do your ‘job’. Must be rough. Try a blue collar job like so many of us have, then you’ll really have something to complain about. We get it. Alex doesn’t kiss your ***. No matter how much you whine about it, Yankee fans (the smart ones anyway) aren’t going to side with you over him.
Eric:
While I’m sorry you weren’t able to get a good job, I feel I work hard at what I do and I’m not going to apologize for what I do.
I’m not asking anybody to side with me on anything. My sole goal is to provide information to readers. Whether Alex wants to talk or be civil doesn’t change my life. You’re the one who is denied information.
It’s also not about kissing anybody’s ass. Girardi, Eiland, Long, Pena, Meaham, Harkey, Jeter, Matsui, Posada, Rivera, Wang, Hughes, Kennedy, Mussina, Giambi, Cano, Cabrera, Hawkins, etc. are all civil human beings who understand that the media is a conduit to the fans who ultimately pay their salaries.
Does that make them bad guys? I don’t think so.
Anyway, thanks for breaking away from your labors to post a comment. I’ll get back to sitting around doing nothing.
Pete, has anyone asked Alex why he does that?
Pete-
We all know how much you bust your hump, and as a result this is hands down one of the best Yankee blogs out there.
But there is something to be said about your bias against A-Rod. Obviously, he’s strange. And how he operates obstructs your ability to cover him the way you’d like to. From how you describe him, it almost seems like he has some form of Asperger’s or Autism. Either way, he comes off aloof and, as you say, weird.
Here’s the thing: from reading your blog, this clearly affects your tone in how you write about him. You’ll say “he’s the best player on the team”, but always with a “but”, or some other tidbit that calls into question his judgement, either on or off the field (it’s YOU, kind readers, that suffer for his uncanny behavior!). I certainly don’t blame you; you are just trying to do your job and I’d say you’re much more objective than most of the media. It’s just that, as much as you might like to see yourself as totally objective, you’re not. Nobody is - and in this instance, something pretty clearly negatively colors your writing about A-Rod. You can deny that it would be wise to filter your comments on A-Rod with an understanding of your personal distaste for him, but I don’t think it’s going to stop any of your many admiring readers from doing so.
We’ll keep reading, to be sure. Your coverage of the Yanks really is the best.
I’m a firefighter, but thanks for talking down to me, Pete. Maybe it’s not a “good job” but I do what I can. I’m sure there are plenty of people that would be happy to step up and do what you do, get to travel and rub shoulders with major leaguers, and get paid quite nicely to do so.
But again, I would like to apologize on A-Rod’s behalf for not making your job easier.