The reactions to A-Rod’s performance on the radio Wednesday have been fast and furious across baseball’s small corner of the Internet. Rather than make you seek them all out, we thought it’d be nice to throw the meat and potatoes of the best commentaries into one post.
Alex Rodriguez interview reaction roundup: ‘A-Rod is nothing more than Jose Canseco’
All the Alex Rodriguez reactions you could ever want.
Your A-Rod #hottakes of the day:
Jeff Passan, Yahoo Sports:
A-Rod is nothing more than Jose Canseco, convinced that the black helicopters are real, that Rob Manfred aimed at him from the grassy knoll, that a grand conspiracy exists and he’s not going to put up with it anymore. He took his ball and went home Wednesday to the fiefdom of A-Rod, where nobody is out to get him.
And that makes sense. He’s the only one who lives there.
Jim Caple, ESPN:
Major League Baseball IS hosing A-Rod. No, I don’t believe he’s completely innocent, but league rules are clear that a first-time offense for PED use is punishable by a 50-game suspension. Because A-Rod’s first proven use of PEDs was before this rule went into effect, this would be his first offense (if indeed he is guilty). If baseball wants the players to obey the rules, the league must follow them as well.
If not, Selig absolutely has an obligation to testify in this case.
Jonah Keri, Grantland:
A-Rod doesn’t come off as particularly sympathetic at any point in this interview. It’s just a breathtaking coincidence that he marched out of his own arbitration hearing, then magically appeared on Francesa’s show not long afterward, he and his lawyer suited up, with perfectly rehearsed lines like “unlimited resources, no recourse” coming out of his mouth.
But he’s got a point about Selig ... if Selig wants Rodriguez’s hide, it’s not unreasonable for A-Rod to ask that the commissioner show up to testify, or to be pissed off when his request is denied.
Steven Goldman, SB Nation
The most difficult aspect of the never-ending Alex Rodriguez case is that it's hard to know where to set your willing suspension of disbelief... [It's hard to believe] that a man with the financial resources to spend millions on his defense chose to consult with fake doctor Tony Bosch for "nutrition and weight loss" when it would have been cheaper and more productive to endow the Alex Rodriguez Nutrition and Weight Loss chair at Harvard.
Joel Sherman, NY Post:
There is a bigger picture here that is being swallowed whole by A-Rod, and that is: Where do you want your friendly sports leagues going to pursue and prosecute these cases? ...
We should have a conversation if we are OK with MLB doing the stuff the Rodriguez crew is accusing it of doing — at least the stuff that is provable or semi-provable. But we can’t have that conversation until the A-Rod case is resolved, because emotion wins and logic departs when Rodriguez is involved.
Ken Davidoff, NY Post:
So while Alex Rodriguez was as full of it as he ever has been and ever will be on Wednesday, storming out of his own appeal hearing against Major League Baseball then fuming for Mike Francesa’s benefit on WFAN, let’s give him and his team (his lawyers, not the Yankees, sillies) credit for the winning move of the day:
The more Team A-Rod can make this about Bud Selig, the more public support he’ll generate.
Ken Rosenthal, FOX Sports:
A-Rod was going to freak out no matter what — if it wasn’t over Selig, it would have been over something else. His camp’s strategy, in the view of one player agent, is to attack on every possible front — and hope that waging such a fight leads to an acceptable resolution.
A-Rod is attacking. He’s not going to stop attacking. And baseball will have to endure the consequences.
...and, finally, Peter Gammons, on ESPN Radio NY
“...he wants to blow up the world -- he is like the marathon bombers.”
errr.....
We love ya, Pete, but that’s a bit much. (He did later apologize).
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