A day after Alex Rodriguez's uneven admissions of the "specifics" of his steroid usage during a half hour of answering questions, today he is being held to task by media outlets everywhere. None seem too satisfied with the version of events they got yesterday. Reporters don't seem particularly interested in figuring out the identity of A-Rod's unnamed cousin who allegedly provided and injected him with steroids, possibly because as one major leaguer put it, "I wonder if his cousin even existed. That was my first thought. Is his cousin made up? I don't know."
If Alex was hoping for backup from the teammates he was able to muster up tears for during his apology, he didn't get it once the press conference was over. None of the longtime Yanks in attendance (Jeter, Pettite, Rivera, Posada) spoke to the media after yesterday's affair. In fact, the News described A-Rod's former best friend Jeter during the press conference as "slouched in his seat, slowly twiddling his thumbs and looking out onto the freshly cut baseball diamond behind Rodriguez."
And while the Yankee company line has been support of A-Rod both before and after he spoke to reporters, GM Brian Cashman didn't sound incredibly convincing when asked about having regrets over last year's $300 million contract the Yankees outbidded themselves on to keep A-Rod around for another 10 seasons. Cashman said, "Well, we're not in a position to go backwards on this...We've invested in him as an asset. And because of that, this is an asset that is going through a crisis. So we'll do everything we can to protect that asset and support that asset and try to salvage that asset." He also added, "I don't think Alex is very good at communicating, to be quite honest."
Of all the A-Rod coverage, the Daily News more than anyone really made Rodriguez crawl through the paddy wagon this morning. Their full-frontal attack included:
If anything productive came out of yesterday, Bill Madden thinks it's A-Rod shining the light on just how big of a role the Dominican Republic may have had in the steroids saga, something overlooked by the Mitchell Report and Congress. He points out that 57% of players who tested positive for steroids have been from that one nation.
The only one of Rodriguez's teammates to speak to the press was Johnny Damon, the man who had a big hand as a former member of the Red Sox in ending the closest thing A-Rod has had to a playoff run with the Yankees. Damon tried to give some positive perspective to the mess that was yesterday's press conference saying, "He's a guy who definitely did not need it, and I definitely do not condone it....But there could be a lot worse things he could've been doing out there, (like) murdering someone."
