Tags
" J.R. Moehringer, "Open", "The Final Walk Off", "The Tender Bar", A-Rod, Alex Rodriquez, Derek Jeter, ESPN The Magazine, Pulitzer Prize Winning author
PEOPLE HATE HIM. Boy, wow, do they hate him. At first they loved him, and then they were confused by him, and then they were irritated by him, and now they straight-up loathe.
More often than not, the mention of Alex Rodriguez in polite company triggers one of a spectrum of deeply conditioned responses. Pained ugh. Guttural groan. Exaggerated eye roll. Hundreds of baseball players have been caught using steroids, including some of the game’s best-known and most beloved names, but somehow Alex Rodriguez has become the steroid era’s Lord Voldemort. Ryan Braun? Won an MVP, got busted for steroids, twice, called the tester an anti-Semite, lied his testes off, made chumps of his best friends, including Aaron Rodgers, and still doesn’t inspire a scintilla of the ill will that follows Rodriguez around like a nuclear cloud.
from The Education of Alex Rodriquez by J.R. Moehringer
If you don’t know the name or writing of J.R. Moehringer, you’re in for a treat. He won a Pulitzer Prize for feature newspaper writing in 2000 and at least two of his books over the past few years have been among my favorite reads of the year(s): The Tender Bar, a wonderful memoir of Moehringer’s own growing up and Open, the most honest and most informative sports memoir (about Andre Agassi) I’ve ever read. (Agassi’s name is on the cover of the book, but Moehringer wrote it). He also wrote what I think was the best tribute to Derek Jeter in his ESPN article The Final Walk Off.
If you do know of him, then know that he has once again produced an article that goes beyond what all other writers have produced about a current story in the news – A-Rod’s return to baseball after his 162 game suspension.
I know. I know.
If you’re a Yankee fan, you just want A-Rod to go away (unless, of course, he can regain what he once had).
If you’re a Sox fan, you want him to come back, mess up the Yankees, and end his career in (further) disgrace (despite the fact that your beloved Sox wanted him on their team and almost had him) .
For the rest of you, you probably don’t care what happens to him and just want to focus on your favorite team and the 2015 MLB season.
But if you appreciate superb reporting and wonderful writing, take the time to read the lengthy piece Moehringer just authored in ESPN The Magazine, entitled The Education of Alex Rodriquez.
It’s different from anything else you’ve read about A-Rod, particularly as to what has happened to him over the last year.
It’s worth your time and attention.
Land said:
O HEAVENLY DAYS. I wish I could write like Mr. Moehringer.
Two things seem fairly clear (1) that the survival skills A-Rod learned as a boy failed him as a man and (2) that A-Rod is still a mystery to himself.
He seems to be fairly smart but being smart does not equal being wise or mature and like too many boys playing boy’s games, he never grew up. Because he was a physical freak, he was put in the circus side show and then paid so much money that he could surround himself with an adoring entourage and avoid the truth that he was human, in fact, avoid the truth about almost everything.
The key to his entire personality is revealed at the end of the article where he reflects on his new daughter who wants what everyone wants—to be safe, and to be warm, and to be KNOWN. He clearly believes that being KNOWN is a fundamental need and the threat of not being known was ample reason to do whatever he had to do to remain in the spotlight. This man should go live in the slums of Mumbai for a year or two and learn about the futility of being “known”. Either that or he should be required to spend a hour each day putting his finger into a glass of water and then observing how quickly the ripples disappear when the finger is withdrawn.
I truly hope that his renewed interest in education and his visits to his Dr. on top of the mountain and the time he spends with his children helps him through the looming crises when he is no longer A-Rod and becomes simply Mr. Rodriquez.
Oh, and although he plays for some baseball team in New York City, I hope he has a decent year playing defense at third base but isn’t so good at hitting. If it is one of your questions, I predict he will hit 19 home runs and have 53 RBI’s.
Thanks for sending this article to me. :)))
Tim Malieckal said:
I agree with Land that it’s a beautifully written piece; primarily in the way the author organized his narrative in digestible pieces. Kudos as well that he has the generosity of spirit to try to understand the man – who (however rich and great looking) is . . . just a man.
Here’s my quarrel:
Alex Rodriguez is the talent who morphs into A-Rod the liar. Fair enough, the facts are indisputable. But where is the mea culpa of the media for *creating* this monster?
It’s instructive that Barry Bonds makes a cameo, for although WE ALL KNEW the juice was loose with Bonds, nobody in the media breathed a word about it until they could no longer pretend otherwise. Anyone who follows and watches baseball knew – but the press fawned over him . . . until it was time to bury him. This is why Alex is confused. His childlike understanding of what’s fair and what’s not is based upon adulation. Who are we to point at him and not the press?
Disclosure: I am a Mets fan. I’m glad Steve Phillips decided against a 25 + 1 team in opting out of the A-Rod sweepstakes. But where are Cashman and the Steinbrenners on this? Alex is a TEN YEAR YANKEE. They knew whom he was. They knew he was doping. They didn’t care because they gambled that juicing wouldn’t become the narrative. The prospect that he could be Babe 2.0 was too tantalizing to pass up. They were wrong. Live with the mistake. Honor the contract. Pay him his money.
The 162 game suspension was legally incorrect. He was railroaded to be made an example of… and that’s fine. He’s made his half-billion. But PLEASE can we all stop pretending we baseball fans are not better, or somewhat not culpable for his sins?
We averted our eyes to Mark McGwire’s backne. We cheered Bonds’ 70th homer – I was in SF and heard the thunderous crowd. We are all complicit (well, maybe not NL fans who hate the DH, but most baseball fans, to be sure).
A-Rod signifies the way our America has looked the other way over and again – be it baseball, war or cultural crumble in-between – and if we insist on pointing the finger at the shnook upon whom we changed the rules of the game, we should at the very least accept our commensurate guilt in his disgrace.
FREE A-ROD
™
Richard said:
Thanx Land and Tim.
To Land’s piece, I would only add that never being told “No” in his life did not serve A-Rod well.
To Tim, what grabbed me about the piece was not just the writing and organization of it but also that he went further than anyone else has to try to understand “just a man”. Moehringer’s focus on the last year and writing about both the year (and other years too) is what I think you are getting at in your accurate taking to task of the media for having played a significant role in A-Rod’s life. And yes, many others too, starting with those who have paid him unconscionable amounts of money and fans who looked the other way because he made a team better.
But those points, and “your quarrel” with the article go beyond what Moehringer set out to do, I think. While they are true, and there are other points that are also true (what about what it must have been like for A-Rod to play next to a supposed ‘God’ named Jeter?), those issues are not what Moehringer wanted to tell us.
At least Moehringer didn’t do what others writers are currently doing, jump on the ‘hate bandwagon’.
He gave us insights into who, what, and why A-Rod is who he is, and what he is struggling with as a result.
Nancy Cedar Wilson said:
Rick–
What a fine writer! He has such an acute eye, really letting his readers into the deep ambivalence A-Rod feels about his life–and his mistakes–as well as his triumphs–you can feel it in the gut when he is hitting all those balls out over the fence of his old high school!
Thanks for sharing this memorable piece–and now I’ll know to look for more of his stuff–never heard of Moehringer before! (shows how little I know about sportswriters)