Thursday, April 30, 2009

The Most Important Thing About the New A-Rod Book

Well, it has begun: the fallout from Selena Roberts' tell-all A-Rod book. Some of the stuff inside is stuff that many of us may have suspected, some not; but everything in Roberts' Sports Illustrated article was true, which makes it hard to doubt the veracity of this book.

So what now?

The most important thing that happens from here on out could very well be how the fans respond.

We saw the fans in the San Francisco Bay area not really give a crap about Bonds' steroids allegations (even if fans from 29 other franchises all did), and that Yankee fans have come out in support of Pettitte and Giambi who admitted to PED use.

A-Rod has admitted to 'roid use, but unlike Pettitte and Giambi, has yet to really fall into that 'likeable' category, for whatever reason.

So what happens now?

Do the fans embrace A-Rod, try to protect him and more or less pretend the Roberts book exist?

Do they boo A-Rod every time he comes up to the plate and make sure he knows that he's unwelcome in New York just the second year into his ten-year deal?

He's already one of the most polarizing players on the Yankees for his perceived aloofness, for his inability to get the clutch hit...

I am not his biggest fan, but this comes from the *head, meed desk*ing that goes on when he does another stupid off-field thing that only seems to distract him on it. I respect his immense baseball talent, and I mean, do you really want Cody Ransom playing third base for an entire season? Even Ramiro Peña, who is not quite such an automatic out, shortens the line up by a lot.

The Yankees seem to survive the Torre fiasco, although whether or not Torre himself would survive a return to the Bronx is another matter. He would have been welcomed as a hero had he returned before the book came out; now, I won't venture a guess.

Heh, remember when that was the big, bad story of the preseason?