Read this, don't read this.

Sports Illustrated provides a well-researched and thoughtful report on the latest ARod controversy.  You know: Journalism!:

"It’s a cliche to say that 'time will tell' when it comes to Rodriguez’s fate, but a legacy is something that’s determined over a long period of time, not via a knee-jerk response to breaking news. In the wake of the latest revelations, the urge to shovel dirt on Rodriguez is understandable, but much of it is founded in fantasies that some process can make him disappear. Like the rest of the steroid scandal of the past few decades, that’s simply impossible."

Retirement, voiding of contract, release, inability to come back from injury: All of these outcomes seem exceedingly unlikely.

Without exception, fan bases seem willing to forgive any player as long as they are productive (reference: Melky Cabrera, $16 million). With a rehabbed hip, I actually believe that this is possible.


For the opposite of journalism, we can turn to the always reliable Mike Lupica and Ian O'Connor.

Lupica conveniently remembers that Texas paid a major chunk of ARod's salary for four NYY years, two of which were MVP years:

"Everybody was happy. Why not? The Yankees thought they were getting the best player in baseball, one in the middle of his prime, they had even gotten the Rangers to pay nearly $70 million of his contract. Maybe we should have paid closer attention to that, how the Rangers didn’t just want to get rid of Alex Rodriguez, they were willing to pay the Yankees big money to get out from under the last seven years of the $252 million contract they had given Rodriguez when he had left the Seattle Mariners."

ARod's production in New York -- and his entire career -- may have been fraudulent. But there is simply no way to claim that his career has been unproductive.

ARod has delivered 2 MVPs since 2004, 1 ring, 8 playoffs.

Since that day in 2004, all the Rangers players combined have one less ring than ARod.

So the Yankees won and the Rangers lost, right? Is that your point?


O'Connor simply makes no sense whatsoever:

"The same man who once upstaged the World Series by opting out of his contract has upstaged Super Bowl week by allegedly opting out of his responsibility as a clean athlete … again."

For the sake of a pointless and tenuous link to a story from 2007, O'Connor actually said that ARod's story is currently upstaging the Super Bowl.

Even with a relatively pedestrian Super Bowl matchup, ARod's story is not upstaging the Super Bowl by any measure.

Perhaps a small point, but still indicative of O'Connor's insistence on bending the truth.


"The Yankees aren't ready to comment on the specifics of this case, but there's nobody in the organization who would dispute the fact that Rodriguez now represents the worst investment they've made, 2009 title or no 2009 title. Carl Pavano for $40 million, A.J. Burnett for $82.5 million and Kei Igawa for $20 million have nothing on Rodriguez for $275 million."

I love how the only ring that doesn't matter is ARod's ring in 2009.


The Yankees spent $46 million on Kei Igawa. Ian O'Connor knows this and Ian O'Connor is therefore a liar.

For that $46 million, the Yankees got 2 wins.

Which is a slightly worse ROI than the Braves got for Mike Hampton in the mid-2000s, by the way.

Three years, $45 million, 3 wins. But Hampton was injured, so that comparison is kind of unfair and uninteresting.  Still, there is no way ARod's contract is worse than Hampton's.



"Same goes for other people in other places. Mike Hampton for $121 million with the Rockies? Eddy Curry for $60 million with the Knicks? Albert Haynesworth for $100 million with the Redskins? Oliver Perez for $36 million with the Mets? Gilbert Arenas for $111 million with the Wizards?

In the end, Alexander Emmanuel Rodriguez outplayed them all. He should take a victory lap around the bases for that."

O''Connor's analysis is simply incorrect. All the contracts he listed are worse than ARod's.  I can list dozens of other contracts that have been worse than ARod's.


One analyzes an investment properly not simply by its size, but by its return.

Gloating from last place.

"Here’s the point: if things had gone the way Red Sox owners wanted them to during the winter of 2003-04, there is no telling where the Red Sox would be today."

Well, ARod's team finished in first place ... and the Sox finished in last place ... since we we're talking about today. 

What was the tragic consequences you were imagining?  Perhaps finishing in last place?


"In retrospect, Rodriguez and Red Sox administrators were a perfect match, two parties far more interested in image and ratings than actual performance on the field."

Of all the charges leveled against Alex Rodriguez, I think the oddest I've ever seen is the notion that he's not interested in actual performance on the field.

It's quite clear that ARod is utterly obsessed with his performance on the field, perhaps to a dangerous and ultimately self-defeating degree.


Also, the Red Sox administrators you're denigrating won two Championships shortly after the ARod deal fell through. So what the heck are you even talking about?


"But as this all pertains to the Red Sox, the latest Rodriguez scandal is yet another reminder that Rodriguez could very easily have been here, in Boston, in place of Ramirez (the eventual 2004 World Series Most Valuable Player) through 2007. Certainly Francona’s book has shed more light on Ramirez’ antics, many of which caused Sox players, in particular, to roll their eyes.
And yet, repeatedly, Sox players said they wanted Ramirez on their side because they wanted his bat. Would the same have been true of A-Rod? Rodriguez’ political nature has made him a divisive force on more than one team now, a poster boy for the modern athlete. Big image. No substance. Now that the Red Sox have become the same thing, one cannot help but wonder."

Uhhh ... are you even reading this?

 You're actually using Manny Ramirez as your counterpoint to an example of a disinterested modern athlete?


I have trouble believing ARod's presence would have hurt the Championship Red Sox clubhouse .... unless he bogarted the syringe from Manny, Papi, Trot, Tek, and Pedro.

The morality is in the numbers.

Joel Sherman at least seems grounded in reality.  The threat of a contract void could compel ARod to accept a buyout:

"Privately, the Yankees are thrilled with this latest mess. For if the allegations first made yesterday in the Miami New Times that detail Rodriguez purchasing banned performance enhancers from 2009-12 turn out to be accurate — or worse — then a portal has been opened for the Yankees to accomplish a goal as large as winning the 2013 World Series because of what it means to their present and near future: Severing ties with Rodriguez and saving as much of the $114 million they owe him over the next five years as possible.

Now let’s not mislead anyone. The Yankees will need a Hail Mary to succeed. After all, we thought baseball had Ryan Braun with no wiggle room, and Braun escaped. We thought the feds had Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens, and how did that turn out? The union may not love A-Rod, but its history is to fight like heck for its members and when the Players Association fights it generally wins.

Still, this is a Hail Mary the Yankees will be happy to attempt, as opposed to, say, when they threatened to go after the contracts of Bubba Trammell, Carl Pavano and Jason Giambi for various forms of alleged malfeasance — and then didn’t."

Bubba Trammell.  Was benched for a game against the Mets and he just disappeared.  Remember that guy?

Anyway, ARod and the Union are not just going to quietly give back $114 million.
 

I have a gripe with the invocation of a "morals clause" when it just boils down to costs and benefits:

"But maybe the mere threat of more info arising from a court case would move Rodriguez to agree to a buyout, say half of the $114 million, and that lowered total would count toward the tax (can’t see the union ever accepting that). Or maybe a sensitive sort will not want to endure the public humiliation that will come with his appearances and retire claiming an inability to recover from a second hip surgery in four years. In that scenario, the Yankees might be able to recoup 70-85 percent of his contract in insurance."

Just a reminder, the jury found Clemens not guilty.

Once again, Mike Lupica confuses the court of public opinion with the court of American law:

"Now, despite detailed patient files and payment records and even handwritten notes linking Rodriguez to this 'biochemist' Anthony Bosch, about whom you first learned in the Daily News on Saturday morning, Rodriguez clearly intends to make this his word against Bosch’s, even if Bosch eventually flips on him the way Brian McNamee, Roger Clemens’ former trainer, flipped on Clemens.

You know why McNamee did that, by the way? Not because he was a rat and snitch, but because when he talked to George Mitchell’s investigators for the Mitchell Report, the feds were in the room. And McNamee had been made well aware that you have two choices with the feds in the room: You tell the truth, or you don’t tell anything at all.

All this time later there is this idea that the government should somehow just look the other way on drug cheats in sports because they couldn’t pin the perjury rap on Clemens that Clemens deserved. But the feds cannot allow Rodriguez to make this just his word against Bosch’s, make this a wretched war fought in A-Rod’s behalf by handlers and crisis managers and spin doctors.

If baseball is going to continue to clean up its sport, something it has done mightily over the last decade, the government has to continue to go after Bosch and his clinic and his 'patients.' The government has subpoena power. Major League Baseball certainly does not."

"Major League Baseball does not have supboena power," he says. 

"Subpoena" sounds like a mighty big word for a guy like him.  

It sounds like a child writing a 3rd-grade paper about the US judicial system, throwing in a few unfamiliar words to sound smart. 


It wouldn't shock me if ARod is so arrogant and idiotic, that he continued taking PEDs after he was caught and after his reputation was shredded.  It also wouldn't shock me if the case goes nowhere -- it's nothing more than a leak at this point.

Lupica doesn't know yet, nobody does.


But Lupica is actually defending the success of the feds who went after Bonds and Clemens.  The feds wasted a lot of money and got nothing from Bonds and Clemens.  Lupica is insistent that we spend more time and money going after ARod (and, who knows, maybe even Gio Gonzalez?  Gio Gonzalez, anybody?).

Lupica continues to instant that baseball players can't beat the scary feds.  Clemens and Bonds already did.

If he took PEDs in the past four years, he should demand a refund.

Of course they want to void his contract.  I am unfamiliar with any successful attempt to void a MLB contract because the player used PEDs. 

The Yankees didn't void ARod's contract in 2010.  The Yankees didn't void Giambi's contract, nor Pettitte's, nor lots of other contracts.

So when management decides a player is no longer productive, that's when they take a stand?

I'm wondering how the other teams in MLB would react to that. 

Even if ARod is completely guilty of these new charges, the Yankees deserve to be punished by paying his contract:

"The New York Yankees are exploring multiple avenues in an attempt to void their contract with Alex Rodriguez based on new allegations of illegal performance-enhancing drug use reported by a Miami newspaper, but the odds may be against their ability to do it.

According to several baseball sources who spoke to ESPNNewYork.com on the condition of anonymity, Rodriguez may be in little danger of having his contract voided, even if the charges turn out to be true. There is no precedent to successfully void a contract in baseball over PEDs.

If Major League Baseball finds cause to discipline Rodriguez based on allegations made in a 5,400-word story published by the Miami New Times, the Yankees will try to find an escape hatch from their remaining five-year, $114 million obligation to the three-time American League MVP."

I mean, if this new report his true, then his questionable reputation is totally shot forever.

ARod doesn't deserve the benefit of the doubt.  However, the anonymous report also doesn't deserve the benefit of the doubt.

Beat reporters.

A takedown of the Boston sports media included the following:

"There’s a distance now between players and the media that didn’t exist in the past. In the old days, when the media contingent was smaller and before 24-hour cable sports news and the explosion of coverage on the Web, it was easier to interact like human beings. Now, when the Celtics players do enter the locker room to talk with reporters, they’re immediately surrounded by a dozen or more people and prodded with questions—an unhealthy percentage of which typically aren’t questions at all, but lazy statements along the lines of, 'Talk about the third quarter.' 'I don’t envy anybody covering a team in any major sport for any major outlet,' Bob Ryan told me. The media scrum rarely turns up anything interesting and, without doubt, the job for today’s reporter is harder than ever. And yet, most of them continue to approach it the same way their predecessors did in the ’80s and ’90s, showing up dutifully when the locker room opens, standing around, and going through all the same motions with the athletes. For the most part, the fruit of all this labor is a bunch of really boring, cliché-heavy quotes."

Bitch.

A rare non-baseball post, but this is astonishing to me in its depths of hackery.

It seems in the Carmelo/Garnett fight, somebody called somebody a bitch.



This is how Lupica ends Thursday's column:

"Carmelo Anthony wasn’t defending his wife’s honor that night, just his own. You know what they say. Life’s a you-know-what sometimes. Rhymes with rich."

Life's a bitch. I figured out your riddle.


This is how Lupica ends Friday's column:

"In Boston, he decided to just shut up and play. Good. You know what they say about payback. It’s also something that rhymes with rich."

Yeah, payback's a bitch ... but you just used that joke yes-ter-day.


I know what Lupica is.  It rhymes with punk-ass hack.

Pedro Feliciano Returns to the Mets.

"With $8 million worth of Yankees gold in his pockets and two years of their best medical services invested in his shoulder, Pedro Feliciano is returning to the Mets without ever having thrown a pitch for the Yankees." 

Bang for the buck.


"Rarely in the history of the interborough rivalry has one player caused such consternation on both sides of the divide, and it is one small case in which the Mets actually emerged as victors." 

Congratulations on your victory. Your prize is Pedro Feliciano in the minor leagues.

A minor league mind.

Can you imagine if the Yankees don't sign Robinson Cano to a long-term contract?:

"Behind the scenes, the people who run the Yankees have spent an awful lot of time complaining about Alex Rodriguez’s contract, one that seems to run forever, an insane 10-year contract, the dumbest in world history, given to him before they found out he was once the Lance Armstrong of the Texas Rangers."

I don't believe Mike Lupica has any access to the Yankees behind the scenes.

"So it is going to be interesting to see if they are willing to give Robinson Cano, past 30 now, his own 10-year contract when the time comes, one that will take him to the age of 40 and beyond."

Ten years is just insane, but eight years is cool.  

A 38-year-old D. Wright pulling down $20 million in the 2020 season in a league without a DH is going to be heartwarming and inspirational.

"Because if they do, this does become the old line about people not learning from history being doomed to repeat it."

Very old line, actually.  From a very old sportswriter.

I see no reason to believe that any major league ballclub that hopes to achieve success would shy away from long-term free agent contracts, with the understanding that the value will diminish over time.  If you don't like the rules, then get out of the game.  Be the Houston Astros, or something.

"If Cano and his agent Boras want eight years or 10 years and $200 million or more, I would tell both of them to hit the road."

In that case, I thank my lucky stars that Mike Lupica does not run the Yankees.  

Cano drives me bonkers with his lax attitude, but he's going to be a terrific HOMEGROWN player for a long time.

"Unless the Yankees just plan to be paying big money to baseball AARP members from now until the end of time."

You already know the answer to your question.  That is precisely what the Yankees plan on doing.  The hypothetical gritty youngster approach doesn't usually work out too well.

Mike Lupica is shooting from the lip. He is like a modern-day Cowboy.

Mike Lupica knows a lot about Doctor stuff:

"That doctor, Bryan Kelly, from the Hospital for Special Surgery who announced the other day that A-Rod’s hip problems have nothing to do with his steroid use — somebody ought to ask him how many admitted steroid users he has treated have hip problems exactly like Alex Rodriguez’s."

Why don't you ask him?


"Because unless there have been a lot, the doc really needs to blow these smiley-face theories of his out his ear."

There have not been a lot, that's the point.

A lot of steroid users. Not a lot of associated hip problems.

The medical doctor's opinion is far more valid than a journalist's opinion, even if one can question the medical doctor's motives.


"By the way?

The only way a doctor is allowed to be this chatty about a patient is with the patient’s permission."

To be sure, Alex Rodriguez authorized the dissemination of his Doctor's optimistic prognosis. Is that illegal or immoral or distasteful in any way?

The disclosure of ARod's PED test results was illegal, which might be of interest to Mike Lupica, since Mike Lupica is now an attorney interested in the intricacies of US privacy laws.

Not to mention his moonlighting duties as a surgeon.

Mike Lupica just knows everything about everything.  I'm happy he has started off 2013 with another fascinating "Shooting From the Lip." 

$189 ... $189 ... $189 ... more or less.

“All I can continue to tell everyone is our commitment to the fans is never going to change. We will always field a championship-caliber team,” Steinbrenner told The Post and the Wall Street Journal Thusday — in his first interview since before the 2012 playoffs began. “Is our goal [a $189 million payroll] next year? Yes. But [we’ll go that low] only if I’m convinced if the team I see, that we’ve put together, is a championship-caliber team.”

MLB finally starts testing for HGH.

"Team owners and the Major League Baseball Players Association, in a statement Thursday, said unannounced, random blood tests for human growth hormone -- known as HGH -- will begin this year."

Offenses are struggling. Attendance is down. HGH use should be mandatory.

It is similarly easy to just vote no.

"Easy thing would be, vote the scoundrels in.

Box next to Barry Bonds' name? Check.

Box next to Roger Clemens' name? Check.

Box next to Sammy Sosa and Rafael Palmeiro? Check, check.

Yes, easy thing would be to throw up my hands, pass the buck, step in line with the many others who say, hey, ain't my responsibility to judge the Steroid Era.

But I can't do that. And I won't do that."

Another easy thing to do is vote no for everyone you suspect of steroid use.

For whatever reason, you have made it clear you suspect Bagwell and Piazza, but you don't suspect Biggio.


"But the Steroid Era was one of the most shameful in the game's history.

It distorted the record book, grotesquely. It pushed retired legends into the shadows when they never should have left the spotlight, and it shined the spotlight on others who never should have been center stage."

That's not quite accurate. I'd say the '98 HR race shined the spotlight on Roger Maris.


"Easy thing would be, wash my hands of any responsibility -- just as so many others have before me -- and give 'em all passes to Cooperstown. Vote the scoundrels in.

Sorry.

I do not claim to have the definitive answers in this mess. Maybe some of these guys will be voted in. And if they are, then that's the way it is."

Whenever somebody says they don't claim to have definitive answers, you can be sure they will answer definitively.

This guy took the easy way out and acts like he tortured himself with nuanced decisions. He just said, "if your muscles are big, you can't get in the HOF."

Unfairly tainted.

"Craig Biggio combined longevity and excellence with a set of skills matched by few others. How many players reached 3,000 hits — including 1,000 extra-base hits — while stealing 400 bases? Just three: Ty Cobb, Tris Speaker and Biggio. Cobb and Speaker last played in 1928.

Biggio, however, is perceived by some to have been less than dominant. He never led his league in hits, batting average, on-base percentage or slugging percentage, and he batted .234 in the postseason. Yet another candidate who was dominant, and sparkled in October, seems even less likely than Biggio to make it on Wednesday.

He is Curt Schilling, who had about eight extraordinary seasons and a handful of others just a notch below. His regular-season record (216-146, with a 3.46 earned run average) belies his postseason brilliance (11-2, 2.23), and he is the only pitcher in history to record at least 3,000 strikeouts with fewer than 750 walks.

Like all players of their generation, Biggio and Schilling were not tested for steroids until 2003. We cannot say for sure they were clean, but most writers seem to assume they were. Yet they still will not convince many voters."

I think they both belong in.

I don't understand the notion that Biggio wasn't dominant at times. Of course, Biggio benefited from bloated steroid-era stats even if he never used himself. But a 2b with 3,000 hits simply belongs in the HOF.

Checkmate, American League.

Yankees claim versatile Russ Canzler off waivers.

He's young.

He's cheap.

He's versatile.

He bats right-handed.

He has accomplished nothing in the major leagues, which means he is precisely what every sports radio caller wants.