Let's all slag on Alex Rodriguez and pretend it's sportswriting.

Bob Raissman shines the spotlight on ARod by complaining about all the ARod coverage.

Now, if the Daily News really wants to parse the difference between andro and "steroid," they'd solve a medical conundrum.  The rest of us know that Piazza cheated his way to the Mets Hall of Fame.  Not a peep of outrage from the Daily News' self-appointed Guardians of the Game.  A bunch of deluded, infantile keyboard heroes who use their columns to throw temper tantrums when they don't get their way.

To wit:

"They were bidding against themselves when they gave Rodriguez the dumbest contract in sports history, even as people try to tell you now what a star and a TV attraction he’s been, and it’s really not that bad. Right. Another hundred million still owed to a guy who’s calcifying in front of our eyes. Barry Bonds at least still had his hometown fans rooting for him at the end. Who roots for A-Rod except his own lawyers and flacks and other hired friends?"

ARod played pretty well this year.  I expect he'll get suspended for some part of 2014, but his hips could probably use more healing time.

ARod is a star and TV attraction.  Not arguable.  Probably one of the reasons is that the media continually give him free advertising.

Who roots for ARod now?  Lupica would be surprised.  I root for ARod and so do a lot of people I know (mostly Yankee fans; that's how it works).  Not the Daily News sportswriter cocoon, that's for sure.


"And yet: All they have to do is look across the diamond at where their broken-down third baseman was, until he couldn’t even make it through a seven-week season. Look at the deal they gave him when they didn’t have to. Look at what they’re getting out of it on the back end."

1) The Yankees are not giving Cano $300 million.  Nobody is.  It's the first figure in a negotiation and there is no real need to give it attention.

2) ARod made it through the seven-week season and played pretty well.  The last four games don't count and he could have played if the games mattered.  He proved you wrong.  He proved you wrong and now you won't admit it because you have no integrity.

3) All long-term deals in MLB depreciate sharply at the end.  The same fate awaits Cano, Sabathia, Teixeira, Jeter, Wright, and Pedroia. 

It is unlikely, however, that Lupica will refer to Wright as a "broken-down heap" the next time Wright gets beaned with a pitch.