Frontrunning
Never let it be said that Alex Rodriguez wasn't loyal to the frontrunner.
He jumped ship from the Mariners when they wouldn't make him quite as stinking rich as he hoped to be, then passed on other offers of less money from potential contenders to take a quarter-billion-dollar contract from the doormat in Texas.
Only, after three years of toiling for a cellar dweller, despite padding his individual numbers and winning an MVP on a last-place team (quite the individual achievement in a perverse way), he decided that something was missing. Namely the chance to play to be the poster boy of the Evil Empire. Or to land more opportunities to whore himself for corporations. So he joined forces with George Steinbrenner, a class act whose legacy includes funneling illegal campaign contributions to Dick Nixon and hiring a low-life gambler to dig up dirt on true good guy Dave Winfield after Winnie sued the Boss for failing to pay the $300,000 to his foundation as stipulated in his contract. (Sadly, George also served as an assistant coach at Northwestern in 1955, and though he only lasted one season, the Wildcats never won another bowl game -- karma's a bitch.)
Mercifully (and I'm willing to admit this as evidence in support of the case for the existence of a merciful God), A-Rod has done bupkes in the postseason, helping to extend the Yankees World Series title drought to a whopping 1910 days. (I tried to figure out how many days have elapsed since the Chicago Cubs won a World Series, but blew a microchip in my calculator.)
Anyway, not content to take the easiest and most lucrative path, A-Rod has been at the center of a minor controversy this offseason, unwilling to make a decision on whether he should play for the U.S. or the Dominican Republic in March's inaugural World Baseball Classic. A-Rod was born in the U.S., but his parents immigrated here from the Dominican, making him eligible to play for either country.
At first A-Rod vacillated. His parents and family were lobbying hard for him to respect his roots and play for the Dominican, but A-Rod felt conflicted about not playing for the country where he holds citizenship -- and perhaps more important, made approximately a zillion dollars. Rather than choose between the countries, he said he wouldn't play at all, a cop out that dissatisfied all but the Yankees, who preferred not to have A-Rod play in the hopes that it might help the club prevent its title-less string from topping the 2 million-second mark.
But while such a decision -- or non-decision, as it were -- may have been justifiable, even if it showed no backbone, A-Rod has reversed himself once more in splendid fashion, announcing, contrary to all previous announcements, that he will, in fact, play in the WBC ... for the United States. Instead of showing some respect for his heritage and giving his parents and their homeland a measure of pride (with the possibility of great national pride if the Dominicans win the WBC title), A-Rod has opted to suit up for the one team in no need of help, and the one country that certainly could do without the ego boost.
A classy move by a real class act. Who, fittingly, made a max donation to George W. Bush's re-election campaign.
He jumped ship from the Mariners when they wouldn't make him quite as stinking rich as he hoped to be, then passed on other offers of less money from potential contenders to take a quarter-billion-dollar contract from the doormat in Texas.
Only, after three years of toiling for a cellar dweller, despite padding his individual numbers and winning an MVP on a last-place team (quite the individual achievement in a perverse way), he decided that something was missing. Namely the chance to play to be the poster boy of the Evil Empire. Or to land more opportunities to whore himself for corporations. So he joined forces with George Steinbrenner, a class act whose legacy includes funneling illegal campaign contributions to Dick Nixon and hiring a low-life gambler to dig up dirt on true good guy Dave Winfield after Winnie sued the Boss for failing to pay the $300,000 to his foundation as stipulated in his contract. (Sadly, George also served as an assistant coach at Northwestern in 1955, and though he only lasted one season, the Wildcats never won another bowl game -- karma's a bitch.)
Mercifully (and I'm willing to admit this as evidence in support of the case for the existence of a merciful God), A-Rod has done bupkes in the postseason, helping to extend the Yankees World Series title drought to a whopping 1910 days. (I tried to figure out how many days have elapsed since the Chicago Cubs won a World Series, but blew a microchip in my calculator.)
Anyway, not content to take the easiest and most lucrative path, A-Rod has been at the center of a minor controversy this offseason, unwilling to make a decision on whether he should play for the U.S. or the Dominican Republic in March's inaugural World Baseball Classic. A-Rod was born in the U.S., but his parents immigrated here from the Dominican, making him eligible to play for either country.
At first A-Rod vacillated. His parents and family were lobbying hard for him to respect his roots and play for the Dominican, but A-Rod felt conflicted about not playing for the country where he holds citizenship -- and perhaps more important, made approximately a zillion dollars. Rather than choose between the countries, he said he wouldn't play at all, a cop out that dissatisfied all but the Yankees, who preferred not to have A-Rod play in the hopes that it might help the club prevent its title-less string from topping the 2 million-second mark.
But while such a decision -- or non-decision, as it were -- may have been justifiable, even if it showed no backbone, A-Rod has reversed himself once more in splendid fashion, announcing, contrary to all previous announcements, that he will, in fact, play in the WBC ... for the United States. Instead of showing some respect for his heritage and giving his parents and their homeland a measure of pride (with the possibility of great national pride if the Dominicans win the WBC title), A-Rod has opted to suit up for the one team in no need of help, and the one country that certainly could do without the ego boost.
A classy move by a real class act. Who, fittingly, made a max donation to George W. Bush's re-election campaign.
posted by Alexander Dubcek | 21:16
5 Comments:
Whatever you think about A-Rod, claiming that he ought to feel more connection to the country his immigrant parents came from than to the only home he's ever known is one of those misperceptions that has made life so difficult for so many immigrants and children of immigrants here. People of Asian descent in this country are constantly asked "where are you from" by people who think nothing's wrong with that, even of people for whom "where I'm from" would be something like "Detroit." "But no, where are you REALLY from?" A-Rod may have many faults, but feeling more like an American than a Dominican isn't one of them.
But the reason A-Rod's decision warrants backlash is because he's reversed himself too many times to count. I believe at some point in the last couple of months he's made statements that 1) He'll play for the Dominican Republic; 2) He can't choose between the Dominican and the U.S., so he won't play at all; 3) He's going to play for the U.S. He could've spared himself a lot of derision had he either decided in the first place that he would play for the U.S., or stuck to his previous decision to simply not play at all and thus avoided having to choose sides.
I mean, any of those three options would've been valid and understandable. But it looks really bad to plead split loyalty and say you simply won't choose a side (an eminently justifiable and honorable choice), then less than a month later do just that.
I still don't understand why he didn't play for North Korea. I hear he loves kimchi.
Perhaps his indecisiveness is merely evidence that despite being a celebrity, he is merely human.
hey man, i like your blog. where can i get a template like this ? cheers.
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