Alex Rodriguez And The Handwritten Apology


The long awaited apology came down from the man himself yesterday when Alex Rodriguez issued a handwritten apology for his actions of the past two seasons. A neatly penned and, at the surface, sincere diatribe came from a player who is seeking to regain all the respect he lost.

But did he do the right thing?

At 39-years-old, Rodriguez will enter spring training in two days with a boatload of questions. Can he still hit? Can he stay on the field? Can he stay out of trouble off the field? Will the use of performance-enhancing drugs lead to his body breaking down completely?

Fact is, nobody can answer those questions except for Rodriguez. But as far as the apology goes, it did come off weak.

But he did the right thing.

A simple hand written statement avoids a huge spectacle of a press conference taking place and doing nothing but adding more gasoline on the A-Rod fire.

To anybody that questions, ridicules, or simply can’t understand the reason for Rodriguez electing to go with a written statement needs to look no further than one of the key excerpts from that statement.

“I accept the fact that many of you will not believe my apology or anything I say at this point. I understand why and that’s on me.”

What about the road to issuing that apology? Having gone through hip surgery, the longest suspension in baseball history, and scrutiny of a lifetime, it took a strong will to actually admit his indiscretions. As profiled in ESPN The Magazine’s piece by J.R. Moehringer, the road back to pinstripes was grueling and, at times, too much to handle.

One of the biggest challenges for Rodriguez has been hiding this issue from his family. With two daughters not even in their teens yet, it’s becoming increasingly difficult to hide the truth. The truth that her father lied, cheated, and brought disgrace to a game he loves.

Like this excerpt from Moehringer’s article.

“Throughout this scandal Rodriguez and his ex-wife, Cynthia, have been on red alert, scrambling to shield the girls, clicking off TVs, hiding newspapers. But soon, they fear, Natasha is going to hear something. She’s old enough, her friends are old enough — some arrow of derision or ridicule is bound to pierce her parental bubble.”

Could the questionable road that Rodriguez elected to take stem from his tumultuous childhood? He spoke about it on an edition of Yankeeography. He grew up with a single mother who was a waitress and had to rely on a good night in tips to support her family. But how did it get that way?

Moehringer talked about Rodriguez and his relationship with his father up until the age of nine. Despite the father being a heavy drinker, the former professional baseball player did his best to pass on a love for baseball to his son. Until, one day, he was no longer there.

“Then one day, when Rodriguez is 10, he comes home from school and the house is strangely still. The TV is off. His father is gone. His father’s shoe store has been failing, so he’s gone up to New York to scout locations for a new store. At least that’s the story Rodriguez gets from his mother. He’ll be gone only a little while, she says, and then a little while becomes para siempre.”

What about the irony of it all? Normally, when one uses PEDs, their goal is to improve their performance. Over the course of the two year period in which he used the substances provided to him by convicted felon Anthony Bosch, he posted two of his worst campaigns. From 2011 to 2012, Rodriguez hit 34 total HR while batting just.274. He missed most of 2013 before being suspended for all of 2014.

Reflecting back on it, Rodriguez even ponders how he could be so foolish as to get an edge and not capitalize on it.

“Only me, only a dope like me would do that stuff and have the two worst statistical seasons of my career.”

Whatever the case may be, it is time for Rodriguez to put all this drama in the past. He took the right steps when he met with and apologized to the both the MLB and the Yankees. The Biogenesis scandal was unfortunately a black eye on the sport, but to keep pressing on that bruise will only cause more pain.

Rodriguez’s own words from the same statement he personally wrote echo the correct next step, which is to simply move on.

“I’m ready to put this chapter behind me and play some ball.”

[Image by Elsa/Getty Images]

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