It hardly seems possible that three weeks ago, Alex Rodriguez and the New York Yankees were fretting over something as meaningless as whether teammates called the star slugger “A-Fraud” behind his back.
Former Yankees manager Joe Torre makes that assertion in his new tell-all book The Yankee Years, in which Torre and co-writer Tom Verducci craft an intriguing third-person narrative that reveals the juiciest gossip about the inner-workings of the Yankee clubhouse.
But the most shocking details, the ones unbeknownst to Torre and the rest of the world, were revealed just days after the book’s release: Rodriguez tested positive for anabolic steroids in 2003.
The test was initially implemented as a way to determine the extent to which steroids had permeated baseball, and it was supposed to be anonymous. Yet when results of Rodriguez’s positive test leaked to Sports Illustrated reporters, published February 7, the name-calling in Torre’s book was pushed out of the headlines.
The results of the leak are yet another damning chapter of baseball’s steroids era. They cement the destruction of Rodriguez’s reputation as a natural talent who would erase the memory of steroid offender Barry Bonds and become the new home run king.
As fans and the media point fingers at Rodriguez and commissioner Bud Selig for letting steroids take over the game under his watch, the timing couldn’t have been worse for the Yankees. They’re already in dire straits, having missed the playoffs in 2008, the year after they fired Torre in favour of Joe Girardi.
The Yankee Years follows Torre from his hiring as Yankee manager in 1996, through the team’s dynasty years, their decline and fall, closing with Torre’s inevitable dismissal.
Along the way, Torre recounts the most famous moments of what he deems the “neo-Peloponnesian War” between the Yankees and Boston Red Sox. While it’s interesting for any baseball fan to revisit Torre’s in-game managerial decisions, the most salacious details are Torre’s personal opinions on players like the irresponsible David Wells, the mercurial Kevin Brown, and natural born leader Derek Jeter.
It’s common knowledge that the Yankees’ questionable personnel decisions have been responsible for their demise, and the destruction of team chemistry is nowhere more evident than in chapter eight, “The Issues of Alex.”
Torre chronicles the rift that developed between Rodriguez and Jeter, turning their friendship into a cold, unspoken feud. Rodriguez became obsessed with the public’s preference for the likable Jeter, despite Rodriguez being the far superior baseball player.
But his self-esteem issues would have far greater consequences.
Torre believes that Rodriguez’s problems stem from a fear of failure caused by his insatiable need to justify his outlandish contract and secure his place as one of the game’s all-time greats.
Concerning Rodriguez’s struggles under pressure, Torre says, “He was hyperaware of how he looked to others and how he was perceived. It was a self-awareness that crept into his at-bats in clutch situations, causing performance anxiety, and his teammates knew it.” As far as public condemnations go, it doesn’t get more overt than that.
In his emotional apology, Rodriguez cited these exact fears as the motivation that caused him to turn to performance-enhancing drugs.
The media reaction has since been all over the map, with some calling for Rodriguez’s accomplishments to be stricken from the record. Others are more willing to forgive, since baseball had no formal rules against steroids use when the then Texas Rangers shortstop failed testing in 2003.
Ultimately, the solution has yet to play out, as Rodriguez has at least a decade of his career ahead of him, which he’ll likely spend trying to make amends. It’s worth noting that no player identified in the Mitchell Report as having tested positive for banned substances has been elected to baseball’s Hall of Fame.
Torre also vents his frustrations over the yearly player turnover that turned the Yankees from annual championship contenders to a mess of artificially inflated egos and biceps. He describes the ill-advised moves as “heading toward an abyss.”
Yet even during this current off-season, the team has made alarmingly similar moves to the ones that dragged them down in the first place. They’ve once again attempted to bolster the pitching staff with high-priced signings, including a small-market star who seems unprepared for the New York microscope in C.C. Sabathia (whose potential issues resemble those of Randy Johnson and Javier Vazquez), and an unreliable, injury-prone starter in A.J. Burnett (shades of Carl Pavano and Jaret Wright).
But Rodriguez’s poor play in the clutch and endless personal distractions are by far the team’s biggest problem. Fall out from the steroid scandal will undoubtedly make the 2009 season immeasurably difficult.
In these times of crisis, the comments Rodriguez made on the day of his trade to the Yankees are particularly poignant: “I have seven years to play with Derek and set my legacy as far as being a part of Yankees history.”
With a new reputation as a steroid user whose accomplishments are forever tainted, Rodriguez has succeeded in cementing his legacy. Now he’ll have to live with it.
