The Media Circus Will Descend on Tampa Today
All eyes will be on A-Rod
Posted on Tuesday, February 17, 2009 at 10:30 AMIt's that time again, folks.
All Major League Baseball players are scheduled to report to Spring Training today and that can mean only one thing ... a massive media circus surrounding the New York Yankees and Alex Rodriguez.
As was the case last year, the Bronx Bombers will open Spring Training with a press conference surrounding one of their star players who admitted to the use of performance-enhancing drugs over the offseason. This time, however, the entire world will likely be watching.
When it was Jason Giambi in 2005, no one was surprised and very few people seemed to care. And in 2008 when it was Andy Pettitte, most people had already forgiven him for being upfront and honest. However, here in 2009, A-Rod will be at the mercy of nearly 200 members of the media and the extremely critical eye of every MLB fan.
Everything he says and every motion he makes will be analyzed and picked apart. Regardless of how truthful he is, the vast majority of spectators have made up their mind regarding the 12-time All Star. No matter what he says and no matter how regretful he appears, they will forever believe he's nothing more than a lying cheat. And for A-Rod's sake, it's best that he understands that.
Rodriguez needs to look at today's press conference as an opportunity to put this to rest. It should be the final time he addresses the use of performance-enhancing drugs, the final time he apologizes and the final time he serves as a distraction to the New York Yankees.
Anything less than that will be unacceptable.
Although the media and the Rodriguez-haters will try to hang onto this as long as they possibly can, it's time to move on. What's done is done ... it's no longer 2003. From this point forward, A-Rod should be focusing on baseball and doing everything in his power to bring the Yankees their 27th World Championship.
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