At some point yesterday, Alex Rodriguez made comments about the excitement that Jose Reyes brings to the playing field. Depending on which blog or newspaper you get your news from, you might have been treated to one of two fairly different stories.
Peter Abraham, Lohud Yankees Blog:
Alex Rodriguez told reporters in Jupiter today that he wished Jose Reyes played for the Yankees. Uh-oh.
He later then sent word through a team PR man that his comments shouldn’t be taken as a shot at Derek Jeter. But of course it’ll still be seen that way.
It’s truly amazing the fixes this guys gets himself into. It really is.
UPDATE, 5:31 p.m: Here is what A-Rod said: “I wish (Reyes) was leading off on our team or playing on our team. That’s fun to watch.”
Jose Reyes is a terrific player and it may have been an innocent comment. But given Alex’s history with Jeter, he should have found a different way to say something nice about Reyes. It just doesn’t make sense.
Whoa, seems like a controversy. Well, not so fast, says Jack Curry of the NY Times:
After Alex Rodriguez watched his Dominican Republic teammate José Reyes make two smart base-running plays in Tuesday’s exhibition game against the Marlins, he gushed: “I wish he was leading off on our team or playing on our team. That’s fun to watch.”
The remark seemed harmless, a throwaway line, the third baseman for the Yankees complimenting the shortstop for the Mets. But apparently fearing a headline like, “A-Rod Tells Yankees to Acquire Reyes,” Rodriguez later said, through a spokesman, that his remarks were not intended as criticism of Derek Jeter, the Yankees’ shortstop and captain.
Rodriguez and Jeter have played alongside each other in the Yankees’ infield for the last five seasons. The two players were close friends early in their careers, but that relationship has cooled.
Still, on Tuesday, Rodriguez seemed guilty of nothing more than trying to be gracious toward Reyes.
These are similar reports that have entirely different tones. One is reporting what happened and dismissing it as a non issue, while the other looks at it as another example of “that stupid A-Rod.” I guarantee that people who got the story from Pete first have an entirely different perception of Alex’s comments than those who read about it elsewhere. Reporters help shape our perceptions of players and the sport, and they should try to be a bit more responsible in conveying information to their readers. Otherwise, total throwaway lines that hold absolutely no meaning can be turned into hours and hours of debate and mindless talk radio drivel.
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13 Responses to The Anatomy Of A (Non) Story
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TIQ IQ
You know I used to enjoy Peter Abraham’s blog. And while he still is one of the best in posting information and interviews, I’ve grown tired of his “humor”. Apparently all journalist/bloggers think they are comedians too. In fact I was banned from his blog for making a nomaas.org reference in the comments section (can make a job but can’t take it I guess). And his responses to his commentators (as crazy as some of them may be) is borderline Francessa rude.
Fortunately for me I’ve stumbled upon this new blog here, and I get basically the same information. So thanks for that fellas.
Regarding this “story”, I obviously agree with Jack Curry, lets move on now, nothing more to see here…
We are glad to have you. Pete’s head has gotten a little big- go back and look how respectful he was to commenters in the early days. He’s the biggest blogger out there, so he feels emboldened to say whatever he wants about players and readers.
Abraham is one of the biggest do*ches in the media right now. He is a redsox fan who has found it increasingly difficult to hide his disdain for arod day in and day out. Even in posts that literally have nothing to do with arod or steroids he goes out of his way to add some b*tchass little line like “wow sure is great to talk about something other than arod”. As nomaas and other sites have proved he’s self obsessed and paranoid and has no problem interjecting his own opinions of players and coaches and shaping the facts to fit those opinions.
Sportswriters who are trying to make a controversy out of this are unknowingly revealing more about their own “issues” than they are about A-Rod’s.
They do love to tear down the biggest stars, dont they? A little bit jealous, I would say.
Go check out the NY Post and Daily News. The Post has two stories on this,by Kernan and King, both negative. The News has one very balanced story on it, by Harper.
The NY Post is garbage, it turned into yellow journalism when they went after Arod for tanning shirtless in central park two years ago, and have never looked back since….
Moshe, you’re right about Pete. Dude can’t take any criticism. Even people that disagree respectfully are attacked in the comments section.
Arod might have made it worse on himself by making the second comment, denying that it was a slight against Jeter.
Yeah, he never should have apologized, it gave Pete some ammo.
I love how no one has even mentioned Johnny Damon. He’s our leadoff hitter, if A-Rod was “slighting” anyone it would be him (although I don’t think A-Rod did “slight” anyone). Of course, bringing in Damon doesn’t fit the story’s paradigm. They have to relate it to Jeter because the media is obsessed with their “frayed” relationship. The comments were harmless and have been blown up because he’s Alex Rodriguez.
There was one story in the Post today that asked Damon about it, and he laughed about it.
Ha!
the sporting press has proven time and again that by and large they’re self-righteous, hypocritical, and mean-spirited. That some of them obsessively watch every more Arod makes to try and twist it into a means to ridicule him shows just how creepy a lot of them have gotten.