A-Rod & the Blonde Mystery Woman

In the most recent sign that the New York Post is the root of all evil, the paper lanched yet another attack on Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriguez. This time, the paper, which is owned by notorious Yankee hater Rupert Murdoch, didn't slander A-Rod for his playing ability. Of course, with A-Rod's great play this year, projections for the 2007 season and consistent brilliance across his Hall of Fame career, it is almost always difficult to attack the man for his play. So the Post, being the true rag that it is, chose to take yet another shot at Alex's personal life by publishing photos of him on the front cover of its paper with a blonde woman who was clearly not his wife. Above the photo of A-Rod and the Mystery Woman was the cheesy headline "Stray-Rod."

The New York Post Lives on A-Rod Gossip

That's right. In a time when President George W. Bush is escalating the Iraq war against the stated will of the American people and the United States Congress, the Post chose to reserve its most valuable space for A-Rod Gossip. Nice. Now, for the gory details.

In the story, the Post said Rodriguez and the woman enjoyed a dinner together at a steak house on Sunday night in Toronto, where the Yankees were set to play a three game stand against the Blue Jays. The paper further stated that after the dinner, the two were seen entering an elevator at the Four Seasons Hotel, which was near the Park Hyatt where most of the Yankees were staying. Later, they reappeared and went to a strip club, or so the Post claimed.

That's it. That's their front page story. Nothing about the war. Nothing about Darfur. Nothing about immigration reform. Certainly nothing about the President's current 26% approval rating. Worst of all, not a word about baseball. None of that. Just another sensational story about the personal life of a ballplayer. And from the article, it appears that the reporter and photographer who tracked down the 'story' must have been stalking Rodriguez from the restaurant to the hotel to the club. That is a very sad commentary about the current state of investigative reporting. Of course, this is the paper that ran a story in March with the critical news that Rodriguez and Derek Jeter were no longer best friends.

Yankees Feel it's a Non-Story

So what did A-Rod have to say about the story?

"Absolutely no comment about anything personal and I certainly don’t think this will be a distraction to our team,” he said. Asked whether it would be a distraction to him personally, Rodriguez said, “No, I don’t think so.”

His teammates and manager reflected the same attitude. “I think everything probably got blown out of proportion like always,” outfielder Johnny Damon said.

Manager Joe Torre agreed: “When you get into that area, I think it’s over the line. It’s what people seem to think is important or seem to think they have to do. In New York, there are so many more things that you talk about on a regular basis in addition to baseball,” Torre added. “When I took this job I certainly knew it wasn’t going to be about hitting and running and changing pitchers.”

Torre said Rodriguez discussed the tabloid story with him.

“Alex is a big boy,” Torre said. “I know how serious he takes his baseball. It really wasn’t an issue for me in the fact that he wouldn’t be ready to play tonight. My job is to keep the distractions from carrying over onto the playing field,” Torre said.

And with all of the distractions purposely created by such excuses for newspapers as the Post, Torre is usually a very busy man.

On a side note, on the day the story appeared in the Post, the Yankees broke a five-game losing streak by trouncing the Blue Jays 10-5. Rodriguez had two hits and drove in a key run in the ninth inning.

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Why A-Rod and Jeter Must Win Now

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