ARod doesn’t appear to be facing any discipline problems from the league or the U.S. government. Even leading baseball writers such as ESPN’s Tim Kurkijan say they’ll still vote him in the Hall of Fame. All that’s left, and all that matters, is the court of public opinion.
Unfortunately, he has thrown his image, and that of his former and current team, into a public relations crisis.
The game’s future homerun king tried to treat this problem like a band-aid: rip it off fast, have it hurt badly now, and get over it. Except that strategy doesn’t work if you leave some unexplained ugliness.
As holes in his Tuesday confession start to pop up, whatever points he scored with the public have vanished. He claimed his cousin got the steroid “boli†legally over the counter in the Dominican Republic. ESPNDeportes recently reported that, whatever “boli†is, nothing of the sort was ever legal for purchase in the Dominican.
Making matters worse, the New York Daily News is reporting that Rodriguez is close friends with Angel Presinal, a personal trainer who was banned from every MLB clubhouse in 2001. A-Rod has some ‘splainin to do.
Predictably, late last week, he declined to talk about all this, saying he’s addressed the steroid issues and is moving on. Problem is, he hasn’t addressed all of it, and the fans aren’t moving on. ARod claimed that he juiced only from 2001-2003, but the public doesn’t believe him.
A USA TODAY/Gallup Poll of 1,023 adults shows that 46% of people think he used PEDs in years other than 01-03, compared to 32% that believed his use was just in the years he said he did. 22% had no opinion. In other words, only 1 in 3 people believe he was telling the truth. After being lied to by an endless parade of ball players before him, why would the public believe ARod? Claiming he was naïve about what he took and what he was doing is very convenient. So was the claim that his cousin did the dirty work.
ARod’s not the only one who has gone quiet. The Rangers’ PR department declined my request to comment on how this scandal has affected their image. The ARod news is hardly mentioned on the teams website. If you go to ARod’s personal website, there’s ZERO mention of this story. For ARod and the Rangers, the less this is brought up, the better.
Time heals all wounds, but will the public eventually root for ARod once again? For ARod’s part, he did say he was responsible and he apologized. He did more than any other juiced player has done. With questions still lingering, it’s up to each fan to make their own decision.
If ARod’s story hurt his image, it may have helped the Texas Rangers in weird way. The “culture†of the game that ARod referred to was never more evident during ARod’s ‘roid years in Texas. Jose Canseco, Juan 
Gonzalez, Rafael Palmeiro, Sammy Sosa, Ivan Rodriguez. The list of those linked to ‘roids is a long one. But on Tuesday, ARod tried to squash any speculation that his mistakes had to do with the Rangers.
“It was a different culture, a different situation,†he said. “There wasn’t as many questions asked. Any product today that is presented to you, you send it to your team trainer and he will fax it to the union. Those types of procedures weren’t in place back than. I certainly didn’t practice that, obviously. My mistake has nothing to do with where I played. My mistake came because I was immature and I was stupid. It wasn’t because of the Rangers or anything to do with Texas. I blame myself. For a week here, I have been looking for people to blame and I keep looking at myself at the end of the day. I never saw any other player do it. I really didn’t get into any other conversations or heard anything. I’m the one that screwed up, no one else.”
Score some points right there for the Rangers’ PR department. On top of that, ARod apologized to owner Tom Hicks. Hicks never said he accepted the apology.
ARod is WAY more admirable than the other cheaters. Look at Mark McGwire. To avoid perjuring himself like Bonds (allegedly), Big Mac just said “We’re not here to talk about the past.†At least ARod had the guts to face the music. We all just wish ARod didn’t leave so many things unsettled. If you’re gonna come clean, come clean all the way. Otherwise the remaining mess may never go away.
Scott Reister is a featured contributor to Midwest Sports Fans. He is a Sports Anchor for the NBC affiliate in the Tri-Cities and Spokane, WA. To learn more about Scott, visit the Scott Reister bio page on Midwest Sports Fans or check out the Scott Reister bio page on Midwest Sports Fans or check out the Local Sports page on KNDU.com.
To contact Scott: sreister@hotmail.com
