Dear MannyBeingManny: What are you and Scott Boras thinking? Isn't it time to realize there are no other offers for you than the one from the Dodgers? Isn't it time to get to spring training? Who do you think you are? Mats Sundin?
It's the economy, people. And it's the fact that he quit on the Red Sox last year just to force a deal. Yes, i said quit on the Red Sox -- a team that had won two of the last four World Series. Who would take a big-money chance on him now?
A-Rod is going to get his richly deserved boos all season. But Manny should got no love from anybody either for this charade. Maybe we'll all be lucky and he'll just go away.
Fernando Martinez is the No. 1 story on the 2009 Bisons. So learn the name now. He's the Mets' top prospect, an outfielder they hope will spend many years in Citi Field after they refused to trade him to Minnesota last year as part of the Johan Santana deal.
New York Daily News columnist John Harper has a pretty interesting look at Martinez in today's paper but here's a red flag for Bisons' fans: The 20-year-old suffered an elbow injury on a throw in winter ball and has been limited to DH duties so far this spring. Uh-oh.
If you're looking for information from Mets camp, New York Daily News beat writer Adam Rubin is your man. Rubin, who also writes the Mets' minor-league reports for Baseball America, will be doing a live chat today at 3 from Port St. Lucie, Fla.
I bet he'll get a few questions about the No. 5 starter battle, which could lead to Jon Niese getting sent to Buffalo to be the ace here if a veteran like Livan Hernandez or Freddy Garcia grabs hold of the competition. Will be interesting to see if there's any chatter about OF Fernando Martinez, the top prospect who's expected to be the centerpiece of the Buffalo lineup.
I was young and naive but I knew I wasn't popping Tic-Tacs? Are you serious?
The parts of A-Fraud's presser I saw today were pathetic. I loved when Joel Sherman of the New York Post asked him how he could have been injected 36 times -- 36 times! -- in a three-year period if he didn't know what he was getting. Young and naive? You weren't 16, pal.
And I loved that little sniffly silence when he first mentioned his teammates. Truly touching. That was 33 minutes of my life I can't get back.
Alex Rodriguez arrives at Yankees spring training in Tampa today and is scheduled to hold a 1:30 p.m. news conference to discuss the steroid admission he made last week. And he better have a lot more apologies at the ready too. The "show" -- and I use that term intentionally -- is scheduled to be on the YES Network live and will probably be on ESPNews and ESPN as well.
I'm probably going to be in transit to Toronto for tonight's Sabres game so I may not see much of it and thus may not have much to add until I get home and review the tape tomorrow. Feel free to add your comments here on what A-Rod has to say.
So there we have it with sudden, shocking swiftness. Alex Rodriguez admits to using steroids while with the Texas Rangers from 2001-2003 but says he's been clean since he joined the Yankees in '04. Things are already a circus around the Yankees on a daily basis but just imagine what it will be like when A-Fraud shows up in Tampa next week -- or at every visiting ballpark all season.
If A-Roid hits 800 or 900 career home runs, is he dust for Cooperstown just like Mark McGwire and Rafael Palmeiro? Or does his quick admission -- albeit after his 2007 denial to Katie Couric -- give him a little more wiggle room in your eyes if you were a voter?
---Mike Harrington
(UPDATE: Thanks to Budd Bailey for the link: Here's a look back at the A-Rod/Katie chat)
So I was planning on getting this blog going again now that Ps and Cs report in less than a week but it's pretty stunning to be talking about this kind of thing: Saturday's big news coming from SI.com is that Alex Rodriguez apparently had a positive steroids test in 2003 while with Texas.
Holy cow. Think the New York papers will have a field day with that all week leading up to his arrival in Tampa? The A-Roid stuff is quickly all over the place today and the Daily News has a big report already.
So is this a shocker or does nothing about PEDs surprise you anymore?
