Alex Rodriguez on Mariano Rivera, after calling him not just one of the best pitchers ever, but one of the best athletes of all time in any sport:
On the one hand: I think we’ve stumbled upon a legitimately, observable and unequivocal flaw with Alex Rodriguez apart from PED stuff: his being unable to actually follow the example of his role models. Unless there’s a lot we don’t know about Mariano Rivera’s example, anyway.
On the other, more serious hand: I think it’s notable that Rodriguez, for all of his faults, has rarely if ever that I can remember said a bad thing about his teammates. Maybe I’m just blanking on something, but for all of his controversies, he hasn’t been involved in specifically clubhouse controversies. They are PR things and PED things and clashes with the front office, but I cant’ recall him slagging on teammates or managers.
Anyway: waiting for someone to go after A-Rod for “using the good name of Mariano Rivera” to cynically improve his own personal brand and PR profile or something. You know it’s coming.
