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Remember, back in 2009 when no one was paying any attention to Alex Rodriguez? Me neither.

Image (1) AlexRodriguezAP-thumb-250x303-6668.jpg for post 4407

Tony Massarotti, who claims that “no one cares about A-Rod” anymore and then proceeds to write an entire column about him, had this to say about Alex Rodriguez while doing the de riguer cataloging of his shortcomings:

“Rodriguez always had more ability than his chief contemporary, Derek Jeter. He just didn’t have the makeup. For all the attention Rodriguez sought during his career, he routinely wilted under it. On the field and off, as it turns out. In assorted postseason series with the Yankees, Rodriguez batted .133, .071, .190, .111, .125 and .111. His career postseason batting average of .263 was noticeably lower than his career regular season number of .299, and it was worse if you eliminate the productive 2009 postseason in which A-Rod was not the focus.”

Translation: “Alex Rodriguez was awful in the postseason except for that time he was AMAZING but that didn’t count because of this narrative I just made up about how it didn’t count.”

He goes on to say that no one was paying attention to Rodriguez that postseason as "[t]hat October, C.C. Sabathia and Mark Teixeira were the ones in New York’s crosshairs.” Because no, Alex Rodriguez was not in the spotlight in 2009. Not at all. It was only the sleepy little year in which:


  • A salacious tell-all book came out about him, written by a New York Times columnist;
  • He gave a nationally televised admission of steroid use to kick off spring training after his name was revealed on the list of guys who tested positive during the sample testing period;
  • He had hip surgery;
  • He nonetheless hit a home run on the first swing he took after recovering from hip surgery;
  • His relationship with Kate Hudson was all over the tabloids;
  • The story about him allegedly having a painting of him depicted as a centaur in his room broke; and
  • The ENTIRE runup to the postseason and every single postseason story about him and the Yankees that year was about how, in the past, Rodriguez had choked in the postseason.

After the World Series that year, ESPN’s Jim Caple called it “the most interesting season of [Rodriguez’s] life by far.” But sure, “A-Rod was not the focus.” He was just a regular joe, going hardly noticed by people. Most of us forgot what he even looked like.

It must be nice to be a radio/columnist dude. You can just make up stuff all you want and merely assert it with no care whatsoever about, you know, reality.