From Tyler Kepner:
Alex Rodriguez did something very cool Tuesday. He spoke out against steroid use to local student-athletes.Rodriguez did it under the condition that his talk be closed to the news media, further proof that he is truly committed to a less-is-more strategy this season. More important, Rodriguez delivered on the vow he made in spring training to turn his admission of steroid use into a weapon against it.
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This is not the first time he has spoken to kids, either. He has made several speeches over the last few months, but this was the first that was made public, and only because the organization that hosted the event (not Rodriguez) acknowledged it after the fact.
Good.
I don’t know if ARod will ever be fully forgiven for his admitted steroid usage. The damage that has been done to his legacy as a ballplayer is irrevocable.
ARod the human being, however, can still be saved. Maybe it’s cynical of me to think that ARod is doing this simply to improve his reputation. I hope there’s some part of him that believes that these types of talks to kids are indeed valuable and that he continues to do them because he understands and believes in that value.
In the long term though, it doesn’t matter what ARod thinks or why as long as he keeps doing it. Rodriguez has been doing a lot of events like this, speaking to kids, playing stickball, getting himself out into the community without the media spotlight on him.
Its a good thing ARod is doing, regardless of motivations, and I hope it continues. Maybe he’ll discover after getting out and doing these types of things that it’s not so hard to be ARod afterall.
Scott Ham blogs about the Yankees here and at TheBronxView.com, as well as hosting The Bronx View Yankee Podcast. He can be reached at feedback@thebronxview.com.
