A-Rod is a lightning rod

Posted on August 5, 2013

Alex Rodriguez #13 of the New York Yankees grimaces after being hit by a pitch during first inning action against the Oakland Athletics during the game at the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum on August 18, 2009 in Oakland, California. (Photo by Brad Mangin)

 

The news that Major League Baseball is suspending New York Yankee Alex Rodriguez for 211 regular-season games through the 2014 season amid allegations involving the use of performance-enhancing drugs comes as no surprise. The 38-year-old slugger said he plans to appeal his suspension and is in the starting lineup and hitting cleanup for the Yanks game tonight in Chicago against the White Sox. The surprise is that I actually give a shit. The more I think about it the more upset I become.

As I sit here in my home office looking back over my vast online archive of pictures depicting A-Rod’s career from 1996 to the present day the MLB Network is on the television and everything the pundits are saying is bleeding together. It sounds like the teacher on the Charlie Brown cartoons. “Mwa mwa mwa.” But I can’t turn it off. It’s like watching a train wreck.

“I am disappointed with the penalty and intend to appeal and fight this through the process. I am eager to get back on the field and be with my teammates in Chicago tonight,” Rodriguez said in a statement. “I want to thank my family, friends and fans who have stood by my side through all this,” Rodriguez said in a statement.

His suspension is set to go into effect on Thursday, the league said. But officials also said that Rodriguez could keep playing if he appeals.

I can’t imagine the circus going on right now in Chicago as local photographers like Ron Vesely and Jonathan Daniel prepare to cover this story and deal with the hoards of media on the field during batting practice. I will enjoy the view from my office as I continue to write this blog post.

Love him or hate him there is no denying that Alex Rodriguez was once one of the greatest young prospects the game of baseball has ever seen. I loved being able to photograph him so much here on the west coast, starting in 1996, because the Seattle Mariners (his first club) made so many trips to the Bay Area to play the Oakland A’s. I also had the chance to shoot him up in Seattle, first at the awful Kingdome, then at lovely Safeco Field.

When Rodriguez came up to the big leagues he helped change the game. Before him most shortstops were skinny little guys like Roger Metzger or Mark Belanger, guys that came with the “good field, no hit” label. Rodriguez was an offensive monster who put up ungodly offensive power numbers. His likes had never been seen before.

Every time the Mariners came to town it was a HUGE deal. With Rodriguez and teammate Ken Griffey Jr. on the team we all raced out to the Oakland Coliseum early for batting practice before a day game. You see, the Mariners played in a dark dome (until July of 1999 when they moved to Safeco Field) and whenever they played outdoors in the 1990’s it was a special occasion having the chance to photograph them on beautiful Fujichrome RDP color slide film.

Back then editors needed chrome of the big stars. Not color negative film. Not early bad digital. They needed the supreme quality that came from shooting slides. You could not shoot slide film in the Kingdome, thus whenever the Mariners played a day game there was a swarm of photographers, like Jon SooHoo and Tom Dipace, flying in from all over the country to shoot them.

Photographers my age never had the chance to photograph the legends of the game like Mickey Mantle or Willie Mays in action. When I started shooting guys like Rodriguez and Barry Bonds I thought I finally had my chance to record history. Guys like this would be the cornerstone of my generation and I would have a complete photographic record of their playing careers. Little did I realize how tarnished this record would become.

I laugh when I remember the morning of Saturday, August 4, 2007. I was in an awesome Marriott in San Diego’s Gaslamp Quarter covering Bonds’s pursuit of Hank Aaron’s career home run record of 755 for Sports Illustrated. At the time Bonds was sitting on 754, and from my hotel room that morning I watched A-Rod hit career home run number 500 on TV during a day game at Yankee Stadium. Everyone made a huge deal about it. Everyone hated Bonds. He was a steroid freak. A-Rod was clean, everyone said. A-Rod would soon pass Bonds and become the real career home run leader. Major League Baseball was thrilled to put their marketing support behind A-Rod.

Bonds hit home run #755 that night in San Diego, trying Aaron, but baseball did not want to celebrate that feat. A-Rod was the man! Look how much has changed since then. Bonds retired with 762 home runs, and A-Rod has become an old, broken-down, steroid freak himself sitting on 647 home runs, the fifth most ever, through 19 seasons. A-Rod was no savior. He was just as dirty as Bonds, and maybe even dirtier. He will never even come close to passing Bonds. No one will for a long, long time.

The more I write the angrier I become. A-Rod is a bad guy who has done some bad things. He has screwed the fans. He has screwed his teammates. He is a liar, like most of the ballplayers who have been suspended for using performance-enhancing drugs. As a selfish photographer I feel like he cheated me also. I thought I was photographing greatness. I was photographing a fraud.

Sure Bonds used performance-enhancing drugs, but he never went on national television and told bold-faced lies to Katie Couric and Peter Gammons. Bonds was always his surly self, being rude to team employees and members of the media, but you knew what you were getting. Rodriguez was a fraud who got worse as his contract became bigger and his natural skills deteriorated.

Days like today make me glad that the game is being cleaned up, albeit slowly. I am also happy that I am having the chance to photograph a new, clean generation of ballplayers like local favorite Buster Posey. I do not believe that a player like Posey will ever be involved in a scandal like this.

As I glance at the TV in my office right now I see the tarp is on the field in Chicago as a steady rain is falling before A-Rod makes his 2013 season debut. Kinda fitting, huh?