The Education of Alex Rodriguez

Anyone read this yet? What a fantastic lede.

Alex Rodriguez's return to the New York Yankees

 

"He tells them his job, third baseman for the New York Yankees."

I guess that was before The Yankees resigned Chase Headley

 

I thought Moehringer's approach to this piece was great, and humanizing --which honestly, was needed, as we've somehow turned A-Rod into an enemy of the state instead of what he is...a flawed human being. I feel like it does a good job of, on one hand, pointing out Rodriguez's delusions and shortcomings, while also taking the time to see what fueled those flaws and why the torch and pitchfork reaction to everything he does is unfair.

tl;dr: It's refreshing to see a less sanctimonious take on A-Rod, who receives baseball fans' ire while we write tributes to Bud Selig's legacy, as if he hasn't committed some similar sins (aka lying, misleading, stretching boundaries).

 

It really was a great approach to telling his story. I enjoyed every bit of it.

 

My biases are clear to many, but I think this is one of the best sports profiles written in years.

 

I was actually getting ready to create a thread about this. Loved it, as I do with most of Moehringer's stuff.

While reading it, I couldn't help but wonder how he got some of the info and access he did. He writes as if he were there for some very intimate moments, like New Year's Eve with his kids. Is he basing this off of recollections from A-Rod? From others? Was he actually there?

Regardless, it is a great read.

 

He was present for all the scenes. ARod even agreed to let JR accompany him to therapy.

 

Wow. I can't think of another profile in which the writer was given such intimate access for such an extended amount of time. A lesser writer might have gotten bogged down in such detail. Moehringer handled it brilliantly. As much as I didn't want to, I did start to feel for A-Rod. Totally humanizes him.

 

Story reminded me of the book Richard Ben Cramer was trying to write on A-Rod. And his regret about not being able to crack him. Fascinating how Moehringer was able to get his way in.

S.L. Price: The writer and the puzzle: Richard Ben Cramer couldn't crack A-Rod - MLB - SI.com

 

Access is huge, obviously, but the ability to write it well once you *get* access is absolutely huge. Seen a lot of writers, including one big time political writer this year who thought he was slumming in sports and going to write a nice revelatory profile, get great access and absolutely gag once they got in the door. Youvd got to get great scenes and use them well. It's all about the scenes, man.

Also, I love the decision to go w/o quotes because it makes the story hard to aggregate and steal from, in addition to not allowing anyone to take one of Alex's quotes and obsess over it and turn it into two days of TV or two lazy columns. You actually have to read the entire piece to understand the context of everything and that's a triumph.

 

Not that it impacted the story, but A-Rod is never actually quoted.

Amazing piece. He must have had crazy access.

 

Agree completely. It works far better the way he did it. That's not easy to pull off though.