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The Education of Alex Rodriguez

Discussion in 'Journalism topics only' started by JackReacher, Feb 19, 2015.

  1. 3_Octave_Fart

    3_Octave_Fart Well-Known Member

    Piece wins because it almost always sucks to read about him.
    Maybe no athlete other than Tiger Woods has had as much piffle written about him as Rodriguez.
    It takes skill to frame someone so tacitly unlikeable as worthy of one's compassion.
     
    Last edited: Feb 19, 2015
  2. RecoveringJournalist

    RecoveringJournalist Well-Known Member

    I don't know that it made me feel sorry for A-Rod. But that piece does something that I would argue is one of the hardest things in journalism to do, write a piece on someone who has been profiled countless times and be able to tell you all kinds of things that you never knew about him.

    Wright Thompson did that with Jordan a couple years ago.
     
  3. Mr. Sunshine

    Mr. Sunshine Well-Known Member

    Don't care about Arod, but would like to know what happened to Uncle Charlie.
     
  4. 3_Octave_Fart

    3_Octave_Fart Well-Known Member

    I feel sorry that he didn't know the enduring love of a father. No boy deserves that, and his abandonment issues explain quite a bit.
     
  5. Double Down

    Double Down Well-Known Member

    This is a crazy thing to type, but the scene with Katy Perry was heartbreaking, when he tried so hard to get them backstage, as if to make up for lost time and chances, only to see that she showed his kids more love and attention than he'd shown any fan ever.
     
  6. JackReacher

    JackReacher Well-Known Member

    Heartbreaking is a tad strong, but I agree. That scene was great and very telling. Story of the year, so far.
     
  7. Boom_70

    Boom_70 Well-Known Member

    Agreed. My father died when I was 9. I don't feel liked that sad event has defined the rest of my life. We've all been shot A Rod, just get in the truck and drive.
     
  8. RecoveringJournalist

    RecoveringJournalist Well-Known Member

    I'm guessing there aren't too many people who haven't dealt with something pretty significant during their lives. Some, obviously are worse than others, I don't find the story heartbreaking and it doesn't make me feel sorry for A-Rod, but it makes me understand him a little more than before.
     
  9. swingline

    swingline Well-Known Member

    It's not crazy at all to type. Sort of an epiphany for Rodriguez in that moment.

    I've never been in the A-Rod hater camp, mainly because unless I come across a story about him, I don't think about him at all. But this story really drives home what has been said before, that A-Rod is so desperate for acceptance, for love, that he's sort of sold his soul to the pharmaceutical store in search of it.
     
  10. Boom_70

    Boom_70 Well-Known Member

    Wonder if A Rod thought about his daughters when he was with this gal in Toronto when he was still married
    to their mother.
    [​IMG]
     
  11. Boom_70

    Boom_70 Well-Known Member

    Unless I missed it which given the length of the story is certainly possible but it does make it seem like
    A-Rods first use of PED's came when he met Bosch and I quote:

    "Hiding his true portrait from the world, he wakes one day in horror at the bargain he's struck.Rodriguez thinks often about that first meeting with Bosch. Shaking his hand, taking what he gave with the other hand, which might have been sugar and lies -- his numbers went down for two years. He laughs: Only he, only a dope like he, would do that stuff and have the two worst statistical seasons of his career."

    If this story is now going to become the definitive A Rod narrative it's missing a few big pieces but again I need to reread to be certain that
    I did not miss something.
     
  12. 3_Octave_Fart

    3_Octave_Fart Well-Known Member

    I think a missing question was why he waited 20 years to audit a college course.
    He also really knows baseball- haters have to grant him that.
    Writer makes him sound like the average baseball-playing dope.
    If nothing else he has some intellectual curiosity.
     
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