During the 2007-2008 seasons and offseason there was no relaxation for New York Yankee star Alex Rodriguez. Used to facing the pressure at the plate, Rodriguez took three strikes in life and limped back to the dugout. He went through the Alex Rodriguez steroid scandal, the Alex Rodriguez Madonna scandal and just the plain old Alex Rodriguez scandal regarding his agent Scott Boras and his on again, off again contract with the Yankees. Baseball’s best all-around player just couldn’t skirt one issue after another.
The first Rodriguez scandal of his year to forget broke out in October 2007. With the Yankees having floundered in the post-season and Rodriguez at home to watch the World Series, his agent decided to grab headlines in a reprehensible fashion. During the live broadcast of the final game of the Boston Red Sox trouncing of the Colorado Rockies in the World Series, Rodriguez’s agent Boras decided to phone in and let the contract negotiation details overshadow the game being played. Boras and Rodriguez were roundly criticized. Alex Rodriguez distanced himself from Boras, apologized and quietly dealt with the Yankees to secure a new contract, which paid him $28 million in 2008 alone.
After that ended and the quiet of the 2007 offseason was the Alex Rodriguez Madonna scandal. During the summer of 2008, Rodriguez was seen out in nightclubs with pop star Madonna during many late nights in Manhattan. At the time, Madonna was married to Guy Ritchie and Rodriguez was married to his wife Cindy, who had just given birth to their second child. The controversy came to a head when, after Madonna started watching Alex Rodriguez play ball games from the stands, it was reported he had been visiting Madonna’s apartment for several months. When this report seeped out both stars’ marriages broke apart with Alex and Cindy splitting for good in September.
Most damaging of all, however, was the Alex Rodriguez steroid scandal that broke out in February 2009. As part of the federal investigation into the baseball BALCO scandal, federal investigators demanded all the steroid tests from 2003, which were supposed to be destroyed by the players’ union but weren’t. All 104 names that tested positive that year were turned over and the biggest name that tested positive was Alex Rodriguez. Rodriguez made a decision that his peers Roger Clemens or Mark McGwire, both involved in steroid battles of their own, have not: he came clean. As a way to make the scandal end, Rodriguez held a press conference to admit that, yes, he had used what he called “boli” for two seasons from 2001-2003. He offered a heartfelt apology to fans and to the entire team, which attended the press conference.
The question remains as to whether Rodriguez can emerge from these scandals with his reputation intact. In the press, his popular nick name “A Rod” has been reworked into “A Fraud.” Even with his apologies, many now question his entire career statistics. A week later, at a charity event at the University of Miami, however, the shadow of steroids still tainted what should have been all sunshine.
As a scoreboards producer Electro-Mech is a part of the Sports World. So we try to keep up with the things that are going on in sports life and gladly share our most interesting news with our followers.