Alex Speaks And J-Boogie Blogs

My attempt to listen to A-Rod's press conference today as it happened failed miserably. The stars were aligned against me. I didn't want my impression of Alex or his interview be influenced by anyone's opinions, so I turned off the radio, plugged in my iPod and jammed out to some tunes for the rest of the day. It's now about 8pm and I finally have the time to sit down and watch the interview. I figured it would be easier to blog my thoughts on the interview as I watched it, so that's what I'm doing. I have a special guest with me, the missus, and she'll probably chime in with a thought or two as well. She is 7 months pregnant and very moody, which doesn't bode well for A-Rod. And we're off.....

• Don Hooten is in the house. An obvious attempt at A-Rod's camp to build some support and show that he's sympathetic to the cause. Well played, but a little too obvious.
• He's reading his prepared statement and I'm wondering who wrote it for him. My wife is looking at him and wonders the same, thinking he's reading this for the first time and not believing what's on the paper. His eyes are kind of giving that away and he doesn't have a good flow to his reading.
• He looks a lot less orange today.
• He's blaming this on his "cousin"? Umm, ok.
• So he thought it was harmless and would only give him an energy boost. We're not buying it.
• Is there a performance enhancing drug to make someone a better actor? Talk about a dramatic pause. And all that just to say "thank you." That was such a failed attempt at trying to cry.
• Time for some Q&A from the media. This should be fun.
• Does he really think going to college would have made him less naive?
• I liked the question about if he was injected or took pills. The wife says, "is there anything you can inject that's legal that you can buy OTC?" I'm wondering how he only thought it was only going to increase his energy. Injecting yourself twice a month, for 6 months, for 3 years and it's just for energy? Yeah right. Who came up with that story? Drink some coffee or pop a greenie.
• The wife thinks it's shady that the "banned substance" came from the DR. She's now calling him "Shade-Rod."
• Did George King really think Alex was going to give up the name of his cousin? What a waste of a question.
• He's really playing up the "young and stupid" card.
• He thinks that the team will be closer because of this. I hope he's right.
• He just finished thanking the team again, saying "it'll be the best season of our lives." My wife finished his sentence by adding, "cause I'm going to get you guys some good stuff from the DR."
• Mike Vaccarro just stumped him by asking him "if he didn't think what he was doing was wrong, why was he so secretive about it?" He took a while to answer and I can't help but wonder if his crisis management team is feeding him answers. And his "I knew we weren't taking tic-tacs"comment puzzled me. You don't inject tic tacs last time I checked. I thought that was a very odd and curious response.
• Big up to Alex for the damage control he did by apologizing to Selena Roberts. But he didn't really have a choice now, did he?
• Kat O'Brien just wasted her question. Did she really think he'd rat out other players?
• Joel Sherman gets the award for best question of the day. A-Rod dodges the question and defaults to his "young and stupid" response. He is beating that into the ground.

My wife's closing comments: I wonder how much he's paying these people to tell him what to say. If he's really clean, he should be willing to pee on a stick every day for the rest of his career to prove he's trustworthy.

My closing comments: Wow. I'm not really sure what to think about what I just saw. I'll give him props for taking his lumps. That had to be tough to do. I just wonder how truthful he really was. He's definitely given more than any of the guys that have been busted. I sensed that some of his answers were prepared or thought of beforehand. He had a good coach that's for sure. He wants me to judge him from this day forward and I'll do that for him. Even though I don't believe him 100%, I think he was being as sincere as he could have been and I'll be glad to put this in the past. I do think he's been clean since he's been a Yankee. And I really hope that this is the last time we see a Yankee holding a press conference to discuss their steroid use. Giambi. Pettitte. A-Rod. It's becoming a tradition and it's one I can live without.

Jeter comments tomorrow. Can't wait to hear what the Captain has to say.

Peace, love and steroid-free Pinstripes,

J-Boogie