Alex Rodriguez spoke with reporters today about Jose Reyes, his teammate on the Dominican Republic's team at the World Baseball Classic.
“I wish (Reyes) was leading off on our team, playing on our team,” Rodriguez said.
It's like watching a car accident in slow motion. You're powerless to stop it, but you just know that the impact is going to be painful. Peter Abraham of the LoHud Yankees Blog thinks that given Rodriguez's history with Derek Jeter, he should have been a bit more thoughtful about the way he chose to compliment Reyes. Players pay their peers these kinds of compliments all the time, usually couched with a reminder that they've already got a great shortstop.
Rodriguez didn't do that, which was probably an honest oversight because he was trying so hard to play the nice guy card. He did have a PR guy issue a statement to let everyone know that he meant no ill will toward Jeter, though, which is like demolishing your house because you broke a window. And he probably didn't mean to make any comment about Jeter, although it's no surprise that people would assume that he did.
Intentions don't matter now, though, because issuing a retraction makes it seem like he did something wrong and is now trying to backpedal away from the original comment. A comment, we remind you, which was an innocuous compliment of a player who has nothing to do with Rodriguez or Jeter.
Awkward isn't a strong enough word for A-Rod's interactions with the world, which is probably why it would be easier if he didn't even bother trying at all.
Josh Alper is a writer living in New York City and is a contributor to FanHouse.com and ProFootballTalk.com in addition to his duties for NBCNewYork.com.
