The Yankee sluggers party with Kate Hudson and Minka Kelly at a club in New York
NEW YORK -- The last image we saw of Alex Rodriguez in the 2009 season was very different from the first one. In the beginning, A-Rod was, as he has so often been throughout a career marked by excesses of tumult and talent, the center of attention for all the wrong reasons. In February, he sat in a tent in Tampa, Fla., at the Yankees spring training complex and tried in vain to fight back tears and explain how and why he had taken steroids when he was with the Texas Rangers.
PHILADELPHIA -- Alex Rodriguez has turned around his perennial playoff struggles and with one swing of his bat brought the Yankees within 27 outs of their 27th World Series championship -- and his first.
Is A-Rod's girlfriend the New York team's good luck charm?
Someone once asked Fred Zinnemann, the director, what a certain famous movie star was like. "What makes you think," Zinnemann replied, "that she's like anything?"
For those of you who know what's going on inside Alex Rodriguez's head, can you please give me an update? Is he envisioning home runs? How much time -- rounded to the nearest hour -- does he spend looking in the mirror each morning? And can you give me his AmEx number?
NEW YORK -- Two Tuesdays ago, on the afternoon before these playoffs began, television cameramen and reporters massed around Alex Rodriguez's locker in the Yankees clubhouse, as they usually do, waiting for him to come in from a workout and dispense a few of his typically banal morsels. Relief pitcher Phil Coke didn't even seem to notice. First, Coke's locker has been two away from A-Rod's for a full season now, and he's used to the media crush. Second, Coke's attention was on this day diverted by a gift that had shown up on his chair that morning, as these things tend to do when you're a member of the Yankees: a brand new media player, from whom he did not know. "It's cool," Coke said. "It plays music, it plays movies, it stores photos." Someone pointed out that they lend out the machines in first class of some airlines. "I wouldn't know," Coke said. "I've never been on a plane like that."
NEW YORK -- Alex Rodriguez has made a lot of changes in his life, and they seem to be working so far. It's tough to judge the new A-Rod except on his playing exploits, as he's made himself a lot scarcer in the new Yankee Stadium (he was nowhere to be seen on workout day Thursday). But folks around him have observed a lot of alterations and see the difference in A-Rod.
The couple take in a tropical weekend of dining and shopping in Florida
A federal appeals court ruled Tuesday that federal investigators' seizure of drug-test results of more than 90 major league baseball players five years ago was illegal.
The Yankee sluggers party with Kate Hudson and Minka Kelly at a club in New York
NEW YORK -- The last image we saw of Alex Rodriguez in the 2009 season was very different from the first one. In the beginning, A-Rod was, as he has so often been throughout a career marked by excesses of tumult and talent, the center of attention for all the wrong reasons. In February, he sat in a tent in Tampa, Fla., at the Yankees spring training complex and tried in vain to fight back tears and explain how and why he had taken steroids when he was with the Texas Rangers.
PHILADELPHIA -- Alex Rodriguez has turned around his perennial playoff struggles and with one swing of his bat brought the Yankees within 27 outs of their 27th World Series championship -- and his first.
Is A-Rod's girlfriend the New York team's good luck charm?
Someone once asked Fred Zinnemann, the director, what a certain famous movie star was like. "What makes you think," Zinnemann replied, "that she's like anything?"
For those of you who know what's going on inside Alex Rodriguez's head, can you please give me an update? Is he envisioning home runs? How much time -- rounded to the nearest hour -- does he spend looking in the mirror each morning? And can you give me his AmEx number?
NEW YORK -- Two Tuesdays ago, on the afternoon before these playoffs began, television cameramen and reporters massed around Alex Rodriguez's locker in the Yankees clubhouse, as they usually do, waiting for him to come in from a workout and dispense a few of his typically banal morsels. Relief pitcher Phil Coke didn't even seem to notice. First, Coke's locker has been two away from A-Rod's for a full season now, and he's used to the media crush. Second, Coke's attention was on this day diverted by a gift that had shown up on his chair that morning, as these things tend to do when you're a member of the Yankees: a brand new media player, from whom he did not know. "It's cool," Coke said. "It plays music, it plays movies, it stores photos." Someone pointed out that they lend out the machines in first class of some airlines. "I wouldn't know," Coke said. "I've never been on a plane like that."
NEW YORK -- Alex Rodriguez has made a lot of changes in his life, and they seem to be working so far. It's tough to judge the new A-Rod except on his playing exploits, as he's made himself a lot scarcer in the new Yankee Stadium (he was nowhere to be seen on workout day Thursday). But folks around him have observed a lot of alterations and see the difference in A-Rod.
The couple take in a tropical weekend of dining and shopping in Florida
A federal appeals court ruled Tuesday that federal investigators' seizure of drug-test results of more than 90 major league baseball players five years ago was illegal.
• Kate Hudson shared an intimate dinner with beau Alex Rodriguez at Yoshi's Jazz Club and Japanese Restaurant in San Francisco while the New York Yankees star was in town to take on the Oakland A's. Since the duo and their two friends arrived at the restaurant just before 11 p.m., the kitchen had to reopen to serve them. The gracious group then enjoyed their meal in the restaurant's glass-enclosed private room and feasted on an omakase menu that included lobster tempura and sushi. "Kate and A-Rod were affectionate toward each other," says an onlooker. "They seemed to have a great time."
"Her excitement and cheering are infectious," a source tells PEOPLE as the Yanks keep winning
Things seemed to be going so well. Alex Rodriguez was in virtual seclusion in Colorado, then Florida. Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens were neither seen nor heard, and Zack Greinke and Ryan Zimmerman were reminding everyone that baseball still held the power to surprise and amaze for all the right reasons. And then came news that Manny Ramirez had failed a drug test, instantly calling into question the legitimacy of his statistics and of the Dodgers' red-hot start that had been fueled by a player who was fueled, at least in part, by a female fertility drug. Perhaps worst of all, it turned the focus of this week's mailbag back to the dreaded topic of performance-enhancing drugs.
The actress sits in the stands as her baseball-player beau scores No. 564
It is widely known that performance-enhancing drugs help baseball players.
• Kate Hudson, pulling up a seat at the bar inside Morton's the Steakhouse in downtown Atlanta, where the actress watched beau Alex Rodriguez and the New York Yankees take on the Atlanta Braves. Arriving just in time for the seventh inning, Hudson ordered a chopped salad with bleu cheese dressing on the side and sat close to the television for the final two innings - the Yankees lost 4-0 - before returning back to her hotel.
Many moons ago, in one of the more memorable sports movies of all time, Rocky Balboa was warned by his crusty trainer to lay off the ladies if he wanted to win his big bout with Apollo Creed. "Women weaken legs!" hissed the venerable Mickey, who was played by the marvelously wizened Burgess Meredith.
MIAMI -- Yankees general manager Brian Cashman ordered superstar third baseman Alex Rodriguez be rested here Friday and Saturday after a conference call of Yankee bosses, including team owner Hal Steinbrenner, medical personnel and Rodriguez himself, people familiar with the situation tell SI.com.
1) Does Yankees manager Joe Girardi need to find more down time for Alex Rodriguez? Or does the New York manager keep running Rodriguez out there hoping the third baseman, who turns 34 next month and is coming off hip surgery, simply needs more at-bats to find his groove? Those questions have become more acute as A-Rod continues to slump, and Girardi will not have use of the DH option for the next nine games as New York plays in NL parks.
Major League Baseball is expanding its investigation of Yankees superstar Alex Rodriguez by adding the pitch-tipping allegation spelled out in Selena Roberts' new book A-Rod to the agenda, people familiar with the inquiry told SI.com.
The Yankee star and the actress are "somewhat serious," a source tells PEOPLE
This article appears in the May 11, 2009 issue of Sports Illustrated magazine.
BALTIMORE -- You kept thinking that perhaps tonight wouldn't end up being the night. That it would rain, or that manager Joe Girardi would at any moment announce, in his measured way, that Alex Rodriguez's return to the Yankees was being pushed back a day or two. "He's itchin', just itchin' to get out there," Girardi might say, "but it's a long season, and we're not going to rush it. Believe me, I'm going to have to tie him up to keep him off that field."
BALTIMORE -- "I miss simply being a baseball player," Alex Rodriguez said during his press conference on Feb. 17 in Tampa, during which he purported to "come clean" about the discovery first reported by SI's Selena Roberts and David Epstein that he was, at least at one time, a user of steroids. It was the only genuinely believable thing he said that day -- a granule of truth, mixed in with the fibs and the obfuscations and the stammering explanations and the 32-second silence in which he tried his best to produce even a single tear.
OK, coming off the latest talk of pitch tipping and Alex Rodriguez, we're going to talk a little bit about cheating today -- but, hey, we're not talking morality. Everyone has their own level of distaste for cheating and lying. Some think it's wrong all the time. Some think it's mostly wrong except in certain sporting situations. Some believe the old line that if you're not cheating you're not trying. I don't want to get into that today, though I do find the topic to be fascinating.
Pitch tipping has been around baseball since the Giants won the pennant in 1951, at the very least, and probably a lot longer than that. The twist in the case of Alex Rodriguez, according to Selena Roberts' new A-Rod book, is that he was occasionally tipping players on the other team while he played with the Texas Rangers.
Once, not all that long ago, they were baseball's dual kingpins. Ken Griffey Jr., the elder statesman by six years, would dominate the majors, then naturally -- and gracefully -- hand over his title of the era's greatest player to Alex Rodriguez, his Seattle Mariner teammate of the mid-to-late 1990s.
Alex Rodriguez took another step toward rejoining the New York Yankees following hip surgery, batting seven times in an extended spring training game against Pittsburgh Pirates minor leaguers.
When it was reported last February that Alex Rodriguez had tested positive for steroids in 2003, the reaction around baseball was mostly one of shock. Thursday's revelation that Rodriguez might have been tipping pitches to opposing hitters while playing shortstop for the Rangers from 2001-03 elicited a similar reaction from his former Texas teammates, with one important distinction: this might be even worse.
A report in the New York Daily News alleged that in a new book on Alex Rodriguez to be published this Monday by Harper Collins, the star tipped pitches when he was with the Texas Rangers, essentially signaling to friendly opponents what pitch was coming. SI senior writer Selena Roberts, who along with David Epstein broke the story in February about A-Rod's use of performance enhancing drugs, wrote the book and talked to SI.com about the allegations.
Baseball commissioner Bud Selig said Thursday he will withhold comment about any possible disciplinary action against Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriguez until he has read A-Rod: The Many Lives of Alex Rodriguez, a soon-to-be published book that details how Rodriguez tipped opposing hitters about what pitches were coming.
Alex Rodriguez and the Yankees have moved up A-Rod's target date and are now shooting for a return to the team sometime in the first week of May, sources say.
New York Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriguez increased the intensity of his workout and pitcher Chien-Ming Wang threw in the outfield Monday as part of their rehabilitation.
Top Yankees officials are apparently giving Alex Rodriguez a pass on his latest appearance in the tabloids, but they were annoyed and concerned enough about his extracurricular activities and a spate of often unflattering celebrity news stories that top team executives -- including owners Hal and Hank Steinbrenner -- staged serious discussions with the superstar slugger in recent weeks about toning down his off-field act and focusing entirely on his well-known drive to be baseball's best player, according to people familiar with those talks.
TAMPA, Fla. -- The man sitting in front of Alex Rodriguez's corner locker at Legends Field on Tuesday afternoon was most decidedly not Alex Rodriguez.
PHOENIX -- A's general manager Billy Beane is one of the smartest men in baseball. But sometimes Beane is credited with ideas that aren't even completely his.
First off, why do they call the cartilage in your hip the "labrum?" Is this some sort of medical gag designed to confuse baseball writers? Because, seriously, it's working. We are confused. The labrum is the cartilage in the shoulder that protects the shoulder blade AND the labrum is also the cartilage that protects the hip joint. Really. Apparently there are not enough words in medicine.
Yankees superstar Alex Rodriguez will undergo a first arthroscopic surgery to repair a labral tear on his right hip that's expected to keep him out six to nine weeks and has an "85 to 90 percent chance'' of allowing him to play the rest of the season.
As finely tuned a baseball machine as Alex Rodriguez might appear to be, a critical part of his body's machinery has long been working its way toward malfunction. The cyst on his hip that was drained last week is not the problem, but simply a result of a deeper structural problem with the joint itself; one that has developed over years and resulted in a condition that is increasingly being recognized in both athletes -- and the general population -- as a common cause of chronic groin and back pain.
Alex Rodriguez will undergo arthroscopic surgery to repair a labral tear on his right hip and the procedure is expected to keep him out six to nine weeks. That would have him returning sometime in May. In the ultra-competitive AL East, which sent the Rays and Red Sox to the playoffs last year, this could be a decisive blow against the Yankees. Then again, contrary to the conventional wisdom, it may not matter much at all.
When I was a senior in high school, I was torn between two colleges. I wanted to attend SUNY Albany. I wanted to attend the University of Delaware. I debated and debated and debated, and on the final day I opened my desk drawer intending to read over each school's brochure one last time.
GLENDALE, Ariz. -- A torn labrum was discovered in Alex Rodriguez's right hip and surgery remains a real option.
No matter how you weighed his postseason performance or knack of showing up in headlines for the wrong reasons, no one could deny that Alex Rodriguez long has been one of the most reliable assets in baseball. Jim Leyland used to apply the same thinking back in his Pittsburgh days to Barry Bonds, often reminding everyone that Bonds, despite what you thought of his prickly personality, "goes to the post every day." That doesn't happen without a willful commitment by the player, both to fitness and to his team. A manager and a franchise understand the value of having a star player they can count on to be there every day.
The picture says a thousand words -- and the inscription a handful more: A NAO, EL MEJOR ENTRENADOR DEL MUNDO. In English, "To Nao, the best trainer in the world." It is signed, ALEX RODRIGUEZ. The framed photo hangs in a tiny room off the gym where trainer Angel (Nao) Presinal diagnoses the pains and massages away the aches of many of the Dominican Republic's most famous athletes. There's another framed photo not far away, of Rodriguez, in a pink shirt and tie, with his left hand holding one of his AL MVP awards and his right arm flanked over the shoulders of Presinal.
During his latest hummina-hummina-hummina in front of the massed gadgets of the media on Tuesday, Alex "Tommy Flanagan" Rodriquez echoed the old maxim that "ninety percent of the game is half mental" while trying to not explain whether steroids had actually enhanced his performance. A-Rod also evoked more than one Hall of Famer while saying, "I understand the questions and the doubt. And I laid my bed, I'm going to have to sit on it" -- a beautifully tortured way of saying he realizes that he's going to have to recline in this jolly little mess of his own making.
In the matter, fellow citizens, of American disillusionment v. Alex Rodriquez, may I make a small suggestion? Do not allow yourself to be surprised that any hero who competed during the prime steroid years used performance-enhancing drugs. Really, acceptance of this fact will be so beneficial to your emotional health whenever the next big name surfaces ... guilty.
TAMPA, Fla. -- If Alex Rodriguez didn't do as well as teammate Andy Pettitte at his steroid press conference, it isn't totally because A-Rod isn't the best communicator, though that may be part of it. The real problem is A-Rod's story. It isn't as good a story as Pettitte's. And what's worse, of course, is that the story has changed maybe once or twice too often already.
TAMPA, Fla. -- Alex Rodriguez began his press conference on Tuesday at 1:52 p.m. -- 22 minutes late -- but punctuality was not the only element of his performance that ought to have been enhanced.
In a lengthy press conference at the Yankees spring training complex in Tampa, Fla., Alex Rodriguez gave additional details and information about his use of performance-enhancing drugs, which he maintains took place only between 2001 and 2003.
Baseball's new season has not yet begun, but it has already been defined: This will be the season of Alex Rodriguez.
Yankees executives saw Andy Pettitte hit a home run with a beautifully handled, seemingly sincere HGH admission last spring and would like to see an encore from their biggest star and best player.
Welcome to our first baseball mailbag of the season. Before we can (finally) start talking about actual games, teams and players on the field, I wanted to address several of the very interesting e-mails I got this week about the Alex Rodriguez controversy, which, not surprisingly, has dominated the news as well as your comments. To those of you who wrote in to say that you're sick of all the talk about steroids in general and A-Rod in particular, feel free to send me questions on any baseball topic and we'll get to them in a future mailbag. (Once the season starts, I'll be handling this duty on a weekly basis.) In the meantime, let's dive in.
While others debate the sincerity and completeness of Alex Rodriguez's confession to Peter Gammons on Monday, let's push past the garment-rending over the impact of his drug use upon the history and integrity of the game, and past the love/hate relationship baseball fans have with Rodriguez, a superstar bizarrely burdened with intense insecurities. Instead, let's take a cold, hard look at the seasons during which Rodriguez admitted he had experimented with banned substances, to see what impact, if any, those substances had on his performance on the field.
By Roger Rubin and Matt Gagne New York Daily News
Now that we're all clear on the fact that some of Alex Rodriguez's accomplishments were achieved with chemical help, we can move on to the question of legacy, which has always been of great importance to the Yankees' star third baseman. Baseball, more than any other major sport, is a game built on history, and no player seems more concerned about his place in that history than Rodriguez. It is not just a matter of how A-Rod is judged today, or next month or even a year from now. It is a question of what future generations will think of him and his juiced-up brethren.
Yankees executives didn't have an immediate response after hearing snippets of the TV interview on Monday in which their superstar third baseman, Alex Rodriguez, confessed to using performance-enhancing drugs several years ago, and they may never have an official reaction.
Alex Rodriguez made clear Monday that one thing still separates him from Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens, from Rafael Palmeiro and Sammy Sosa and Mark McGwire: he's smarter.
NEW YORK (SI.com) -- Alex Rodriguez has admitted to using performance-enhancing drugs from 2001-2003, ESPN is reporting.
When Alex Rodriguez was approached by Sports Illustrated writer Selena Roberts in the University of Miami gym on Thursday and presented with the bombshell that he failed baseball's 2003 steroid survey test, Rodriguez's immediate reaction was to tell her, "You'll have to talk to the union.''
Outside of Curt Schilling and Cory Lidle, very few Major League Baseball players ever dared criticize Barry Bonds, at least on the record. Either they were afraid of Bonds, afraid of the Players Association, or afraid of the possibility that their own lives would become subject to the same scrutiny as his. It was a kind of tradition when teams swung through San Francisco to play the Giants that opposing players would form a small receiving line before batting practice to greet Bonds and lavish him with praise.
Saturday's stunning revelation that Alex Rodriguez tested positive for anabolic steroids in 2003 invites numerous questions about one of the most accomplished players of the last 50 years.
Congressional hearings rarely produce much news of interest, or much good for the world, but the House Government Reform Committee did a great service to baseball -- and the country -- on March 17, 2005.
Surprised? No, I doubt anyone's all that surprised by this news. Was it really likely that while all these other power hitters were cranking their systems full of multisyllabic substances that Alex Rodriguez, the best, prettiest and prima donna-est of them all, abstained?
Someone who knows Alex Rodriguez pretty well once told me that the key to understanding A-Rod is to simply remember, at all times, that the guy wants to be loved. Maybe that's obvious. Maybe that's the thing that drives most (all?) successful people. Maybe that's why Bruce Springsteen plays the Super Bowl. Maybe that's why Brett Favre comes back for one more year. There's that classic exchange from Citizen Kane between Mr. Thompson, the guy trying to chase down what Rosebud meant, and Jedediah Leland, Charlie Kane's old friend.
For the 2009 season: Mark Teixeira (8 years, $180 million), CC Sabathia (7-161), AJ Burnett (5-82.5), Nick Swisher (trade)
While announcing new charitable projects, Alex Rodriguez candidly speaks to PEOPLE about the pop star
Days after reportedly spending Thanksgiving together, the two are both spotted south of the border
The Yankee slugger also is reportedly spotted giving Madonna a water bottle between songs at her concert
Contrary to reports, Yankees star Alex Rodriguez is not abandoning his children to spend Thanksgiving with Madonna, a source tells PEOPLE.
A source says the singer's friendship with the Yankees star was an issue in her marriage
"She said everything is good and feels relieved," a source close to Cynthia Rodriguez tells PEOPLE
It's over for the New York Yankees star Alex Rodriguez and Cynthia Rogriguez, his wife of more than five years. With a prenuptial agreement in place, lawyers for the couple confirmed Friday that a settlement was reached in their divorce
Rationally, we assume that it is much more agonizing to play an individual sport, where you can expect no help from any teammates, where you must depend completely upon yourself. But I believe that there are certain team players with the personality that turns that logic upside down, who suffer more pressure precisely because they are not alone, who are intimidated more by having to produce for their teammates.
The baseball star admits his marriage is "irretrievably broken" – and asks the court to enforce their prenup
One week after his wife filed for divorce, the baseball star unwinds – with Madonna's manager and her B.F.F.
In the middle of a messy divorce, the Yankee star spends time with his 3-year old, Natasha, and 11-week-old Ella
Cynthia says she still loves her husband but refuses "to go there again"
A-Rod's estranged wife makes claims about her husband and Madonna, tell us what you think of "affairs of the heart"
Ballplayers' marital woes don't usually wind up as front-page news. But most players aren't tied with Mickey Mantle on the all-time homer list -- or get spiritual guidance from Madonna
Cynthia Rodriguez's divorce attorney says the pair's relationship "was the last straw"
The singer tells PEOPLE she's not splitting from husband Guy Ritchie Рand she̢۪s not romantically involved with Alex Rodriguez
Lenny Kravitz denies he's involved in the breakup, amid reports the Yankee star is having an affair with Madonna
Yankees slugger Alex Rodriguez and his wife have split less than three months after the birth of the couple's second daughter, according to a report in the New York Daily News
TAMPA, Fla. -- A sextet of big-market teams were quietly lining up to bid for Alex Rodriguez in early November. Meetings were scheduled with both Los Angeles teams, the Dodgers and Angels, and according to people close to Rodriguez, the Mets, Red Sox, Giants and Tigers all were showing interest, as well. But A-Rod desperately wanted to remain a Yankee.
The Hot Stove season isn't dead yet. Things can and often do happen in January and February (see A-Rod to the Yankees, 2004)
There goes Alex Rodriguez, trying to be the center of attention again. Last week the Yankees third baseman again tried to hijack a major event on the 2007 baseball calendar. But this time, no one complained.
No, we can't ignore them. If the cavalcade of Sportsman of the Year candidates the past month has been spectacular, 2007 also will be remembered as a year of miscreants and manipulators, narco-jocks and narcissists. We are down on Downie, bitter at Bonds. And there is one misguided woman who flew Solo. Voilà, the SI.com Anti-Sportsmen of the Year:
There's not much room for argument: Alex Rodriguez was the best player in the American League this year. He lead his league in home runs (54), RBIs (156), runs scored (143), total bases (376), slugging percentage (.645) and OPS (1.067). He also led his league in Value Over Replacement Player (VORP), topping Magglio Ordonez by a score of 96.6 to 87.8. And he accomplished all of this while playing a more difficult defensive position than Magglio Ordonez, and playing it fairly well.
Goldman Sachs has helped bring about innumerable corporate deals, but published reports suggest it played an unusual role in a deal far outside its normal turf: the record-breaking contract expected to be signed soon between the New York Yankees and the team's star third baseman Alex Rodriguez.
In a stunning twist, Alex Rodriguez and the New York Yankees are discussing a deal that seems very likely to put the superstar third baseman back in pinstripes only two weeks after team officials had said "good-bye'' to baseball's best everyday player.
The first time Alex Rodriguez signed a long-term contract, in 1996, he basically negotiated it on his own. He was 21, in the middle of his first full season with the Seattle Mariners, thrilled to be playing for a contender and petrified at the thought of being traded.
Nobody does offseason intrigue quite like the Yankees, who are closing in on bringing Alex Rodriguez back after their recent public split.
Back in the '80s baseball's owners were found to have conspired to keep salaries down. Could they be planning the same thing when Alex Rodriguez's agent goes shopping?
The Mets' contingent secretly met with Scott Boras on Tuesday night to discuss the possibility of signing Alex Rodriguez, SI.com has learned.
ORLANDO, Fla. -- The Mets' contingent here secretly met to discuss the possibility of signing Alex Rodriguez with Rodriguez's agent Scott Boras Tuesday night, SI.com has learned.
Also in this column: • Marlins willing to deal Cabrera? • Johnny Damon for Joe Crede? • Giants will trade pitching for hitting • More news and notes
Also in this column: • Three teams rising in A-Rod derby • Rockies won't trade Atkins • Torre building his coaching staff • More news and notes
| Most Viewed | Most Emailed | Top Searches |
© 2009 Cable News Network. Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
