Alex Rodriguez was commentating for ESPN during the Yankees’ Spring Training contest against the Boston Red Sox on Tuesday afternoon. During the broadcast, the former Yankee voiced his opinion in regards to the Houston Astros cheating scandal.
“I served the longest suspension in MLB history. It cost me well over $35M. And you know what? I deserved that.”@AROD says the Astros deserve whatever comes their way after the lack of remorse they’ve shown. pic.twitter.com/AnezyIyhHa
— ESPN (@espn) March 3, 2020
As we all know, A-Rod is no stranger to cheating scandals. Rodriguez served the longest suspension in Major League Baseball history for his use of performance enhancing drugs during his playing career. This suspension came in 2014, and Rodriguez has worked ever since to rebuild his reputation.
From his statement, Rodriguez feels that the Astros deserve the negative talk that currently surrounds them. He cites that the organization did not show remorse for their actions, which justifies the negative publicity.
Here’s the full statement from Rodriguez from today’s Spring Training game (courtesy of ESPN):
“I think the one thing that really has upset the fans is: You cheat, you win a championship, there is no suspension, and then there’s no remorse. And the last one I think is probably the worst one because people want to see remorse. They want a real, authentic apology and they have not received that thus far. And I can just tell you this, Matty (ESPN’s Matt Vasgersian), from a guy who has made as many mistakes as anybody on the biggest stage, I served the longest suspension in Major League Baseball history. It cost me well over $35 million. And you know what? I deserved that. And as a result, I came back, I owned it after acting like a buffoon for a long time. I had my apologies, and then I went dark. I wanted my next move to be contrite, but I also wanted to go out and play good baseball and change my narrative. The way you change your narrative is you have to be accountable. You’ve earned all of this negative talk. You’ve earned whatever comes your way, including whether it’s hit by a pitch or negative press. You have divorced yourself from having the ability to protect yourself.”
The situations are a bit different, but Rodriguez has first-hand experience with regards to what the Astros are currently dealing with. Although he clearly was wrong, at least Rodriguez was willing to apologize for his mistakes, which is something we haven’t gotten yet from anyone within the Houston Astros organization.
